"Magic Casements" is the seventh episode of the first series of the British television series, '' Upstairs, Downstairs''. The episode is set in the summer of 1906. "Magic Casements" was among the episodes omitted from ''Upstairs, Downstairs initial ''

Masterpiece Theatre ''Masterpiece'' (formerly known as ''Masterpiece Theatre'') is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaimed Briti ...

'' broadcast in 1974, and was consequently not shown on US television until 1989.

Cast

;Guest cast *

David Kernan David Stanley Kernan (born 23 June 1938) is an English actor and singer, best known as an interpreter of the songs of Stephen Sondheim. He has appeared in stage musicals and was a soloist in British TV variety shows of the 1960s and 1970s incl ...

– Capt. Charles Hammond *

Harold Bennett Harold Frank Bennett (17 November 1898 – 11 September 1981) was an English actor, active in stage, television and film best remembered for being in sitcoms written and produced by David Croft, having played 'Young Mr. Grace' in the 1970s Bri ...

– Book Shop Assistant *Maureen Neill – Young Student *David Pelton – Young Student *Tom Collister – Professor *Joyce Freeman – Woman in Bookshop *John Demarco – Waiter

Plot

When Richard Bellamy is unable to go with his wife to an opera because he has to attend a political meeting, adding to the friction which has already developed between them over Richard's political stance, he asks Charles Hammond, a friend of his son James who is fanatical about opera, to go instead. They greatly enjoy the opera, and each other's company. They meet again a few days later in a bookshop, and Charles asks her to read him "

Ode To A Nightingale "Ode to a Nightingale" is a poem by John Keats written either in the garden of the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, London or, according to Keats' friend Charles Armitage Brown, under a plum tree in the garden of Keats' house at Wentworth Place, also ...

" by

Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

. They go to his house, where she reads and plays the piano for him. Charles admits that he loves her, and she admits that she cares for him as well. They begin to have an affair. In spite of Lady Marjorie's attempts to hide it - she burns the note that comes with the bouquet of roses that Charles has sent her - the servants get wind of it and then discover a boxful of love letters. We see Charles and Marjorie in bed together and dancing to a gramophone record together. Charles wants to make the affair public, and urges Marjorie to divorce Richard. Marjorie insists that the affair be kept secret a while longer. James and Charles plan to participate in a regatta. Hudson, the butler, sees a newspaper report that there has been an accident at the regatta, and tells Marjorie. She bursts into tears, and Hudson and Richard assume that she is worried about James. Charles arrives at the house comes to tell Marjorie that he is safe, and Hudson walks in on them as they are embracing - they break apart before Richard can see them, and he assumes that Charles is there on James' behalf. James returns and Richard admonishes him for not having let Marjorie know he was safe; James replies that he had been unable to participate in the regatta after all because he had to stand in court in place of a friend, who had "got the collywobbles" at the last minute, and that he had phoned Marjorie at lunchtime to tell her. Richard begins to piece together what has happened. Rather than losing his temper with his wife, he tells her that he has changed his political stance, as it is a question of loyalty. Marjorie realises that she must also be loyal, so she sends a note to Charles, asking her to meet him at the opera; there, she ends the affair, bidding him a tearful farewell. He gives her a locket on a chain as a gift, and she dissolves into sobs after he has left.

The title

The episode's title is taken from

' 1820 poem ''

Ode to a Nightingale "Ode to a Nightingale" is a poem by John Keats written either in the garden of the Spaniards Inn, Hampstead, London or, according to Keats' friend Charles Armitage Brown, under a plum tree in the garden of Keats' house at Wentworth Place, also ...

'', verse 7:

Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

References

{{Upstairs, Downstairs Upstairs, Downstairs (series 1) episodes 1972 British television episodes Fiction set in 1906