List of Upstairs Downstairs (2010 TV series) characters

This is a list of characters from the BBC relaunch of Upstairs Downstairs, that aired from 2010. A list of the cast from the original ITV series, which ran from 1970 to 1975, can be found here.

Portrayed by Ed Stoppard, Sir Hallam Holland is a Foreign Office diplomat, who inherited 165 Eaton Place as well as a large fortune and a baronetcy. He is married to Lady Agnes Holland, who has given birth to two children, Hector and Veronica. Sir Hallam's relationship with Lady Agnes is tested during series 2 when she becomes friendly with an American tycoon, Casper Landry. Hallam's jealousy compiled with the stress he is under at work leads him to kissing Agnes's sister, Persie. The kiss eventually leads to a full blown affair between the two.

Portrayed by Keeley Hawes, Lady Agnes Holland (née Towyn) is the eldest daughter of the 12th Earl of Towyn and wife of Sir Hallam. Her "old money" family were impoverished, and Agnes grew up in a decaying castle in the south of Wales. Her marriage to Sir Hallam has been happy and devoted, despite financial hardship before his inheritance and their failure to have children. She now has two children with Sir Hallam and has since been told that she cannot have any more. In light of the sad news she held a dinner party whose guests included a young John F. Kennedy and American businessman Casper Landry.

Portrayed by Dame Eileen Atkins, Maud Holland (née Mottershead), Lady Holland, born in 1860, is Sir Hallam's mother and is often seen to be causing friction between herself and Lady Agnes. She helped build the British Raj, and lived overseas for many years, returning to England after being widowed. She often lamented her unhappy marriage to her late husband, Greville. By 1938, she has died and this leaves a hole in the Holland family.

Portrayed by Claire Foy, Lady Persephone "Persie" Towyn is the younger sister of Lady Agnes. A fascist, she has an affair with Harry Spargo, but later leaves him and her family to go to Germany with Joachim von Ribbentrop as his mistress. She is absent from Eaton Place between series 1 and 2, maintaining only minimal contact with her family, but returns in December 1938 after the anti-Semitic violence in Germany escalates. She subsequently discovers she is pregnant by one of her German lovers, and has an abortion. She then has an affair with Sir Hallam. Exposed as a spy for the Nazis, she commits suicide—by throwing herself off the upper balcony onto the entrance hall floor—after accidentally shooting Beryl with Sir Hallam's service pistol.

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