I once met a man who got a job as a valet to an English lord and what he told me would take pages but the main thing to know if you want to be one is that it's pronounced with a hard t, like mallet
For the list of Happy Butlers: Dick Van Dyke in Fitzwilly, scrambling to prevent his employer from finding out that her family’s wealth ran out years ago.
Brilliant taxonomic work here. The dignity vs hauteur axis cuts through a whole genre that usualy gets filed under just "period drama." The Stevens-as-employer reversal is genius becuase it exposes how performative that whole moony restraint thing really is. I worked briefly in hospitality and can confirm the "reserved" types were always the loudest attention-seekers.
I once met a man who got a job as a valet to an English lord and what he told me would take pages but the main thing to know if you want to be one is that it's pronounced with a hard t, like mallet
For the list of Happy Butlers: Dick Van Dyke in Fitzwilly, scrambling to prevent his employer from finding out that her family’s wealth ran out years ago.
I was just coming here for Fitzwilly!
Brilliant taxonomic work here. The dignity vs hauteur axis cuts through a whole genre that usualy gets filed under just "period drama." The Stevens-as-employer reversal is genius becuase it exposes how performative that whole moony restraint thing really is. I worked briefly in hospitality and can confirm the "reserved" types were always the loudest attention-seekers.
Honorable mention to Arthur, which Sir John Gielgud did his damndest to turn into half of a happy butler movie.
I find Arthur hard to stomach and am therefore reluctant to give it an honorable mention at all. the appeal of Dudley Moore escapes me