Let’s face it…A good tale of gossip can unwind one’s day better than a stiff drink. Now, with “Upstairs, Downstairs” 40 Anniversary DVD release (available either by series or as whole series boxed), your soap-opera fix and escape is at its purest.

Here, you’ll spy intricate interwoven once-scandalous stories of the two inhabitant classes that cohabitate in one big mansion. “Upstairs, Downstairs” was a hit while it ran, and it still serves up a delicious and almost unending, swirl of agendas and affairs.

Wonderful!

With the first set of Upstairs, Downstairs, you’ll be introduced to the staff and begin a magical mystery tour into the Bellamys’ household. The series is set between 1903 and 1909. The show was shot in the ‘70s, though the dynamic attention to period detail never gives that away.

You get drawn in by Hudson and the cook, Mrs. Bridges, downstairs, and Sir Bellamy and his dysfunctional family upstairs. Some of the situations are tre corny - others now hardly as scandalous as when they first aired - still you're likely to find yourself glued to the couch. So wear something comfy, and perhaps plan to take a self-induced vacation day to delve in. It's just that addictive, and surprisingly relaxing, in a totally non intrusively voyeuristic way...

Along with the episodes, the DVD comes with six hours of bonus footage: The Making of Upstairs, Downstairs, Part 1, individual episode commentaries and a fabulous alternate pilot episode. There’s over 650 minutes of visual escape into fictitious lives of another era that never lived.