标题：埃利奥特的时装设计所
版权基本信息
演员: Stella Gonet ... Beatrice Eliott (34 episodes, 1991-1994)
Louise Lombard ... Evangeline Eliott (34 episodes, 1991-1994)
Aden Gillett ... Jack Maddox (26 episodes, 1991-1994)
Judy Flynn ... Madge Howell / ... (26 episodes, 1991-1994)
Cathy Murphy ... Tilly Watkins (25 episodes, 1991-1994)
Diana Rayworth ... Betty (16 episodes, 1991-1993)
Victoria Alcock ... Agnes (16 episodes, 1991-1993)
简介
故事题材比较特别，是以1920年代伦敦的时装设计所为背景，两位女主角在发现父亲负载累累，没有给自己的女儿留下任何财产时，不得不自谋生路，在多次尝试后，终于决定凭借自己在服装设计和制作上的爱好和才能，一起创业，开设了时装设计所 House of Eliott。姐妹俩一开始做的是高级女装(Haute Conture)，服务对象都是上流社会贵妇和高尚娱乐比如芭蕾舞服饰等，到第2季将近结束时，决定进军中产阶级女性服饰市场，做 ready-to-wear 服装。
对这部剧集还不只是单季连续剧，而是拍了3季，据说当时播出时很受欢迎。相信1920年代的时尚是个吸引人的话题，而且当代的人们似乎都认为那是个经典考究的时代。我虽然对时尚历史一无所知，但也觉得当时的人们，不论男女，穿着都很优雅有致。当然剧情还是以姐妹俩的个人生活和 House of Eliott 的艰苦经营为主，加入那个时代的话题如男女平等，女性争取投票权等等。故事中的不可信任的银行家、小报追逐名人艳闻等还挺有现实意义。
值得一提的是角色的选择，饰演姐姐 Beatrice (Bea) 的 Stella Gonet 特别有古典味道，是我想像中的那个时代的中产独立、一本正经、端庄又带着点傲慢的女性形象。饰演妹妹 Evangeline (Evie) 的 Louise Lombard 的脸型，可能更适合那个时代，虽然她的角色活泼冲动有时不考虑后果。姐妹两个的性格搭配，有点象 Sense and Sensibility。饰演男主角 Jack Maddox 的 Aden Gillett 和饰演 Lord Montford 的 Rupert Frazer 身上也很有时代感。
The House of Eliott 在 BBC 的剧集制作上还有里程碑的意义。过去 BBC 的电视剧大部份是由自己的制作单位拍摄，片场就是 BBC 在伦敦 White City 的 BBC Television Centre。在1993年拍摄完成 The House of Eliott 第3季之后，BBC 关闭了 Television Centre 的片场。以后的电视剧制作，渐渐向BBC出资，独立制作公司拍摄的方式转化。
在 The House of Eliott 之后，Stella Gonet 和 Louise Lombard 一直活跃在英国的电视界，Louise Lombard 后来去了美国演出 CSI 中的 Sofia Curtis 一角。因为这部电视剧的大受欢迎，以后还出现了一个 BBC 自己拍的恶搞版 The House of Idiot。
The House of Eliott is a British television series produced and broadcast by the BBC in three series between 1991 and 1994. The series starred Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard as two sisters in 1920s England who start a dressmaking business. It was created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, who had previously devised Upstairs, Downstairs.
Plot
Series One
In series one Beatrice (30) and Evangeline (18, known as Evie) Eliott are left orphans by the sudden death of their tyrannical father, Henry Elliot. Left almost destitute and without any education, the sisters are forced to sell the family home to cover their father's debts. To earn money, they make use of their passion for dressmaking and Bea gets a job as secretary at a local photography studio run by Jack Maddox. Jack and his sister Penelope become firm friends of the sisters and Jack provides them with the funds to open their own London based dressmaking business "The House of Eliott". Through their relationship with Penelope Maddox, the sisters meet the loyal and hardworking seamstress Tilly Watkins (played by Cathy Murphy) whom they employ. A consistent theme throughout the series is the struggle of women in the 1920's to live fulfilling and independent lives. Not only does Henry Elliot leave his daughters penniless and uneducated, but their cousin Arthur, who is executor of their father's estate, and Evie's legal guardian, keeps a rightful inheritance from the girls "for their own good". After Arthur's arrest and imprisonment for involvement in drug smuggling he emigrates to Boston, USA, releasing a large amount of cash owed to the sisters from their father's estate. This allows Beatrice and Evie to expand the business and by the end of series one, with the help of Evie's godfather, banker Sir Desmond Gillespie, the future looks good. Evie celebrates her twenty-first birthday and is made a partner in the firm. The House of Elliot releases its first independent fashion collection and is creating exclusive designs for the aristocracy.
Series Two
In series two Beatrice and Evie are invited to Paris by fashion designer Gilles Caragnac, who offers them a 5 year contract as designers for his label. While there Bea marries her former employer and friend, Jack Maddox and they move back to London, leaving Evie alone in Paris to work at the fashion house "Maison Gilles". After a year and an affair with Gilles Caragnac, a new glamorous and grown up Evie returns to work as the designer for the house of Eliott. Jack's career as a movie director is on the rise and at a showing of one of his films, Evie meets Lord Alexander Montford, a married member of Parliament, with whom she begins an affair. This causes complications throughout the series. Jack and Beatrice separate due to their inability to agree about whether to have children and the pressure of work. The House of Eliott faces ruin after the suspicious death of Sir Desmond Gillespie causes the firm's financial affairs to be taken over by Ralph Saroyan. The sisters suspect Saroyan of dishonesty and through their contact with Sir Alexander Montford, cause the bank to be officially investigated. It is discovered that Saroyan is defrauding most of the customers of the bank and the Elliot sisters are left with very little of their original savings and investments.
Jack has a huge success with his movie "The Strikers" and is offered work in the US by a Hollywood producer, but he turns it down and decides to work in Berlin instead. Meanwhile, as the market for couture gowns wanes in the depression of the late 1920s, Beatrice and Evangeline are offered a tour of America showing their new ready-to-wear designs for the department store Sears Roebuck. Bea still has feelings for Jack. Back at the fashion house, after a crisis of confidence Tilly marries Norman Foss, a young chef in a local hotel, and has been reinstated as head of the workroom. She announces her pregnancy in the last episode of the series.
Series Three
The Eliott sisters and their employee Madge are wrapping up their evidently successful visit to the United States under the sponsorship of Sears, Roebuck, which has arranged to carry a line of ready-to-wear designed by the House of Eliott. Still estranged from Jack, Bea has picked up a new beau, debonair Sears executive Donald Bradley, who follows the ladies back to England. Bea decides that she still loves Jack and settles down with him just as he is shifting his attention from film direction to investigative journalism. Through a new employee, a talented but unreliable designer named Grace Keeble, Evie meets a couple of artists, Miles Bannister and Daniel Page. Miles is hired to do illustrations for the House of Eliott and later becomes a much needed designer while Daniel is a talented artist who Evie believes only needs a break to be very successful. Both men fall for Evie but only Daniel wins out. Meanwhile, Madge discovers a new love and it is not her rather gruff husband Jerry.Tilly and her husband Norman struggle to keep their marriage together following the loss of their baby son, William (who was played by Emily Ryan). By the end of the season, the House of Eliott has nearly fallen apart, Bea and Jack have a daughter, Lucy (who was also played by Emily Ryan), Jack wins a seat in the House of Commons, and Evie has married Daniel. Miles' father has decided to become a partner in the House of Eliott after realising his son is a talented fashion designer. He wants the House of Eliott to leave the world of haute couture and move into the safer area of ready to wear fashions. The final episode of the series ends with a heated confrontation that raises serious questions about the future of the House of Eliott and the relationship between the sisters.
Loose Ends
The writers of the House of Elliot did not anticipate that the BBC was to pull the plug at the end of the third series. For this reason the third series ends without a firm conclusion to the storyline.
Series One
Episode 1: 1920 - After their father's death, the sisters, Bea & Evie, find themselves penniless with their odious cousin Arthur Evie's legal guardian. Unhappy at the prospect of being controlled by Arthur and his mother, Lydia, they are determined to support themselves. Both look for work, and after a chance meeting with Penelope Maddox, Bea becomes a secretary for Penelope's brother, Jack Maddox, a society photographer. The sisters also begin to discover signs that their father had led a double life.
Episode 2: Bea begins to organise Jack's haphazard working life, while Evie continues to meet up with Penelope and try to find work that would be acceptable to her cousin Arthur. Bea & Evie's clothes attract attention. Evie also follows up letters that she finds and discovers something more about her father's secret life.
Episode 3: Evie takes a dressmaking job, and meets her father's lover who demands money for her illegitimate son, Sebastian. Bea and Evie decide to sell the house to pay off debts and move into the flat above Jack's studio. Bea joins Evie working at the dressmakers, but their talents and ambitions leads to problems. They are encouraged by Penelope to start their own dressmaking business with Tilly Watkins.
Episode 4: The sisters begin work with a Mayfair fashion house, but again run into conflict as they continue their own dressmaking at home with the help of Tilly. Sebastian's surprise appearance is not received well by Bea, and his visit to Arthur proves she may have reason to be supicious. The 25 Club, in which Arthur is a partner, gains a new partner.
Episode 5: Sebastian turns out not to be as the sisters thought. The sisters' dismissal from Mr Duroque's and Jack's encouragement leads Bea to take the plunge and establish the House of Eliott. Finding investment proves more difficult but some initial help is offered by Jack. Arthur gets more deeply involved in partners' illegal activities at The 25 Club. Much to her dismay, he also continues to show a romantic interest in Evie, his cousin and ward.
Episode 6: The sisters find a friend in Evie's godfather, Desmond Gillespie, a banker, though he is not prepared to invest in the House of Eliott. Arthur's treatment of Sebastian provokes him to tip off the police about The 25 Club. The police raid leads to the arrest and imprisonment of Arthur. The scandal causes problems for the House of Eliott as well as Aunt Lydia. Bea arranges for guardianship of Evie to transfer from Arthur to herself.
Episode 7: The House of Eliott is busily expanding with new staff being hired, including Madge Howell who takes on the job of head seamstress. A lucrative contract for both Jack and the House of Eliott with an actress on her way to Hollywood looks like it will cause more trouble than it's worth. Evie has trouble deciding between Hugo and Sebastian, and Bea finds being Evie's guardian more difficult than she expected.
Episode 8: A lucrative new client's husband turns out to be a figure from Bea's past, while Evie has an opportunity to go to Paris with Sebastian. Jack begins to feel jealous of Bea's closeness to her old lover. Hugo's car problems lead to a lucky escape for the sisters.
Episode 9: Evie throws herself into work in an attempt to get over the shock of Sebastian's tragic accident and avoid Hugo. The sisters different approaches to design begins to cause problems, especially as they begin to contemplate their first collection. Madge tries to cover for Tilly who is continuing to work despite worsening illness. Jack continues his efforts to work in the film industry.
Episode 10: Artisic differences cause the sisters to fall out and Evie to temporarily move in with Penny. Jack is given the opportunity to direct a film.
Episode 11: Bea and Jack's relationship develops but find it is increasingly difficult to spend time together as the first collection takes up all of Bea's time. Evie finds inspiration from the art world for their first collection. Penny displays an increasing frustration with the limitations of her charity work. Jack looks for financial investment in a new film.
Episode 12: Evie comes of age and becomes a partner in the business. The sisters decide to bring their show forward but then face accusations of copying from a rival designer who feels threatened by the new fashion house. Jack tries to find out more about his financial backer. Aunt Lydia decides to join Arthur in America and start a new life.