Gordon Jackson as Angus Hudson
ANGUS HUDSON was a character on the 1970s British period drama, Upstairs, Downstairs. He was played by veteran actor Gordon Jackson.
Angus Hudson (Mr. Hudson below stairs, and upstairs, he was known, traditionally, as Hudson) was the butler for the Bellamy family at 165 Eaton Place in Belgravia, a wealthy area of London. He was also the head of the below stairs staff. Besides his duties as the butler, he also served his employer as his valet.
Hudson believed that people were predestined to their station of life, and while he had a brother, named Donald, who was a successful civil engineer and a sister who ran a boarding house in Hastings, he knew his place in life was as being a servant. Although, he knew he was set to be a servant, he felt that if his station in life had been different, he would have been a great lawyer.
A native of Scotland, Hudson began his life in service as a footman at Southwold, a family estate in Wiltshire, where he had come, along with the cook, Mrs. Kate Bridges and Rose Buck to Eaton Place after Lady Marjorie Bellamy, the oldest daughter of the Earl and Lady of Southwold, married Richard Bellamy, the son of a country parson from Haversham.
He was a stern, sometimes humorless (although he did not completely lack in a sense of humor), authoritarian, and all around loyal butler. His main concern was always upholding the family's standards.
He doesn't often take kindly to standards being lowered for any reason, and any deviation from the orders of the heads of the household often made him unhappy.
His relationships with the Upstairs family was for the most part loyal. Although he despaired of what scandals the two Bellamy children, James and Elizabeth, would bring up, he still maintained his loyalty to the family.
His first encounter with Lady Marjorie was when he was a footman on Southwold. He helped Marjorie get up the backstairs to change her dress after it being muddied and her mother, Lady Southwold, having guests over. She asked him, "You're the new footman, aren't you?" He answered, "Aye, I am that," although he should have answered, "Yes, Milady." She then smiled and told him that she hoped he wasn't too homesick for Scotland. It was the beginning of how Lady Marjorie would become. Aware of her social standing, but having a kind and caring nature.
Hudson had two assistants over the years. His first assistant was Alfred Harris, a very furtive and gloomy man who had more than a bit of madness about him. He left the Bellamy's house after being taken by a Baron von Rimmer, who was trying to cause trouble for Richard.
His second assistant was Edward Barnes (Christopher Beeny), a cheerful, light-hearted (and sometimes cheeky and mischievious) fellow who later became butler for the Marquis of Stockbridge (Anthony Andrews) and his new wife, Lady Georgina Stockbridge (Lesley Anne-Down).
In the third season episode, "Rose's Pigeon", Alfred returns and causes major upheaval downstairs when he takes Edward, his successor, hostage, after it was revealed that he had murdered his former employer. Hudson was still angry with Alfred for his complicity and his behavior during the von Rimmer affair. Alfred used Rose to gain entrance into Eaton Place, and then caused major upheaval until the police arrested him and executed him for murder.
Hudson sometimes despaired with the behaviors of the Bellamy offspring. He did not approve of Elizabeth's constantly having Rose, whose main duties was as head house parlor maid, as her lady's maid, a situation which remedied itself when she moved to America and settled down to a stable and happy life with her new husband and her daughter. However, he had even less patience with James, especially given his recklessness in his life. In fact, James' often troublemaking escapades were the bane of Hudson's existence.
He deeply disapproved of James' taking Richard's secretary Hazel Forrest, who he would later marry, and having luncheon in the dining room with the drink being a certain Claret wine that could not be drunk at luncheon by orders of James' father, which also left the staff in a real upset mood since their routine was disrupted by the unexpected plans. Infuriated with James's disregard for his parents' standing rules and for embarrassing the staff with his plans which inconvenienced them, Hudson almost left the Bellamy's employ, until he calmed down and retained his position.
Another incident stemmed from when James, recklessly, invested Rose's nest egg, which she received from her dead fiancé, Gregory Wilmot, and it was lost in the Stock market Crash of 1929. Hudson was infuriated with what James had done to Rose, and made it clear that he disapproved.
In the final episode of the series, Hudson married Mrs. Bridges and they took the former kitchen maid Ruby (Jenny Tomasin) with them to a guest house in Hastings called Sea View which was left to him by one of his sisters.