Dr Pam is bringing the lives of servants to TV (From Gazette)

Dr Pam is bringing the lives of servants to TV

6:00pm Thursday 20th September 2012 in Local News

ESSEX University lecturer Dr Pamela Cox is making her TV debut presenting a show about servants’ lives.

Dr Cox, a senior lecturer in the sociology department, is presenting BBC2 show Servants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs.

The programme depicts life in service as dramatised by popular shows such as Downton Abbey.

Dr Cox, 42, who lives in Colchester, was only due to be interviewed on the show but was catapulted into the spotlight when she was asked to be its presenter.

The three one-hour documentaries look at servants in the Victorian era and go through the decades to the decline of life in service in the Fifties.

Dr Cox, whose great grandmothers were servants, said: “I think of the programme as a national Who Do You Think You Are.

“A century ago, 1.5 million British people worked as servants – more than worked in factories or farms.

“One of the messages we hope to get across is millions of us are descended from servants. It is a hidden history.

lServants: The True Story of Life Below Stairs begins on Friday, September 28, on BBC2 at 9pm.