The Duchess of Duke Street

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "The Duchess of Duke Street" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Duchess of Duke Street
Genre	Drama
Created by	John Hawkesworth
Starring	Gemma Jones Christopher Cazenove Victoria Plucknett John Cater John Welsh Richard Vernon
Theme music composer	Alexander Faris
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	31
Production
Running time	50 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	4 September 1976 (1976-09-04) – 24 December 1977 (1977-12-24)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Duchess of Duke Street is a BBC television drama series set in London between 1900 and 1925. It was created by John Hawkesworth, previously the producer of the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs.^[1] It starred Gemma Jones as Louisa Leyton Trotter, the eponymous "Duchess" who works her way up from servant to renowned cook to proprietor of the upper-class Bentinck Hotel in Duke Street, St James's in London.^[2]

The story is loosely based on the real-life career of Rosa Lewis (née Ovenden), the "Duchess of Jermyn Street", who ran the Cavendish Hotel in London, at the corner of Duke St, St. James's.^[3] When the show first aired, there were many people who still remembered her, as she lived until 1952.^[4] According to census returns, she was born in Leyton, Essex, to a watchmaker. In the series, Louisa's family name is Leyton, and her father is a clockmaker.

The programme lasted for two series totalling 31 episodes, shown in 1976 and 1977. Shown later on PBS in the United States, it was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series in 1980.^[5] The theme music was composed by Alexander Faris.^[6]