'Upstairs' remake in the works

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NEW YORK, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A remake of the classic British soap opera, "Upstairs Downstairs," is to start shooting next year, television industry sources said.

Like the original version, which aired in the United States on PBS, the new series will follow the lives of members of a wealthy family and their servants, the New York Post said Monday. The new show is to begin in 1936, as opposed to the early 1900s when the 1970s version was set.

The remake reportedly isn't expected to air on U.S. television until 2011.

"The house itself remains the central character," the Post quoted screenwriter Heidi Thomas as saying. "It's very, very close to the corridors of power.

"In the original series ... King Edward VII came to dinner. We're going to have politicians and royalty passing through the house."