When Anna explains how she started her life in service, she mentions that she left home at a young girl and got a job as 'tweenie. 'Tweenies were young teenage girls at the lowest rung of the service ladder. They got their name in the era before indoor plumbing, when they had to carry very heavy buckets of water and waste up and down the stairs, and thus they were always found 'tween the floors.
Before the show aired, the most successful British costume drama series on both ITV and PBS was the 1981 TV series, Brideshead Revisited (1981). Matthew Goode (Henry Talbot) played Charles Ryder in the 2008 adaption, Brideshead Revisited (2008).