Hazel Bellamy (Upstairs, Downstairs character)

Hazel Bellamy

Hazel Bellamy in The Sudden Storm
First appearance Miss Forrest
Last appearance Peace Out of Pain
Created by Upstairs, Downstairs
Portrayed by Meg Wynn Owen
Information
Gender female
Occupation secretary
Spouse(s) James Bellamy
Nationality British

Hazel Bellamy (née Hazel Patricia Forrest; circa 1883–1918), is a fictional character in the British television series, Upstairs, Downstairs. She was portrayed by Meg Wynn Owen.

On 15 April 1912 Richard hires Hazel Forrest to type the biography of his father-in-law, the old Earl of Southwold, which he is writing. The secretary to Richard Bellamy, a middle class young woman who has been earning a living as a secretary for ten years, against her parents' wishes. This conflict gives the viewer a rare view of the interior of her parents' middle class home: one of the few locations other than the Bellamys' home. James is immediately attracted to her.[1][2]

The class divide between James and Hazel causes early conflicts with Hazel's parents, the Bellamys' staff and in the marriage. He wants to marry her. After about seven months of courting, James proposes in November, but Hazel declines his proposal and tearfully refuses him. She don't tells him, that she was married before to a violent alcoholic named Patrick O'Connor. Hazel's sad past is now the Forrest's family secret. James don't know why she refuses him. This causes Hazel's father, Arthur Forrest, to visit James. He informs James of Forrest's family secret and reveales the family secret. He explains that Hazel was previously married to a drunk, Patrick O'Connor, who beat her. They divorced and Hazel moved back in with her parents. Mr. Forrest wants his daughter to be happy, while the prickly Mrs. Forrest is sure the Bellamys would never accept Hazel as a divorced woman (divorce being the shocking, stigmatic thing it was in 1912). After Hazel's initially declining James' proposal, James asks Hazel again, and after talking and James letting Hazel know his own sister Elizabeth is a divorced and remarried woman, she accepts his second proposal. They marry in late 1912 or early 1913, and honeymoon in Paris.[3][4]

James and Hazel Bellamy are going for a weekend hunting party to Somerby Park in 1913, the country house of James' school-friend Lord "Bunny" Newbury. The other guests encourage her to surprise James and join the hunt, something she has never done before. Diana Newberry, a childhood friend and love interest of James Bellamy, is jealous and contemptuous of James' middleclass wife Hazel. Diana secretly switched and swapped the horses on James' wife Hazel and gives Hazel a spirited horse. Hazel's horse bolts and runs away with Hazel. Hazel Bellamy has nearly a disastrous accident when her horse bolts and she is nearly killed. She and James then argue, as he feels humiliated. This, in addition to Major Cochrane-Danby claiming that James and Diana are sleeping together, leads Hazel to flee Somerby with Rose. James follows her back to London when he discovers she has left, and they soon make up.[5][6]

The tea party that was arranged by Hazel and Lady Prudence in Home Fires takes place in the Morning Room of 165, Eaton Place, and only three officers are there, along with Lady Berkhamstead and Mrs Vowles.

Hazel befriends a shy, young airman called Jack Dyson, who like her has risen from the middle class. They soon start going out with each other. They go boating, see a show and go dancing, where they kiss passionately. The day before he goes back to the Front, Dyson goes to Eaton Place to say goodbye, but Hazel is out at the canteen. He then writes her a note, calling her his "only girl in the World".

In the episode The Glorious Dead Rose gets a letter from Captain Peter Graham, Gregory's company commander telling her that her fiancé Gregory has been killed. Hazel comforts Rose and tells her that she know what she is feeling, because she read in the newspaper that Lt. Jack Dyson MC had been killed in an aerial battle:"One grief-stricken woman urges another to be strong and to seek comfort in prayer. Ultimately, Hazel tells Rose – and herself – that time will help accommodate bereavement and loss."[7]

Also, James Bellamy comes home on leave. When he opens a drawer he sees the letters from Jack Dyson and photo of him, but he closes the drawer and says nothing.

It is November 1918 and James and Hazel argue, it is implied that James strikes her, and Hazel runs out crying. When Rose comforts her on the stairs, she realises she has a temperature. Dr Foley soon comes round and tells Hazel that she has caught the Spanish flu that is currently a pandemic. She and James make up, but on 9 November 1918 Hazel dies at Eaton Place. Rose is greatly upset by her death. The funeral is held on 11 November, the day the war ends, at St Mark's Church in Wimbledon. Hazel's parents go also to the funeral. Her mother is cold, but her father Arthur Forrest is crying.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Miss Forrest - imdb.com
  2. ↑ Miss Forrest - Updown.org.uk
  3. ↑ A Family Secret - imdb.com
  4. ↑ A Family Secret - Updown.org.uk
  5. ↑ The bolter - imdb.com
  6. ↑ The bolter - updown.org.uk
  7. ↑ Upstairs, Downstairs Season Four
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