According to Jean Marsh and Simon Williams, at the end of the fourth season, they, along with other cast members, were eager to move on to other projects. However, with much persuasion by the producers and writers, they, along with the rest of the cast, agreed to do a fifth and final season showing the Bellamy family and staff entering the decade of the twenties and ending the series with the start of the Great Depression. During that season, Marsh and Williams reduced their appearances on the show both appearing in only 11 instalments out of the sixteen episodes produced. In addition, eight new cast members were added to the series, which included two servants, Frederick and Lily, played by Gareth Hunt and Karen Dotrice; Richard Bellamy's new wife, Virginia (played by Hannah Gordon); Virginia's two children Alice and William (Anne Yarker and Jonathan Seely); Shirley Cain as Miss Treadwell, the children's governess; Madeleine Cannon as Lady Dorothy (Dolly) Hale, Georgina's self-centered, catty, fair weather friend; and Anthony Andrews as Lord Robert Stockbridge, Georgina's fiancé and husband.