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Fresh from her success in the BBC sitcom "The Good Life", Penelope Keith ("Audrey") is the lady of "Grantleigh" - a Gloucestershire stately pile she shares with husband "Martin". The first of the 22 episodes informs us that he has died, and that her world is about to be turned upside down. He squandered all the "fforbes-Hamilton" family money and she is going to have to sell up! The auction ensues and this estate, which they have managed for 400-odd years, ends up in the hands of a self-made millionaire Czech immigrant "Richard de Vere" who made his money in supermarkets. Imagine - it's almost sacrilegious to her! Anyway, the remainder of the series' depict their constant sparring; she the superior, broke, aristocrat; he the nouveau riche upstart. Essentially a two hander, there are a couple of fun foils: "Marjorie" (Angela Thorne) her down-trodden best friend; her stoic butler "Brabinger" (John Rudling) and his mother, the wonderful Daphne Heard ("Mrs. Polouvicka") who has an old Czechoslovakian saying for every situation, and they all keep the well written comedy flowing well. It's a very British thing, this - I doubt if the humour will travel particularly well, but at the time up to 24 million of us watched their drama unfold. The combination of snobbery, pomposity and witty repartee from the pen of Peter Spence really clicks. The characters, gently stereoptyped as they are, work really well with a sophistication that endures still.

The setting is in a fictional English village, Grantleigh, residing inside the fictional town of Marlbury in Somerset, England. The locals in this quaint countryside are a bit quirky. In the first scene, Richard DeVere (Peter Bowles), a stranger to the town and among the "nouveau riche", meets the town Vicar at the local parish church to ask for directions and where he might meet Mr Forbes-Hamilton. To which the Vicar replies, that Mr Forbes-Hamilton "will be here at any moment now (but) I doubt you'll get much out of him." And then Mr DeVere sees some pall-bearers carrying a casket. From the get-go, this is the kind of irreverent yet refreshing humour which permeates the entire show.

Mr DeVere is looking for some real estate to buy in the area and learns that the manor house is owned by the late Mr Forbes-Hamilton and his opinionated and talkative wife, Audrey. Audrey Forbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) is a fast-talking aristocrat who would tell a perfect stranger he looks retched because he bought his clothes at the British-equivalent of Sears. Her family, the Forbes-Hamilton's, have lived in the manor house in the English countryside since the time of Queen Elizabeth I. After laying her husband to rest, she tells the vicar that it was a "lovely funeral, we must have another one sometime." Now she has to sell the manor because of debts. And who should buy the manor but Ricard DeVeer, the new stranger who is not only wealthy and non-aristocrat but was "dressed like a chessboard" according to Audrey at the funeral reception. He then makes an unexpected offer: Audrey may continue to reside at the manor if she wishes, and she accepts the offer, beginning one of the more entertaining sitcom's of its type. DeVeer and Mrs. Forbes-Hamilton become sort of reluctant bedfellows in a kind of clash of the classes, in this case old aristocracy versus bourgeoisie.

A delightful British comedy in which the many lines are simultaneously unexpected and yet fit each character's personality. Peter Bowles plays "straight-man" to the quirky characters of the town. But it's the sharp-tongued Penelope Keith as Audrey Forbes-Hamilton who steals the show. Keith is perfectly cast as Audrey whose biting rhetoric would give any politician significant cause to run and hide under a nearby bed. Not to be missed if you like British comedy of this sort.

As a Yank who once lived in the U.K. and married a Brit, I really enjoy watching the British comedies. I find TTMB quaint, aged, and overtly "English". This is a series that actually pokes fun at the aristocratic, hyphenated namesakes who at times come across as snobbish. To me, it is the quintessential English comedy with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect, without taking itself too seriously. A mainstay for the rerun (repeats) circuit. It reminds me of the way in which Brits viewed the American series "Dallas" as a stereotypical view of life from across the pond. A much-beloved classic TV series for audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

I remembered watching a few episodes of this show in the 1980s on PBS Channel 13. It was the first time I was exposed to a British comedy and I thought it was rather quaint and sweet. I always regretted that I never watched the whole series. Well, to my joy, I found this show at my local library! My husband and I watched the whole show and we were both extremely amused by Audrey fforbes-Hamilton and Richard DeVere. The comedy is very sophisticated. This kind of show appeals to intelligent people. There is nothing risque or low brow about this show. The actors all had wonderful comic timing and the episodes and dialogue extremely well-written. There was a nice sexual tension between the main characters but nothing overt or vulgar. This show leads up to a delicious ending that had me cheering and wishing the show will continue! I am very satisfied how this show ended. It was just too wonderful!

One thing I want to add, Peter Bowles, as well as a very funny actor in an understated way, is extremely good looking and debonair on this show. I still remembered the fashions from the 1970s and I thought they were awful, too many polyester suits! Well, on this show, the clothing represents the best of 1970s fashion. Peter Bowles cuts quite a wonderful, handsome figure in his 1970s suits and I was surprised at how well velvet looks on him!

Between 1979 and 1981, 21 episodes of this unforgettable British series were produced. For whatever quality one chooses to stress, no half-hour satirical comedy ever made has ever, by my lights, come near equaling it. The writers cleverly located the principals on a spacious and fine 400 year-old English estate belonging to the very noblesse oblige upper-class Audrey fforbes-Hamilton. Her husband has just expired; it having been a marriage of convenience, she is pleased to be free; pleased, that is, until she is unable to collect quite enough money to outbid a new owner who comes into possession of her property. He is Richard de Vere, a transplanted Czech with a delightful and exasperating mother, and the position as chief executive of the conglomerate Cavendish Foods. Not to be turned off her ancestral property by a "grocer", Audrey purchases the Manor's lodge; and from this vantage point, she begins advising de Vere on what he must, must not, should have done, should not, and needs to consider doing and not doing. The merry war between the two is a classic one; and the gradual realization by both that they are two halves of a coin of great potential happiness takes an entire season to be grasped. Every episode advances one or the other's training, or both--his in what it take to deserve and preserve such a great manor, she in why she needs him so that together they can do what she cannot possibly do alone. As Audrey, Penelope Keith proves herself the best British comedic actress of the century, once again. Playing off her dynamic, lovely, funny and extraordinarily intelligent performance is no easy task; fortunately, the producer, Gareth Gwenan, assigned the role to very talented Peter Bowles, who comes close to holding his own against her formidable character. The small lodge, set against the great manor, and the manor against an increasingly vulgarized and irresponsible English citizenry with a history of far more taste are both used to set off Audrey's attempts, enforced or not, to learn how to cope with ordinary details formerly handled by servants and Richard's attempts to learn to be thoroughly Enlgish while striving for a modernity he only half understands at best. Also featured in the able cast are Angela Thorne as Audrey's friend and rival Marjorie, Daphne Heard as Mrs. Poulouvika the Mother, Gerald Sim as the bemused Rector, Michael Bilton as the lazy but lovable servant Old Ned, John Rudling as Brabinger the splendid butler who goes with her to serve Audrey, and Anthony Sharp as the womanizing old Brigadier. Many others in the town are also featured now and again, along with guest stars such as Bill Travers and Rula Lenska, and assorted class types from the corporation, the British old boy network, and the government. This is biting satire about two persons who are self-assertive, ethical and capable of being insulted, touched, advised, mistaken, friendly, impatient, angry and loving. Peter Spence and Christopher Bond are assigned credit for having produced such memorable plot ideas as a trip to Spain that is never taken, beekeeping on a budget, why hedgerows are necessary, the danger of old school friends who have lost weight, how to save a doomed railway station, shopping as a learned skill, how not to attend a formal dance, milking a back injury for fun and profit, and exampling the nastiness of snobbish upper class types who are as stuck in Feudal attitudes as are the series' government types corporate flunkies and resentful neighbors. The allegory and leads here are so perfect, by my standards, I never expect to see anything of this satirical quality ever done again in my lifetime. Rent the series, view it in order. I suggest there is not a less-than-memorable episode in the entire period from the leads' first meeting to their unorthodox decision to form a partnership called "marriage". I suggest that anyone who cannot appreciate the superiority of this series probably deserves not to do so. It is not another god British comedic series--it is THE British comedic series of all time.

To the Manor Born is about how old money and new money don't necessarily mix very well. The show stars the wonderful Penelope Keith CBE OBE (a comedy veteran) who plays Audrey Fforbes Hamilton who represents old money and Peter Bowles as Richard Devere who represents new money. After Audrey's husband and lord of the manor has died much to Audrey's dismay, they didn't have a good marriage. She lets out a scream that she finally free to rule the Manor. Unfortunately, Audrey learns that she is in debt after his death. She must sell her beloved home to Richard Devere, a self-made millionaire entrepreneur who really is both Czech and Polish heritage. She sells but she moves close by and is still active in her community with her best friend played by a terrific actress whose name I can't remember. Daphne Heard plays the wonderful foreign born mother of Richard. The episodes are all classically funny and it is one of Britain's best exports. Penelope Keith is one of Britain's brilliant funny ladies up there with Patricia Routledge CBE OBE and Dame Judi Dench.

A recent C5 doco told us that, at its peak, 24m viewers watched this. I liked it myself, as a little lad. Of course you largely got what you were given then, in TV terms; but still, it's surprising that they should have had such a big hit with such an incredibly snobby show. Mrs fforbes-Hamiton (two small 'f's!) is a character almost without redeeming features: prickly, entitled, full of hauteur; Margot Ledbetter without her humour, glamour or self-awareness. And her values seem to be the values of the show: when she sneers at nouveau-riche DeVere being 'in trade' we laugh with her; when she talks about 'noblesse oblige' we don't laugh at her. Peter Bowles and others are allowed to make fun of her at times, gently; but basically the show approves her feudal mindset, in which (very much like the royal family) she imagines herself to be conferring immense benefits on the whole district by things like doing a reading at church, organising the Huntsmans' Ball (or maybe you didn't realise that huntsmen had...?) or even just by talking to people. And she lives in an archaic world where people shop in the village, they farm with draught horses, medieval-style 'sturdy beggars' roam from parish to parish, and everybody more or less depends on 'the Manor'.

I can only imagine there must have been a deep nostalgia there, in the audience, for a paternal England which was always largely an urban and upper-class fantasy, and whose last vestiges probably expired during the war. Or are we supposed, with DeVere, to aspire to live like a Nob? Of course Bowles is charming - I suppose this show, though conceived as a vehicle for Penelope Keith, began his reign of 5 or 6 years as king of British telly. And I always enjoy his Mum calling him 'Bedrich'. Other than that, I can only think of the theme tune, which is an amazing piece of work: like a cross between Elgar and Saturday Night fever. It is in itself like a ride in a Roller - at least, it's the closest I've ever got. Hear that, see the shotguns and partridges of the opening titles, and you're right there already, living a different life, huntin' and shootin', shaking hands with people and asking condescendingly "And what do you do?".

This is everything I want in a TV show. If I could die and go anywhere, it would be to an episode of To The Manor Born". We need more like this. Not luke the twisted crap we have now.

I really liked Penelope Keith in Agatha Christie's play, "Spider's Web." Then, sadly, I discovered her again in "To the Manor Born" on Britbox recently, a throwback to the 1980s, finding the main character, Audrey, completely, relentlessly ill-mannered, though to the manor she was born as she never fails to remind everyone, forever giving everyone a piece of her mind. I stuck with the entire series including the 25th anniversary episode, feeling sorry for spinster Marjorie, godawful Audrey's lifelong (and only) friend who is often put down for her wardrobe choices, her simple nature-loving lifestyle and bashful reactions to the few males who happen her way. The biggest thorn in Audrey's fault-finding life is handsome Richard, the self-made tycoon who unfortunately for him arrives penniless from the vast non-UK to become a major player in the supermarket biz, along with his outspoken mum, to purchase the manor when the heiress to the 400 year old place succumbs to bankruptcy. Richard is Audrey's forever punching bag, which I never did find amusing, only pitiful. It is clear from the credits that this Odd Couple will eventually wed, thanks to a pair of bubbly champagne glasses and orange blossoms but don't expect romance or kindness or affection ever from the aristocratic Odd-ree.

To the Manor Born may have first aired in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but even in 2025-45 years after its original broadcast-it feels surprisingly current. Beneath its charming veneer of English country life lies a social satire that resonates just as strongly today: the clash between old money and the nouveau riche, the tension between tradition and modernity, and the ever-relevant themes of class, pride, and reluctant romance.

Penelope Keith is pitch-perfect as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, the haughty yet endearing widow forced to sell her ancestral home, Grantleigh Manor. Enter Peter Bowles as Richard DeVere, a self-made millionaire of Eastern European descent with a flashy style and supermarket fortune, whose purchase of the manor sets the tone for the show's comedic (and romantic) power struggles. Audrey wants to preserve the grandeur and traditions of old England, while Richard seeks to drag it-reluctantly, tastefully-into the 20th century.

What makes the series endure is how deftly it plays on social change with a light touch. In an age where environmental issues, economic uncertainty, and shifting class dynamics still dominate headlines, To the Manor Born remains remarkably topical.

The supporting characters-Richard's formidable mother Mrs. Polouvicka, the cheerful Marjorie, the well-meaning Rector, and Audrey's loyal butler Brabinger-offer warmth and gentle laughs, often bridging the gap between the old world and the new.

At its heart, though, this is a romantic comedy of manners. The relationship between Audrey and Richard echoes Pride and Prejudice, with Audrey's initial disdain for the brash outsider slowly giving way to affection. Misunderstandings and pride hinder their path, but we, the audience, can't help but root for them to get together.

With its sharp writing, elegant performances, and timeless themes, To the Manor Born remains a classic-still relevant, still witty, and still a joy to watch.

To the Manor Born is a classic and unmistakably English sit-com, with all the wit and intelligence you'd expect of good old British humour.

Penelope Keith does what she does best, in sheer style, portraying Audrey Fforbes-Hamiltion (NEVER Audrey F-H), a recently widowed and infinitely upper class traditionalist, whose steely determination makes her attitudes very difficult to change. That is, until the self-made millionaire and grocery shop extraordinary (not to mention foreign) Richard De Vere assumes residence of the stately home in which Audrey has resided (as the title suggests) since birth, after she is forced to sell her pride and joy.

Unsurprisingly, Audrey takes an instant dislike to this social upstart, an instinct which appears mutual, as Richard is driven to distraction by his predecessor's constant putdowns (which are in a league of their own) and persistent interference in his running of her beloved Grantleigh Estate. However, Richard's dear mother, Mrs Poo has other ideas about the pair, and resolves to bring her son around to her way of thinking.

Although from the word go you know this initial 'hate' relationship is going to end in the discovery of true love, and you may be thinking 'change the record', but theres just this incredible 'Je ne sais quoi' about these two characters, when they are together, that is just so captivating. For those of you who still remain unconvinced, its well worth watching for Audrey's rather unorthodox suggestion at the end.

I'm usually not a sucker for formula shows like this. They chase, they chase, but they never get together. The comedy and chemistry of Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles overcomes my initial reluctance to shows of this sort. In short, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT... It's worth watching the series in its entirety just to have their history in your memory banks so you can enjoy the final episode of the show. It paints a lovely picture. The show ended complete. There was no more to be said. A truly classy ending to a truly classy show and cast....

When I first watched To The Manor Born one Friday night on my local PBS afilliate, I was immediately hooked from the start! In this British sit-com, Penelope Keith plays Audrey Forbes-Hamilton a charismatic and independent widow who might have to leave her stately manor that her family had lived in for years only to find out it's now being owned by Richard Devere (Peter Bowles) an owner of a supermarket chain, and not to mention a widower. I enjoy all the other characters in this like The Rector, and I haven't seen an episode I didn't like!

I really enjoy watching Audrey's and Richard's relationship develop. They're like the Emma Peel and John Steed of the show, in the fact that when they interact, they just don't know how they feel about each other! What makes this show so intriguing is it's high-brow sophisticated humor, the characters, and the in-depth storylines.

To The Manor Born is an impeccable British sit-com that deserves to be watched by anyone who's a fan of British humor. It's a lot better than the garbage they have on nowadays. :)

This likable series followed hot on the heels of Penelope Keith's success in 'The Good Life'. In 'The Good Life', Penelope played the thoroughly snobbish Margot Ledbetter and it is possible to see that 'To the Manor Born' was a somewhat carry on from that. In this series, made for the BBC from 1979 to 1981, Penelope plays Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton, a member of aristocracy, (and boy, doesn't she know it) and one of the 'old girls' with the very proper up-bringing. When her husband dies, Audrey discovers she is in serious debt and must sell the house, Grantley Manor. The Estate is bought by Mr Richard DeVere, a Czechoslovak immigrant who has established a very successful chain of supermarkets called 'Cavendish Foods'. Audrey moves into the Gate-Keepers lodge and continues to live the aristocratic life. The show is a gentle dig at English aristocratic life and those who are members of it and those who are trying to. The show is also dominated by the 'will-they-or-won't-they' relationship between Audrey and Richard (played by Peter Bowles). One of the many likeable British comedy series.

Unfortunately, this is one of those series that portrays the English as being a nation of foppish aristocrats. We all know this is not the case - our country is, after all, the origin of the word 'chav' - and yet some of my American friends are calling this a 'true British sitcom,' etcetera.

This is a largely forgettable series that should appeal to the upper-middle classes and Tory voters. It focuses around Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton and the trials and tribulations of being so fantastically rich that you never need to do anything, besides being generally obnoxious and judgemental to everybody around you, and Richard DeVere, who is constantly being lampooned for his non-English heritage.

To The Manor Born shares The Royle Family's amazing variety for place and people, as well as its stereotypical portrayal of an English societal class, using its subject of upper class for 'comedic' racism and the development of inferiority complexes.

Having watched a good few episodes from the series, I find it to be unforgettable and often rather boring. It is suitable for background viewing, if you can stand Audrey's shrill voice.

I advise you to steer clear. An acquired taste for sure.