To the Manor Born

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.

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....

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.

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. :)

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.