To the Manor Born (1979)

Directed by

Gareth Gwenlan

Genre

sitcom

Country

United Kingdom

Length

3 seasons, 21 episodes

Rated

TV-PG

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 31 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A widowed aristocrat is forced to sell her country estate. She moves into a small house on the property so she can keep an eye on the new owner, a self-made millionaire. The two clash over their different backgrounds and lifestyles.

wittylight-heartedgentlenostalgiccleverobservationalcharmingplayful

What happens

To the Manor Born is a BBC television sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. A special one-off episode was produced in 2007. Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the first 20 episodes and the 2007 special were written by Peter Spence, the creator, while the final episode in 1981 was written by script associate Christopher Bond. The title is a play on the phrase "to the manner born", from Shakespeare's Hamlet ("Though I am a native here and to the manner born, it is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance".). In To the Manor Born, Penelope Keith (who was previously best known for her role as social-climber Margo Leadbetter in the suburban sitcom The Good Life), plays upper-class Audrey fforbes-Hamilton. Upon the death of her husband, Audrey is forced to sell her vast country estate, Grantleigh Manor. However, she then moves into the estate's small, modest lodge house (where she can keep an eye on the estate's new owner) and manages to keep her butler and her much loved Rolls-Royce 20/25 car. The manor is bought by Richard DeVere (played by Peter Bowles), a nouveau riche millionaire supermarket owner originally from Czechoslovakia. DeVere and fforbes-Hamilton have a love-hate relationship. The programme proved popular and it received high audience figures for many of its episodes, especially the series 1 final episode, the most watched British television programme (excluding live events) of the 1970s. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Take My Wife (1979)
• Moody and Pegg (1974)
• May to December (1989)
• George and Mildred (1976)
• Maggie and Her (1978)
• Rising Damp (1974)
• Only Fools and Horses (1981)
• ...And Mother Makes Five (1974)