To The Manor Bored
'Hancock's Half-Hour' and 'Steptoe & Son' popularised working class sitcoms in the late 50's/early '60's, and the line continued into the '70's with 'On The Buses' and the revival of 'Till Death Us Do Part'. But, as the decade drew to a close, things looked set to change. 'To The Manor Born' was about the idle rich. It had originally been a 1968 radio series which starred Bernard Braden as a brash American millionaire who tries to convert himself into an English country gentleman. It was never broadcast. Peter Spence then turned the idea into a novel, which formed the basis for this television show.Penelope Keith had won millions of fans in 'The Good Life' as ultra-snob 'Margo Leadbeatter'. 'Born' cast her as 'Audrey fforbes-Hamilton', who made 'Margo' look like Ken Livingstone by comparison. In the first episode, her husband dies and she has to sell her beloved Grantleigh manor to pay death duties, meaning she must move into a coach-house nearby. The new owner of Grantleigh is Richard DeVere ( Peter Bowles ), a successful businessman of Czech extraction. She views him and his mother ( Daphne Heard ) - whom she calls 'Mrs.Poo' because she cannot pronounce her name ( 'Polouvicka' ) correctly - with disdain. Over the course of three seasons, a 'will they/won't they' situation developed, ending with their wedding in the final episode, watched by a record-breaking 24 million viewers ( beaten only in 1996 by what should have been the last episode of 'Only Fools & Horses' ).
With its classy Ronnie Hazlehurst theme tune ( which I found similar to his 'Yes, Minister' theme ), good cast ( Bill Travers guested in one show ), and gentle humour, it was a massive hit, originally going out as part of a strong Sunday night line-up that included 'Roots: The Second Generation' and 'Shoestring'. There was chemistry between the leads. Angela Thorne played Audrey's mousy friend 'Marjory', John Rudling was 'Brabinger' her butler, and Michael Bilton as 'Ned' the incompetent gardener, with Gerald Sim as the 'Rector'. It would be churlish of me to deny its popularity, but I personally did not care for the show at all. The problem for me was 'Audrey' herself. Whereas in 'Good Life', Margo's pomposity was often deflated by Tom and Barbara, here there was no-one to bring her down. I could not bear the woman. She was frightful, almost Thatcher-like in fact.
Yes, a main source of humour was Audrey attempting to come to terms with the real world, having for years been cocooned in a life of luxury, but the show was clearly on her side as she gave those little oiks a good talking-to. At a time when people were losing their jobs all over Britain, I could not drum up one iota of sympathy for Audrey. Even in her coach-house, she still seemed to enjoy a higher-than-average standard of living than most people.
The final episode was written by Christopher Bond, after Peter Spence declined to do the honours. It returned in 2007 for a one-off Christmas show which I did not see, but a friend who did told me it was more like a commercial for The Countryside Alliance.
Popular though this was, it thankfully did not lead to an eruption of similar shows. Keith's next sitcom would be the controversial 'Sweet Sixteen' in which she played a completely different character to 'Audrey' - a career woman who has an affair with a man ( Christopher Villiers ) sixteen years her junior. Viewers were aghast and it was axed after only one season.
The L.W.T. series 'End Of Part One' did an amusing parody called 'To The Mannerism Born' with Sue Holderness as 'Audrey', Denise Coffey as 'Marjory', and David Simeon as 'Mr.DeVictim!'.
score 5/10
ShadeGrenade 10 June 2010
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2262330/14421
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