To The Manor Born

Year

1979

Genre

Comedy, Romance

Country

UK

Director

Actors

Penelope Keith, Peter Bowles, Angela Thorne, Daphne Heard, John Rudling, Gerald Sim, Michael Bilton

Description

Audrey fforbes-Hamilton is sad when her husband dies but is shocked when she realises that she has to leave Grantleigh Manor where her family has lived forever. The new owner is Richard De Vere, owner of a major supermarket chain. Audrey makes sure she's on hand to keep an eye on him by buying The Old Lodge on the edge of the Manor grounds. As time goes by both Richard and Audrey realises that they are falling for each other but both are too shy to do anything about it. Meanwhile, Mrs. Polouvicka, Richard's mother (he changed his name to help him in his business.) knows the situation between Richard and Audrey and is determined to see that Richard does the right thing. Audrey's friend Marjory Frobisher and butler Brabinger are on hand to help out if necessary.

Episodes

• Season 1: 1. Grantleigh (1979). After the death of her husband, Audrey fforbes-Hamilton is faced with the prospect of losing the ancestral home to death taxes.
• Season 1: 2. All New Together (1979). Due to death duties Audrey has had to bid for the manor at auction but lost out to Richard De Vere,millionaire owner of Cavendish Foods and representative of the new money she despises. Now living in the manor's lodge Audrey is visited by Richard's mother,a Polish lady,who tells her that Richard is also a Pole,born Bedrich Polouvicki. Due to a mix-up Richard believes he is hiring Audrey as his secretary and is surprised to learn who she really is.
• Season 1: 3. Going To Church (1979). Audrey is disgusted that Richard,as the new lord of the manor,does not go to Sunday service at the local church. In an attempt to be go-between his mother invites Audrey to dinner and she accepts on the proviso that he attends church with her next day. In the event it is Audrey who misses the service because her grandfather clock was not working.
• Season 1: 4. Nations Of Heritage (1979). When Audrey sees Richard throw out an Adam fireplace,which he considers ugly,she lectures him on the need to preserve the nation's heritage,as well as mentioning that her mantelpiece is very small. After she has helped him buy a horse she returns to the lodge to find he has had the fireplace installed in her lounge as a thank you present.
• Season 1: 5. Summer Hunt Ball, The (1979). To prove a point,Audrey refuses to organize,as she has always done,the hunt ball at the manor,hoping Richard will beg her to reconsider. Instead he gets Marjory to run it and escorts her to the ball as his partner,leaving an angry Audrey to stay at home,playing Scrabble with Ned the butler. Richard does come to apologise though,after which Audrey directs him home over a foot-bridge which she knows to be unsafe.
• Season 1: 6. Grape Vine, The (1979). To keep up appearances Audrey pretends to go on holiday to Spain,though in fact she is hiding at the lodge with only Ned aware of her secret. She becomes suspicious when she sees Richard and Marjory skulking around the grounds together but they are not romantically involved but only badger watching. When Audrey 'returns' from her holiday Richard tells her he knows her secret but agrees to keep quiet if she stops telling people he made his fortune through dodgy business deals.
• Season 1: 7. Touch Of Class, A (1979). In an effort to make himself appear more English Richard decides to appear in a TV advert for Fontleroy's Old English Tonic,to be filmed at the manor and using Audrey's butler and Rolls Royce. However when the crew come to film it Audrey takes delight in telling that the director that the manor is not Richard's ancestral home but hers and ends up appearing in the advert herself instead of him.
• Season 1: 8. Christmas Special: The First Noel (1979). Following in family tradition Audrey and Marjory create a crib for the church though it is very crudely put together. Richard,on the other hand,asked by the vicar as lord of the manor,to contribute one,has a far more commercial model. Both parties claim to prefer the other. Come Christmas Audrey and Marjory decline an invitation to the manor but are bored and relieved when Richard and his mother come to them.
• Season 2: 1. New Farm Manager, The (1980). Richard brings Spalding,his farm manager,down from London in an effort to run the estate more efficiently. Old Ned,one of the tenants,fears that he will be made homeless and,with her butler having left,Audrey takes him on in his stead. She hopes he will humiliate Richard at a dinner party she is giving but the old chap knows how to rise to the occasion.
• Season 2: 2. Spare Room, The (1980). the lodge has a leaking roof so that,when Audrey's old school friend Diana Hodge,asks to visit,Audrey gets Richard to put her up at the manor. At school Diana was a plain,tubby girl nicknamed Podge but now she is a glamorous divorcee and Audrey is rather jealous of just how well she gets on with Richard.
• Season 2: 3. Never Be Alone (1980). With Marjory away on a theatrical residential course Audrey is at a loose end and is pleased when Richard asks her to help him catalogue his collection of valuable china. A recently acquired vase worth forty thousand pounds goes missing and Audrey is of course the prime suspect until Richard's mother eventually admits the fate of the vase.
• Season 2: 4. Tramps And Poachers (1980). Educated tramp Arthur Smith makes his annual visit to the manor where previously Audrey has always looked out for him. Though more concerned with the poachers stealing his pheasants Richard agrees to house Arthur but soon it is apparent that Arthur is playing the couple off against each other in their efforts to be the more charitable towards him.
• Season 2: 5. Honours List, The (1980). Richard decides to clear some of the trees and hedgerows from the state to create extra farming land,which appals Audrey who leads the local conservationists in protest. Then she learns that somebody in the vicinity is in line for a knighthood and,assuming it to be Richard,rapidly changes her political stance though of course she is proved to be wrong.
• Season 2: 6. Vive Le Sport (1980). Audrey does her back in carrying firewood into the house and,after a visit to the doctor, exaggerates the severity of her condition so that Richard will visit her with flowers and chocolates. When she has recovered he invites her to go skiing with him but,as a beginner,he has to take lessons on the estate,which go awry - leaving him the invalid.
• Season 3: 1. New Scout Hut, The (1981). After her picnic with Marjory is disrupted by a bull Audrey sponsors the local scouts for their raft race to raise funds for a new meeting hut and is annoyed to hear - erroneously - that Richard has refused sponsorship. In fact he has bought the boys a new hut and a grateful Audrey accompanies him on a riverside picnic,which is rudely interrupted by the raft race and which lands Richard in the water.
• Season 3: 2. Station Closing (1981). When British Rail announce that the local train station is to close Audrey opposes the plan and is angry that Richard intends to turn the building into the site of his new Cash and Carry. However the station gets a reprieve when it is chosen to serve the new school building. At least this gives Richard the opportunity to use the old school building for his business instead and Audrey is not amused.
• Season 3: 3. Horses Vs. Cars (1981). Having censured Richard for polluting the environment in his new helicopter Audrey is unable to pay for her car to be repaired. After agreeing to run a friend's riding school she sees the answer to her transport problem by getting about on horse-back,having a run-in with an officious traffic warden for illegally parking the horse. Horse power does however offer an opportunity to give the pensioners' outing a pleasant surprise.
• Season 3: 4. Birds Vs. Bees (1981). Audrey takes up bee-keeping and is starting to do well marketing and selling her own honey until a rare bird turns up at Grantleigh. It is a bee-eater, which initially does not go down well with Audrey. However its rarity and its status as a protected species ensures that a lot of people come to see it, providing Audrey with a steady flow of customers for her honey.
• Season 3: 5. Cosmetics (1981). Richard is about to sign a lucrative deal with cosmetics firm boss Mademoiselle Dutoit but,to fend off her advances,has claimed he has a wife. When Marjory volunteers to impersonate 'her' for Dutoit's weekend stay a previously reluctant Audrey is quick to jump in and use the masquerade to have a few alterations made to the estate as the rightful lady of the manor. Richard's mother almost ruins the deception but Mademoiselle Dutoit owns that she has known all along and is impressed by Audrey's apparent assumption of an alien role.
• Season 3: 6. Connections In High Places (1981). When the stockholders of Richards company threaten to throw him off the board for being an upstart foreigner, Audrey calls upon her upper crust family connections to come to the rescue.
• Season 3: 7. Back To The Manor (1981). Whilst Richard's position at Cavendish Foods is saved he still needs money to keep going after buying the Argentinian plant and feels that his only alternative is to sell the manor. Audrey, on the other hand, has had a far better reversal of fortune as Uncle Granville has died and left her a huge sum of money. This enables her to buy back the manor, as its lady twice over, as she also asks Richard to marry her and he accepts.
• Season 4: 0. Episode #4.0 (2007). Married for twenty-five years Audrey and Richard are feuding with another estate owner Archie Pennington-Booth,who sabotages them in a carriage race. Archie's farm has been doing poorly,along with other local estates and Audrey is horrified to learn that they have been beaten in competition to supply supermarkets by Farmer Tom,a company owned by Richard. Disgusted with her husband she leaves him and moves in with Marjory. Richard is planning a rock concert to be held jointly between the manor and Archie's farm and goes to court to apply for a licence.However Audrey ...

Comments

Duration

0 minutes

Filesize

0 MB

Video

- resolution: 

Audio