Comedy Connections - To The Manor Born

[Music] in autumn 1979 to the manor born the BBC star vehicle for Penelope teeth landed into our living rooms and was an immediate hit I don't think any episode got under 20 to 22 million which now is sort of unheard of was amazing phenomenally exactly.you is to court reporter listen to their heart sympathizing with our reduced circumstances and delighting in her attempt to come to terms with the real world fabric of the fight is becoming remember bleah unstitched for a nation recovering from the winter of discontent you're the manor born with the reminder of a bygone era it had that delightful Englishness about it which is both idiotic fascinating it was firmly entrenched in the class system if something doesn't certainly in a minute I'll help myself and took an affectionate view of countryside to see but what gave it an edge over other comedies of the time was the will they won't they relationship between Audrey Forbes Hamilton and the nouveau riche Richards of The Rasmus and Roth it seemed to capture the imagination of the entire country it was escapist romance with a big are the part of Audrey Forbes Hamilton practically cast itself Penelope Keith's comedy career began in 1957 as a straight woman to dick Emery in the army game and she was soon putting herself about in action-adventure series like The Avengers I wasn't young leading actress in the normal sense the word in as much as I was fairly plain have to get that out of my system which was lovely which made me gave me a chance a lot of different characters Chevron donkey upside yes right in everything from the film every home should have one to Yorkshire TVs Kate Penelope played it plain and tough but then came her big breakthrough Margo Leadbetter in the good life directed by John Howard Davis all four of us always enjoyed it we always laughed and that was very much John's way as well as being a great professional he knew exactly what he was doing it was the most enchanting man future good life producer John Howard Davis played Oliver Twist in David Lean film but he achieved even greater fame by helping to bring Monty Python's Flying Circus Steptoe and son and Fawlty Towers to the small screen making the good life he saw Penelope Keith create a role from an extremely minor character that is part in the initial good life was a voice often saying one night it's the good they're dancing they're goldfish but you could tell even from that the determined authority of it that she was critically a central and pivotal character hello Maria yes and you will hide felicitations to you little area I'll be as brief as possible absolute chaos jenny has chickenpox she develops this kind of very well Aditi oh thanks the walk the fashions the authority just what I did check that order I mean do I look as though I drink milk stout we all thought that four series was enough there were various overtures made to Paul and me need to do a spinoff and I said no quite firmly I said the reason these characters work is because they're juxtaposed that's what makes them funny what was that for I shall miss you terribly Caroline yeah yes Anna what happened after good luck so I promised each and every one of them a series of their own Dickie brands got every two creating circles I persuaded Paul to do Yes Minister and politicans got solo and I couldn't find anything - Kenny Keith and desperately for about 18 months or dr. Lankan to find anything that was suitable what is the kind of sexy bubble would have sparked for her writer Peter Spence had learned his trade on the radio is comedy sketch writer for Roy Hudd when Roy moved to television Peter followed and sold sketches to Marty Kane and Lenny Bennett TV shows but he also had ideas about developing a character of his own word got out that the BBC was looking for a vehicle for Penelope Keith so I just responded to this and the thing started really with her I was writing a show for her I had been to a dinner party and I met a chap called Peter Spence who said that he was a writer and actor he is always a writer your ears pop up immediately and so he said he had a script could he send it to me I suggest called and he sent me a script for a pilot for Radio 4 to the manor born it was very different from the one we all got to know when it came to coming up with a new character for I just had really had to think of what she had been up to that point which is the Margo Leadbetter character all I did really was slip the coin round and looked at it from the other say what if this person was as grand as Margo Ledbetter pretended to be the edge being that she had lost her husband she'd lost her money I said Peter how much I've enjoyed doing it and I said I think it would make rather good television would you mind if I sent it to John Howard Davis who by this time was head of light entertainment of the BBC television and I listened to the thought it was wonderful and we decided to do it so I stole it the wireless much to their chagrin and disappointment no one had ever run me up from television before and here is I getting this call from the top man asking me to go in with a view to writing a sitcom for there and came as a tremendous shock and I remember being absolutely terrified in the first instance it meant that I had to wear a suit and practice pretending I knew what I was doing he dispensed had also been writing sketches for the pilot of not the nine o'clock news which had been commissioned by John Howard Davis I said no no you don't want to do that you really want to write sitcom because a there's more money in it which is quite a good reason and B if you write sketch probably nobody will ever know what you have written and we was being just demeaning as nine o'clock news that he's saying I didn't want to be a sketch writer and I remember thinking at the time yes actually that's exactly what I want to be doing because that's where my mates are and things he agreed after a little bit of persuasion I said I'd break his legs otherwise because I had no idea then that to the manor born was going to take off in the way it did so I'm very grateful that I was forced to make that choice after persuading the writer to come on board John Howard Davis handed over the job of producing and directing to Gareth gwenlyn his former assistant who had worked on the Fallen rise of Reginald Perrin and butterflies written by Carla Lane and starring Wendy Craig Adria he works well with women Gareth as well as men but he has that particular talent that enables women to shine this is my latest unhappy experience his experience with Wendy Craig made Gareth Quinlan a perfect choice for working with a strong leading woman he also found himself having to nurture a writer new to television it became sort of clear to both John Howard and myself in the early days of the scripts coming in that while they had a very that one they were funny and while they were creating interesting characters the structure with the pieces showed a naivety which needed some other help to get to put together they weren't very confident about me at the very beginning because I'd only worked in Reggio hadn't worked in television although I'd done sketches for television up to that point Peter Spence was unusual in that here that he has an enormous much talent but he wrote alone and it's sometimes very difficult to write a situation company alone because you have no yardstick to go by you don't know where you've written too much or too little on cells and so forth that's like Christopher bond was bought in the first place to help him as somebody to bounce off he didn't actually write together but what they did was advance each other's work there were things that we discovered from doing it on the radio which we knew were wrong which had to be changed Audrey Forbes Hamilton and her school friend Marjorie stayed as they were on the radio but in the transfer to television her Pekinese became a beagle called Bertie supporting characters were added and the new lord of the manor has changed from the rich american messiah's Beauregard to dashing Czech born millionaire Richard de Vere all the changes were made and the manor was now ready to open its doors to the public [Music] one of the problems all sitcoms have is a good first episode that grabs the audience do you know where I could find mr. Forbes Hamilton he'll be here at any moment oh good I doubt if you'll get much other yeah you come [Music] my food that's what I found a bit startling first of all when I read to the mandible on the fact that she was so happy and no one ever questioned that never looking again no yeah good it was a marvelous way of starting and I think it made people think what can this be about I can't pretend that's martin pegging out like that for people most wonderful thing that's ever happened just think the granting stage all minor all i ever wanted is too good to be true oh dear have I shocked you why am i sayin a little bit taken aback I mean I knew that you and Martin didn't get off well we do now with her own series at last Penelope Keith was the queen of all she surveyed she statue as she's beautiful she's sexy and she looks as though she comes from the top drawer she talks as when she comes from the top drawer and he lent it a kind of authority that very few other actresses could have done this well prepared enough tables over there we're done some know where you will put them over that way quietly what penny has is that wonderful natural imperious class or to his class naturally told when it came to scoring first blood over her future sparring partner this is mr. Devere how do you my condolences Bob Hamilton how kind it was a great shock but life must go on do help us out to drink it's mr. severe of Cavendish fruits no the caterers in that case help everyone else it was about six foot two of the moustache and he had more hair than I do now haha I'd seen Peter operating in the West End I'd seen him do some very good things I liked he had great style in here again had presence one of Peter balls his first television roles was as a policeman in out of the unknown from there he graduated to several parts in the Avengers and was able to prove his early advisers wrong they took me around all the big casting people they're very nice to me gave me a share in a dry biscuit I don't go do that now ah they all said because of your coloring you should go away and learn Greek or Arabic or something succeed and then thank you because you'll never play an Englishman well would you make of us hmm bit okay again a variety of villains followed from the prisoner to the persuaders and how people got the chance to work in a house full of comedy great but you just don't like it but otherwise suppose the one thing he caused me ducky that's worthy cause me okay when I came on and said my first line the place went wild and they couldn't continue which I was sorry about they had to stop the recording it was my agent's father getting on the phone for our some cattle of you don't me to take my clothes off again full frontals a lot but you wouldn't catch me taking me clothes okay we went to your ass chica holding his own in rising damp and Peter his comedy Spurs but he could have won them on a different show well originally I was going to cast Peter Bowles in the good life as Jerry Ledbetter opposite Penelope one of the problems that Penelope poses is she's quite a tall woman and needs a robust and tall man to play credibly opposite her but Peter Bowles was doing a play at Crucible Theatre didn't want to do the good life understand to do this play you play by Alan Ayckbourn and when I arrived at rehearsals there was some Dickie bras I was a rather with no since he was a young man and he said why aren't you doing good life I said you know about it he said yes I do know but I'm doing it I said here but you're doing this play and he said yes but they recorded on Sundays so I didn't know that nobody told me he said no gada I think it's been cast now I mean it had if Peter Bowles had taken the part of Penelope Kate's husband Jerry in the good life then he could never have played de Vere in the will they won't they storyline of to the manor born dashing rich foreigners held and come from Surbiton even in sitcom where by tomorrow he was a Czechoslovakian immigrants started as the East End very oh boy done very well in this country made a lot of money ended up owning a supermarket chain and at the same time he'd learned to speak Porsche and passed himself off as a totally acceptable English man so he has new money burning a hole in his well-tailored pocket and widowed Audrey has old money meaning no money fell god you're mad creditors are insisting on having no sense of history we some Wars plagues floods famine and labor governments despite her reluctance she's forced to sell her precious house at auction told you sir if you just come up to the rostrum I mean I don't live here anymore and guess who just happens to buy it with a bit of imagination one could really make something of this place excuse me it was very clear from the beginning in my mind that one way or another the possibility of a relationship between these two people should always be there now if you'll excuse me do you have to go I have a great deal to do but I went to say goodbye just out of one golly what a man yes isn't it that was as far as I was prepared to go at that stage just plant the possibility that a relationship might develop between these two people do you think he might be your mr. right I don't know mr. right but he could very well be mr. convenient there was a good turnout to bid Audrey Ford's Hamilton farewell and see her move all of 200 yards to the gatehouse while Richard kefir dons the tweeds as the new master of grant Lee's helping Audrey settle into the lodge and keep an eye on the dreamboat up the drive the school chum Marjorie played by Angela thorne to Jersey you can see right into the manor yes of course why do you think I'm lost here Audrey I think that's dreadful can I have a look she provided a an insight into way that Audrey was planning things and was a useful plot device as well having said that she was much more than that in that she played a character Bridget Angela thought had also spent some time at the Avengers Academy but more significantly she had appeared in the good life as an acquaintance of Margo's a genuine Toph and she bought a touch of class to Emmerdale farm as Charlotte ferny they don't use front doors on farms oh you know for the whoops Tom's on Daddy's estate start daughter and use for feast days and funerals on a car yes Angela was clearly a girl who knew just what was what about her country ways oh come on there better please very well Marjorie Marjorie was based on an aunt of mine Angela tells me that infected machine based it in or out of hers that they were must have been the same art like Penelope Peter and Angela the rector played by Gerald sim cut his TV piece on the Avengers 2 occasions of the man's life when he shouldn't speculate when you're going to fold it so many card thanks for the advice for mine Mark Twain I enjoy playing very much thank you for seeing to the flattening there was a certain sense of pleasure in the rector when anything went wrong for Audrey and I don't know why there wasn't weren't exactly antagonistic but I think he had a she could smile when the lady of the manor was taken down a peg Joaquin Sonny went wrong there's always one in the morning the clocks go forward and that character he developed for the part of being oily and yet sanctimonious at the same time used just fantastic care for what did you say well I was good thanks to dead the fantastic English countryside around the manor played no small part in the show success it was a small little community and it really sort of bounded by the manor and underground it and I think people therefore could identify the various people the very pages was a village shop and they knew what that was like they knew weld church was on the rector and it was all in a in their own minds anyway it was just one compact little village but in reality things weren't quite as they seemed the launch it's supposed to be in view and has but the largest two miles away and we made it work by having a movable tiller which was stuck in a left a frame while there outside the lodge and then certainly traffic taking down the house and then the impression was given you never ever saw the two buildings in the same shot when you thought you did the house which became home to the series was it crickets and Thomas in Dorset then a wildlife safari park and an inspirational and familiar setting for Peter Spence it belonged to his father-in-law and he got married there which was nice I lived on an adjoining farm for about three years where I was able to view the activities and local community that kind of centers on a big house and where all the material came from he just country cred gave the support characters authenticity it became an every Sunday story of country so they all added immeasurably because they were not stereotypical but Johnny nearly stereotypical of the character that we expect by in the country Michael ----builtin played the outdoor man Nesmith that's right sir in Ed's long time November 1st you were young Ned and it would just made how he told Daphne heard play de Vere's mother old mrs. Pooler visca known to all as mrs. Pugh Bigley is my son whose Begley's mr. dadier but your name is pouring something Ruby cut her function was to remind you about what was not wrong with his background but what was perhaps unsuitable for his background as a partner for Audrey mrs. cout had a turn of phrase - we have a saying you know Czechoslovakia that the teapot that his lips longest grows coldest well Jim is open I wonder mr. Bush we're all doing faithful put-upon Butler with John Radley when I saw the part of lavender I thought immediately of John had tell which I was getting in touch with him because he'd never had an agent and he'd never had his photograph in spotlight Oh Brava I can't find the bill anywhere but it's here then Raymond I've often said to young actors if you want to see someone really player Butler properly he was absolutely wonderful any one of the nice things about their the whole series was that all the characters were pleasant people the villains about at all seven anaphoras charm and sweating in a fondly imagined England brought it wide international success which is the conversion I know a lot of people in America like the letter that I had thought that was what life in England was like people finally English quite fascinating being a Welshman I didn't share this view but they they do and the Japanese love the English they can't understand the English but they watch to the manor born with absolute delight I think we have already met their final exams today all the bank against mr. Ramesh will enjoy after audiences loved seeing this very English lady in the real world burdened by things like buying bulk roll you should take a job I've got the local people yes I'm not trained for anything the local paper the only job I'm trained for what I can't do running the grand fifty exactly with no job Audrey had to get busy you never bees our economies even included a brush with the National Health Service don't be shy no one will recognize you here hello mrs. Barb's elegant and having to take a holiday at home sit up bar don't tell me we're sorry well no I just did that in cinema so often with situation comedy you want to know what happens but you want to know really what's going to make you laugh that week whereas in this comedy there was a story you wanted to know how Audrey would get on so there wasn't only the comedy there was the fact that there they were telling a story as well and I think that was the great secret but the strongest element of course was a love story which built slowly and got stronger and stronger throughout the series if I had a magic wand cinders I could still take you to the ball it isn't midnight yet I thought myself a cinders before I rather fun weave your magic wand fairy godmother abracadabra oh you look breathtaking thank you couldn't I turn into your prince charming perhaps she wanted to be back in the manor and wanted all the money which he had to offer her he wanted the social connection and somebody to run the manor and locality and so it would make perfect sense that this should happen you like to come in for a nightcap sorry I've got to get back I promised canid I'd ring them as soon as this racket died down I'm having trouble with my tin salmon well we mustn't stand in the way of your earth cuisine tonight order every episode of to the manor born was apparently about something different in fact every episode was exactly the same whatever the issue Audrey and Richard took opposing sides tried to outdo the other and came to a smouldering truth which edged them slightly closer together well now they're building a comprehensive they're closing down the village school Orchard replaced what was interesting about it was the physical attraction between the two permeated through their disagreements so when they ever had a Rao you knew instinctively that they stands with each other and that made there are more interesting oh what a shame yours got caught up in something I know you haven't that's my boo stick it's not yes it is only you miss church and fail in all your other duties but you cheated posting arguments and spats and wars and conflicts and people not getting on is much easier to write why more comfortable writing it van where people are getting getting on where they're having advice tender moment I forgive you Pax Britannica pack special Adak ah they may have been past their sell-by date as far as the youth market was concerned but love is a very strong magnet and anybody having a romance on television whatever age becomes interesting I found penny very attractive and lovely to work with and we get on terribly well and there was it there was a chemistry between us I think not that Roddy would notice of course a husband well you feel great Oh may I call you Audrey after all we've known each other quite a while oh yeah and perhaps you call me Richard perhaps if something you can't cast for you hope it happens and it certainly did we got on terribly well and he played he played him Richard wonderfully he had this enormous again self assurance but I think vulnerability to and it worked like a treat it really did you're really rather attractive when you're angry I remember by the time the third series happened Gareth saying to me you know well they want a fourth and I said no no I think this is a love story I said we've either got to get together or split I said we can't go on teasing the public any longer it had to have a full stop and also there was a danger as in all things that a series would go on for too long and become jaded and people get bored with the concept of will they work.they this relationship had to happen and did penny and people at the BBC who are following the probe the progress of it and we're listening to viewers reactions and so and saying this relationship must must now start developing must start getting warmer I think quite understandably Peter was not wholly convinced that was the way he wanted it to go he could didn't have an absolute alternative because I think at the back of his mind he didn't really want to see it come to an end so now as the third series drew to a close an ending to the whole story was needed the simplest option was for Audrey to marry Devere and be back in the manor Audrey however may have been on her uppers but she still heard her principles I couldn't marry him even if you asked me I thought he was bred to be your mr. right you shouldn't be expected to marry a pauper I have my pride you couldn't believe that she could order if folks Hamilton could go on living on air couldn't believe that we all know you can't so the beginning of the end comes as diverse business collapses and he's forced to think about leaving the manor and downsizing we need you here I think that's the nicest thing about her certainly so gladly Mona was up for auction again who would buy at 990 thousand pounds for the third time sold user may I have your names is mrs. Forbes so you have Beck where you can log all thanks to her rich uncle dying and leaving her his fortune wardrobe vertebra Manor across the country newspaper speculation was intense how would it all end what would happen to Audrey in Richard would they could they stay together surely those BBC bosses wouldn't allow Richard to disappear back into the world of trade or even to Czechoslovakia come on rod Richard I'm sorry it just won't be the same when you've gone interest in the conclusion of the story was so high that the producers even took steps to prevent leaks to the press from the last ever studio recording we made the decision that we would we would swear the audience to secrecy because I just thought it would be nice for the audience who after all of the licensed players it was actually paid for the programme to be the first people to actually see it well and to see clips of it or read about in the newspaper with excitement at fever pitch with the secrecy surrounding the final episode a record number of viewers tuned in to see if their dreams had come true thank you I remember the very final episode we cleared the place of photographers we had a closed set there were over 55% of the population watching it they had to be because it was you know in excess of 27 million viewers after 21 episodes of will they won't they the waiting was over okay I'm gonna say if I told you I was thinking of trucking the business I think I'd say something like why didn't you come back here and know him it to me but I never say things I don't mean I didn't think it was there without the manor I wouldn't have married you with the manor but that's alright yes because I bought the manor Peter Spence didn't want to write the last episode because he didn't wanted to get married so I asked Christopher bond had worked on the entire series anyway to write the last episodes because he knew all the characters he was a fine writer himself and Peter and I had a big battle which we resolve afterwards the audience had the ending they wanted even if the writer didn't so fast-forward no messing about to the big day itself I member standing on that wonderful big staircase the whole cast was there I turned to Angela and I said Angie let's enjoy this this is the last time we're going to be the youngest people in a television studio and it was [Music] you my one regret is when we stopped it is that I was left with a notebook full of ideas and lines and possibilities of things that I knew that I was never going to use yes viewers she married him and so the story ended Peter Spence closed the grantee man of visitors book and went on to write for Hunter Davis a series Father's Day and a family double pair of ladies Patricia rout Lidge and Patricia Hayes what's this love was to rupture aha yes same difference a jory careful it was punished him after to the men a ball and the assumption made about me as the writer was that IRA's man who wrote about the upper classes and for some reason that I could write for women the result of that was that I got invitations out to lunch with famous glamorous women who wanted me to write them on the understanding that I had some kind of inside knowledge as to have women's minds tick I had absolutely no idea after to the manor born Angeles own cough impersonating with his stature on the West End stage in any one for Dennis obviously I don't give a damn about the Nexen pledges but I am rather committed to the idea of no you turn your little because she's much younger much prettier than I am a much slimmer fr lay your robbie-poo and she put me up into three up two down if you want some breeding matter of a morning I suggest you make your own arrangements I'm sure the newsagent would be only too pleased to deliver the Beano all during to the manor born Peter Bowles with three timing of viewers as well as being severe in the manner he was gut Reef Featherstone with rumpled and on the warders Archie Glover he had a very strong fan base with young people seven or eight nine ten hello some dead call me that and so these fully grown men often say you were in H a PP why they very often call it that oh I love that problem they do stop breathing on your ridiculous old man remember that producers coming in saying go with beat incarnation Street win number one everyone there's my name around the earth in 1983 Penelope Keith and Gareth gwenlyn worked together again on sweet 16 and then Penelope went on to another John Howard Davis hit executive stress starring alongside Geoffrey Palmer I did a first series with Jeffrey and then we came to a second series and Jeffrey was working and couldn't do it and she thought they were going to cancel seriously and I said I'll do it nice Andrew back it was very very different because they we were totally different people we were both in business and we were married as opposed to courting as a sweet old-fashioned work but without the frisson of uncertainty the viewing figures for penny and Peter's marriage weren't as big as they had been for their romance Gareth Quinlan cast Penelope Keith as a grandmother in next-of-kin and in the 1990s oversaw Only Fools and Horses which were placed to the manor born as the most-watched sitcom ever and now he's back in the countryside was Boise in green green grass Penelope Keith has most recently been on the run with June Brown in the comedy-drama margarine Gladys while Peter Bowles has reverted to villainy in Jericho delighting himself and the evidence earning London cabbies this is Saraiva pop you are getting taxi drivers now so cor blimey so I didn't know you could do that oh god that was good you know I thought you only played passports Chris huh and Peter Spence is now writing for ITV's rosemary and thyme but 20 years after the original idea he was finally to cede to the manor born made for radio as originally planned the cast included Penelope Keith and Angela thorne but Keith the role of Devere the manor is now a hotel but for many millions of viewers it will always be not only Audrey's rightful home but also home to sitcoms most romantic cliffhanger it's a feeling of womanhood that's how you feel I'm surprised you can get up in the morning have a highly developed personal sense you look back with warmth and sounder to another area and I think it took a lot of people with it who were happy to watch it and didn't want to go back then I'm very surprised and very flattered indeed that after 25 years or so that people still remember it I was pleased all the way through I had a big grin on my face all the time I mean it was wonderful changed my life I think it would look very nice over there yeah reading one day about the enormous viewing figures I think it's something like 27 or 28 million what does that mean I know what it means it means every other person in the country was watching this program how much is this I look back on to the manor born with lots of affection I was delighted to garrison penny and Peter everybody connected with a program those also divided myself because I was responsible for it so I was it was basking in reflected glory enjoyable

Channel: Archivetv Musings

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Id: 7G2WvxkUcBM

Length: 38min 46sec (2326 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2017