Younger viewers have grown to love actor Peter Bowles as the venerable Duke of Wellington, through his touching on-screen relationship with Jenna Coleman in the ITV hit drama Victoria.
But older fans will remember another famous partnership, one that put a real sizzle into Sunday night telly 40 years ago.
Peter, now 83, was the nouveau-riche billionaire moving in to the former home of a down-at-hill aristo, played by Penelope Keith. And the simmering sexual tension between Richard DeVere and Audrey Forbes-Hamilton kept the nation hooked on To The Manor Born for three years.
The first episode drew in almost 24 million viewers and it became one of Britain’s best-loved sitcoms. It was all down to the spark between Peter and Penelope, one that could have ignited four years earlier had he played her husband Jerry Leadbetter in The Good Life.
“Our chemistry was immediate,” recalls Peter with a smile.
“I had never met Penny before and never watched an episode of The Good Life, even though I’d been offered Paul Eddington’s role. But we had some rehearsals and we clicked. We got on terribly well. And, of course, she is an attractive woman. But nobody knew how successful To The Manor Born would be.
“Our viewing figures were never less than 20 million and I became aware very quickly that people of all classes were watching it. I would be greeted by road sweepers, I’d be hooted at from lorries, and a man driving a Bentley once stopped to shake my hand.”
As dashing DeVere set about wooing the formidable Audrey, millions of women fell in love with him too – and with Peter, then 43. He even caught the eye of Princess Margaret – much to the irritation of his wife, Sue.
“I was once in a line-up waiting to be introduced to Princess Margaret,” he recalls.
“She sees me from several paces away and I spot a twinkle in her eye. When she gets to me, she has a cigarette in her hand.
“She says to me, ‘Give me a light’. I struck a match and she said, ‘Oh god, not sulphur. Haven’t you got a lighter?’
"The next thing I know, my wife is saying, ‘How dare you speak to my husband like that. I think you’re very rude’.
"Princess Margaret handled it very well and said, ‘I didn’t mean to offend, but I don’t like sulphur’. Two years later, I was at a private party where Princess Margaret was a guest.
“Again, I saw the twinkle. She comes up to me and says, ‘Good evening Mr Bowles’, then hands me her bag.
“She said, ‘You will be my bag man for the evening. In here are my cigarettes and a lighter – when I require both I will ask you.’ She walked away. I got commanded to follow her.
“But she didn’t keep me humiliated for every long.
“She asked me for a cigarette and a light and then said, ‘Quits now, I think Mr Bowles’.” Peter adds modestly: “I had no idea I was sex symbol.
“I have never had vanity in that way. My mind doesn’t work like that.” It’s a modesty he learned from his parents, who certainly weren’t to the manor born – in fact, they were in service.
His father, Herbert, was a butler and chauffeur at a stately home in Warwickshire and his mother, Sarah, was a nanny for actress the grandmother of actress Jodie Kidd, Janet.
During the war, Herbert went to work for Rolls-Royce engines and the family – Peter has a younger sister, Patricia – moved to Nottingham.
“We lived in a Coronation Street setting but there was no feeling of deprivation or envy,” he says. “My parents had absorbed a middle-class routine and learned to speak well.
“They knew of another world and it allowed me to mix with anybody, fearlessly.”
After school, Peter won a scholarship for RADA, the renowned drama school in London, then began his acting career with The old Vic Company at age 20. In the late 60s and early 70s, he was in shows like The Avengers, The Saint and The Prisoner.
His first major role was as Guthrie Featherstone QC, MP in Rumpole of The Bailey and his first comedy part was in Rising Damp.
Unusually for the 70s, in Manor Born, Penelope was on an equal standing with her male co-star. Peter says: “It aways troubled me from a very young age that women did not get fair share of anything. But we never analysed it.”
Yet, Peter reveals, the success of the show seemed to be threatening his future career. “They said drama producers wouldn’t want me because I’d been doing comedy. They dismissed me because I did ‘the sitcom thing’.”
So Peter devised his own drama series, Lytton’s Diary, and went on to star in Executive Stress, again with Penelope, before coming up with hit series Perfect Scoundrels.
Peter also starred in a string of hit West End shows, and made several films. But, he insists, he was too busy working to become “a celebrity”.
“I was 43 before I became successful,” he says. “I never thought about fame. I just wanted to act and get enough money to put bread on the table.”
And he doesn’t regret becoming a Hollywood star either. “It sort of crossed my mind,” he sighs. “I went over to LA with my wife to promote something.”
Peter said a man approached him and offered him a role.
“He said: ‘I am producing this film and I have a wonderful part for you.’ I said: ‘Look, that is kind of you but I will be doing theatre’. I know a lot of people would have loved that, but I would have hated that world. It would not have suited me at all.”
Not even a role in a Tarantino movie? Peter laughs again. “I was sitting in a pub and had just ordered a beer and a sandwich when a man comes up to me.
"He says: ‘Mr Bowles, I am a huge admirer of yours. I am Quentin Tarantino. I am just across the road in a restaurant with my girl. Would you care to join me for supper?’
“I said: ‘That is terribly kind and I am so pleased you enjoy my work, but I just ordered a sandwich.’ He said, ‘Ok, fine’, and left.
“I thought ‘That is so f***ing English of me. I didn’t want to embarrass myself by saying to the waiter cancel the sandwich. I was very flattered, though.” And the Pulp Fiction director isn’t his only famous fan. The star of the Godfather also loved him in To The Manor Born.
“It’s really fascinating because Marlon Brando loved my work too,” he says.
Peter and his wife, Sue, have been happily married for nearly six decades. They have sons Guy, 56, and Adam, 54, and daughter Sasha, 52
“People ask me what the secret is,” he says. “But it’s love – I can’t define it. There is great honesty between us and I have never taken my wife for granted. We’re still courting.”
And, reflecting on the fact he’s still working now, he says: “To reach the age of 83 with your children and grandchildren and the same wife who you adore and to still be able to put food on the table... well, it’s a wonderful thing.”
