Born again? Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles in the original series.
So, To The Manor Born is to be resurrected for a Christmas special. I can understand the BBC wanting to revisit one of the most popular sitcoms in the history of the corporation. But the question remains: when everything has been resolved in the most satisfying and happiest way, what on earth is the point of reviving it at all?
As Stephen Brook writes over on Organ Grinder, To The Manor Born is not only fondly remembered and well thought of by nostalgics across the land, it's still, if you have had the chance to catch it of late, "as funny as ever". And, I will admit, a sudden reintroduction to the opening titles does induce some kind of feeling that whatever happens next, it'll be wholesome, gentle and, most of all, Good, Clean, Cut-Glass English Fun.
And this just would not work in modern television. In the age of reality TV and the starring role of the ordinary person, it's difficult to remember the last time you were presented with a sympathetic toff who wasn't in a whalebone corset. It's all right to be a member of the upper classes, apparently, but only if you're in period drama or a bumbling eccentric with a foul mouth or a collection of stuffed weasels.
"Does the comedy conflict of landed gentry versus not-quite landed gentry work today?" asked MickeyDolenz in the comments on Stephen's blog.
No, I don't think it does either. Because it just doesn't have the same resonance. You can imagine that if it was being made today, the tug between "old money" and "new money" would be different - the new-money character would have to have won the lottery, or something, to reinforce the idea that yes, they may be rich, but my GOSH they didn't deserve it.
Still, back in the three series of 1979-81, it was the humour and humanity of the leading actors that made the series a winning one. Yes, Penelope was posh, but she was charming with it, strong, and bolshy, with just the tiniest crack in her armour. There could be some argument that it was the perfect time for the character: the rise of Audrey fforbes-Hamilton - a woman so influential she doesn't even have to have capital letters in the right places - coinciding with the first ever bolshy, strong, female prime minister. Of course, the argument falls down with the "being a bit human" side of things, which Penelope Keith always nailed slightly more convincingly than Mrs T.
Reading through a list of episodes, the simplicity of the plots is obvious:
"While Richard (Peter Bowles) takes lessons in his new helicopter, Audrey can't afford to have her Rolls Royce mended, so while looking after the stables for Mrs Proctor, she uses a horse instead."
An episode I seem to have missed, it sounds like you could make up most of the plot from just that. Perhaps Richard scares the horses, Audrey ends up in a gallop, or going over a hedge (with hilarious consequences), there's a nice bit of barbed flirting and bad-tempered sexual tension between the two. The end.
And that's the main reason I can't see how, or why, you would want a Christmas special, or what exactly you might do with it. The whole point of sitcoms like these is that they turned on the magic between the two lead characters. Would they get it together finally? Would everything turn out all right in the end? Would it all be happily ever after? Well yes, it would, and it did. They reached the end of the third series, Audrey asked Richard to marry her, everyone's happy, Lady of the Manor is back in her rightful place, there is love, and joy, and two people get another chance at happiness. And why do they leave that till the last episode? Because there's nothing to see after that, surely. No one cares what happens now they're happy. That's it! The end.
