| To the Manor Born | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Peter Spence |
| Directed by | Gareth Gwenlan |
| Starring | Penelope Keith Peter Bowles Angela Thorne John Rudling Daphne Heard Michael Bilton Gerald Sim |
| Theme music composer | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 20 + 2 specials (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producers | Gareth Gwenlan Justin Davies (2007) |
| Running time | 30 minutes (1979–1981) 60 minutes (2007) |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC1 |
| Release | 30 September 1979 – 25 December 2007 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
To the Manor Born is a BBC television sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. A special one-off episode was produced in 2007. Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the first 20 episodes and the 2007 special were written by Peter Spence, the creator, while the final episode in 1981 was written by script associate Christopher Bond. The title is a play on the phrase "to the manner born," from Shakespeare's Hamlet ("Though I am a native here and to the manner born, it is a custom more honoured in the breach than the observance".)
In To the Manor Born, Penelope Keith (who was previously best known for her role as social-climber Margo Leadbetter in the suburban sitcom The Good Life), plays upper-class Audrey fforbes-Hamilton. Upon the death of her husband, Audrey is forced to sell her vast country estate, Grantleigh Manor. However, she then moves into the estate's small, modest lodge house (where she can keep an eye on the estate's new owner) and manages to keep her butler and her much loved Rolls-Royce 20/25 car. The manor is bought by Richard DeVere (played by Peter Bowles), a nouveau riche millionaire supermarket owner originally from Czechoslovakia. DeVere and fforbes-Hamilton have a love-hate relationship.
The programme proved popular and it received high audience figures for many of its episodes, especially the series 1 final episode, the most watched British television programme (excluding live events) of the 1970s.