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.

The manor is bought by Richard DeVere (played by Peter Bowles), a nouveau riche millionaire supermarket owner originally from Czechoslovakia.

Peter Spence first thought of the idea behind To the Manor Born in the early 1970s when he was working for BBC Radio as a gag writer.

[1] One of the programmes that Spence wrote for featured a Cockney comedian, who had recently bought a manor house in an English country village.

[1] A few years later, following the success of The Good Life, Spence was asked by BBC Radio to come up with an idea for a programme to feature Keith.

[1] Thinking of Keith's character in The Good Life, Spence had the idea of inverting the character of Margo Leadbetter (who was middle-class but trying desperately to climb the social ladder; Audrey on the other hand genuinely was from an aristocratic, upper class background, but had lost her fortune and was forced into a more humble existence) and, from the account from the comedian, came up with Audrey fforbes-Hamilton.

[citation needed] The first episode aired on 30 September 1979, a year after Keith had played Margo Leadbetter for the last time in The Good Life.

[3] To the Manor Born was filmed on location in Cricket St Thomas, Somerset, and in Studio TC1 at the BBC's Television Centre in Shepherd's Bush, London.

[4] The manor, Cricket House, was at the time of the original series owned by the father-in-law of Peter Spence, the show's creator and writer.

[9] During the filming, many cars were used; but the BBC continued to use the same vintage Rolls-Royce through the entire series, including the opening titles for the show.

The other main cast members in the original series are Angela Thorne (playing Audrey's old friend Marjory), Daphne Heard (Richard's mother, Mrs. Polouvicka), John Rudling (Brabinger the butler), Michael Bilton (Ned, the odd-job man) and Gerald Sim (the Rector).

Rudling was absent in the 1979 Christmas special and for much of the second series due to his ill health; his character was temporarily replaced as butler by Ned.

[4][11] Peter Bowles had been asked some years earlier to play Jerry Leadbetter, the husband of Keith's Margo, in The Good Life.

Celia Imrie, who makes two appearances as supermarket cashier Polly, later became known for her work with Victoria Wood, including the sitcom Dinnerladies, as well as roles in Kingdom and After You've Gone.

[11][14] The 2007 Christmas special features four of the original cast members: Penelope Keith, Peter Bowles, Angela Thorne, and Gerald Sim as the Rector.

[5][17] Her joy is short-lived though, as her solicitor, Arnold Plunkett, informs her that Marton was bankrupt and that the manor will have to be sold to pay off the debts.

[4] The new Lord of the Manor is Richard DeVere, a recently widowed self-made millionaire who started his career on an East End fruit barrow and founded the Cavendish Foods supermarket chain, though Audrey calls him a costermonger and sees him simply as a grocer.

[15] She reveals to Audrey, who does not like foreigners, that she and her son came to Britain in 1939 from Czechoslovakia, and that Richard, whose real name is Bedřich Polouvicek, is half-Polish (on his late father Lazlo's side) and half-Czech.

[5][11][15][19] Mrs. Polouvicka tries hard to fit into British country life, but her accent often leads to many mispronunciations and she frequently comes out with sayings from her "old Czechoslovakia".

Audrey's supportive best friend, and a frequent visitor, is the well-meaning Marjory Frobisher, who quickly develops a crush on DeVere.

New characters in the 2007 Christmas special include Emmeridge, the outspoken butler replacing Brabinger;[10][15] Adam fforbes-Hamilton, Marton's nephew and Audrey's godson, who has recently moved to Grantleigh to learn how to run an estate; and Archie Pennington-Booth, a neighbouring landowner driven to bankruptcy by Farmer Tom.

[15] Richard's mother, "Mrs. Poo", is acknowledged by a marble headstone in the church graveyard and a framed photograph on the mantel of the manor's sitting room.

This was partly due to the fact that ITV, the main rival channel to BBC1 in the United Kingdom, was in the middle of a protracted strike which started in early August 1979.

[30][31][32] In 1979, the last episode of the first series received 23.95 million viewers, the fourth-highest figures for any programme in the UK in the 1970s, and the highest for a non-live event.

[36] Writing in the Sunday Express on 30 December 2007, Marshall Julius described the 2007 Anniversary special as "so cosy and old-fashioned that I could easily have dismissed it with a cynical wave".

However, he says he found himself enjoying it "about halfway through" and said "it was a real pleasure to see Peter Bowles and Penelope Keith, for both of whom I feel great affection, once again sparring on the small screen".

[37] The British Comedy Guide was more critical saying that "whilst it gained great viewing figures it really wasn't a patch on the original episodes.

Other actors, including Frank Middlemass and Nicholas McArdle, who played Miller in the TV version, replaced many of the by then deceased original television cast members.