"To The Manor Born," was first broadcast in 1979. The story, written by Peter Spence as a sitcom, introduces us to Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, a young widow who owns and manages a large estate named Grantleigh.
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| Grantleigh Manor in winter |
In the first episode, she learns from her attorney Arnold Plunkett that her husband left the estate bankrupt, and creditors are insisting upon selling the manor house and grounds. This cuts to the heart of who Audrey is: running Grantleigh is in her blood, and she cares deeply about maintaining its lands, employees, services to the local community, and its rich history and tradition.
In the same episode, we meet Richard Devere, a widower who has made it big in the business world. He oversees a successful supermarket chain, and is looking to leave the faster pace of London for a more relaxed life in the country. Grantleigh meets his needs perfectly. From there, he intends to run his growing commercial empire, and provide a proper home for his mother. And so he buys with his money what Audrey can no longer clutch hold of with her tradition, and thus becomes the new lord of the manor.
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| Richard Devere shakes hands with Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, while real estate agent J. J. Anderson and Audrey's friend Marjory Frobisher look on. |
When people meet Richard, they see him as the epitome of the modern, successful Englishman. Then they meet his mother, Mrs. Maria Polouvicka (pronounced Poo-loo-vick-ska), who still insists upon calling her son Bedrich (pronounce Bed-reesh), the name she gave him when he was born. Changing his name helped Bedrich, or Richard, make the necessary inroads into British commerce and society. But his mother, whom Audrey and the locals dub Mrs. Poo, insists upon reminding him of the cultural values of his native home of Czechoslovakia.
I first discovered "To The Manor Born" in the mid 1980s, when my in-laws showed me episodes they had recorded on video tape off their local PBS station. I enjoyed the interplay between Audrey and Richard, and how her friend, the locals, and his mother often threw their support behind either her or him, depending upon what social event or issue was involved. I enjoyed watching the two grow closer, and seeing how Peter Spence confronted Richard's natural desire for innovation with Audrey's stanch defense of preserving Grantleigh's heritage. My only problem with "To The Manor Born" was that it was too short: the BBC produced a mere 20 episodes during its three year run.
As the years passed, my wife and I would turn back to this series again and again, and when DVDs of the series made their way to the United States, I discovered a new episode, a 1979 Christmas special, that I had never seen. A few years later, I discovered that the BBC had filmed a 2007 Christmas special, and was able to purchase that on DVD. While planning our first trip to England in 2011, I researched where the series was filmed. While most of the interior sets were filmed in the BBC studio in London, all the location filming, including the manor house and local church, were filmed on the Cricket St. Thomas estate in Somerset county.
England may be small country when compared with the United States, but like anywhere else, it takes time to travel from one location to another. Unfortunately, Cricket St. Thomas lay well outside any reasonable travel routes between the locations we eventually visited in 2011. That was doubly true for our Yorkshire-centered vacation in 2012. Our 2013 trip was split between Brighton and London. Finally, in 2015, we were able to plan a visit to Devon and Cornwall, which made a visit to Somerset feasible.
Cricket St. Thomas may sounds vastly different from Grantleigh, but it was the same manor house and lands that inspired Peter Spence to write the series. The estate no longer functions as the home of his in-laws**, but operates as a classy, and from what I could tell, expensive hotel. As we could not afford to stay there, my wife and I were not allowed to tour the manor house, but we were able to explore the grounds, and visit the church. Perhaps when this blog gets really popular (Ha!), and makes me as much money as Richard (Ha! Ha!), my wife and I can return to Cricket St. Thomas and spend a night there (Ha! Ha! Ha!).
Okay, it's not a genuine laugh, as Star-Lord told Rocket Raccoon in "Guardians of the Galaxy" (one of my favorite recent movies, if completely unrelated to "To The Manor Born"), but my wife and I would really love to return there as guests at some time in the future. We'd love to have more than a few hours to explore the grounds, see the Old Lodge where Audrey lived after she was forced to leave the manor, play Pooh-sticks*** on the wooden bridge (if it's still there), and see all the other special places featured in each episode. But at least we had those few hours, and that one afternoon, to see the place that inspired Peter Spence to write the series. Unlike most stories, "To The Manor Born" took up permanent residence in our hearts. And for that, we shall remain forever grateful to Peter Spence, to the cast and crew who filmed the series, and the classic British estate where it was filmed.
Dragon Dave
*So, just a few words, 'eh? Right.
** An ironic in-law connection between me and Peter Spence?
***In this case, Pooh refers to Winnie-the-Pooh, the classic character created by A. A. Milne, and not Mrs. Maria Polouvicka.
P.S. If any long-time fans of this TV series are reading this, and feel that I've left out any crucial facts that would help newcomers better understand what made "To The Manor Born" special, please add those in the comments section below. And if you've ever visited Cricket St. Thomas, and would like to share your experience with readers, please let me know.
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