To the Manor Born-Complete Series 1-3 (1979)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

    This 6 disc set contains a repackaged version of the previously issued single season sets. The actual disc contents are exactly the same which means that the same extras appear three times in this set, which is pretty slack. The set has been repackaged into a cardboard slipcover and gatefold insert containing the six discs. If you already own the season sets there is no reason to buy this one. If you have resisted the temptation to buy the individual sets this would be a very good purchase.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

To the Manor Born-Series 1 (1979)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Interviews-Crew-Peter Spence (Writer) Filmographies-Cast Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1979
Running Time	199:51 (Case: 212)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gareth Gwenlan
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Penelope Keith Peter Bowles
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	Ronnie Hazlehurst John Dunstan Fran Needham

    To the Manor Born is one of those brilliant English comedies. First aired in 1979, it went on to be one of the most popular shows on British TV. In excess of 27 million people tuned in for the final episode, breaking all previous records for a single show. This record would stand for the next 15 years. People fell in love with the main characters, the pithy humour and the very sparky attraction between them.

    Penelope Keith, one of the mainstays of many of these comedies, plays Lady fforbes-Hamilton. She is one of the vanguard of the upper class in Britain. All around her, society is falling to pieces - foreigners and lower class people are taking over Britain. Even worse, they are the nouveau-riche. With the death of her husband, she finds herself in dire straits as she is forced to sell the family home in which her family has resided for over 400 years.

    Much to her horror, the mansion is bought by someone who is not even of British descent - a foreigner! Richard DeVere is played with consummate skill by Peter Bowles, and his down-to-earth foil to Lady fforbes-Hamilton is a mainstay of the programme. While the DeVeres try and settle into British country life, even though he has brought his work with him and coverts one of the rooms of the mansion into a modern study, Lady fforbes-Hamilton has moved into a much more modest house on the edge of the estate - in times gone past this was the lodge of the manor. She has purchased the lodge so that she can keep an eye on the manor, and on Mr. Richard DeVere, which she does with a pair of binoculars.

    While the two are attracted to each other, they live in different worlds: Richard with the money and mansion but no history, and Audrey with all the lineage of British aristocracy behind her but nary a cent to her name. Audrey is a true blue-blooded aristocratic snob and her views on life give us about half of the many laughs in the show. They spend each episode revolving around each other's orbits, fatally attracted, but every time they get close the sparks fly and they move apart again (but not too far).

    This is satire of the highest order. What Yes, Minister does for politicians, To The Manor Born does for the British upper class. Written by Peter Spence, originally as a radio play, there are some fascinating connections to the show. For example, Peter Spence is married to the daughter of the family that lived in the manor that features in the show.

    There are seven episodes in the first season. I don't believe that the episodes have official titles:

1: (24:58) The season opens with the funeral of the late Mr. fforbes-Hamilton and Audrey's shock discovery that she can no longer afford to live in the manor.

2: (29:33) Audrey moves out in one of the funniest scenes in the first season and the DeVeres move in. Neither are initially impressed with their new neighbours.

3: (30:38) One of the many episodes that revolve around Audrey trying to educate Richard in the responsibilities of ownership of the manor. In this case he has not attended the local church on Sunday and is taken to task for this by Audrey.

4: (25:47) In remodelling the manor, Richard discovers that behind the current fireplaces are the original and much better fireplaces - they were covered over and made smaller as an austerity measure in the second world war. Simply to be difficult, Audrey gives him a hard time about removing the fireplaces. Audrey does Richard a favour and helps him to purchase a horse for the manor and in gratitude he has one of the removed fireplaces installed in the lodge. Unfortunately, this turns out to be a bad idea.

5: (30:03) It is time for the yearly Hunt Ball, an event that has always been held at the manor and organised by Audrey. Just to be difficult, she wants to be begged to manage the ball, something Richard will not do. So, in revenge, he asks Audrey's friend to manage the event and drives Audrey to frustration until she breaks and takes over the event.

6: (27:30) No longer able to afford a yearly holiday on the continent, Audrey hatches a plan to appear to go on holiday but in actual fact spends the time under a sun lamp hiding in the living room.

7: (31:22) A film crew arrives at the manor to film an advert, one that is supposed to feature an English Lord in his ancestral home. Audrey discovers this and gives the director a few words to the wise, upsetting DeVere's plan to become accepted as an English gentleman.

Video

    The 1.33:1 non 16x9 enhanced image is about what you would expect from a weekly show of this age.

    The video-based material is quite sharp but there is some video noise present. The film-based material is slightly less sharp and has a fair amount of grain present. There is more than the usual amount of film footage in the earlier episodes as there is quite a bit of location footage. The material inside the manor is also film-based. Shadow detail is good for both media but there is some low level noise triggered both by the grain and the video noise.

    Colours are slightly faded but still good as are the skin tones (English skin tones of course).

    There are no major MPEG artefacts. There is some posterization in the faces such as at 10:58 in the third episode. The film footage does suffer from film artefacts such as grain, dirt and in particular white flecks that can be a bit distracting at times.

    Unfortunately there are no subtitles present on either disc.

    Both discs are single layered.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue quality is very good as is the audio sync.

    There is little music other than the opening theme, which is very reminiscent of the theme for Yes, Minister.

    The surround and the subwoofer have little to nothing to do.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    A static menu presented at 1.33:1 with no audio contains a picture of our two main characters on the left and the menu selections on the right. The background picture is the same on both the discs.

A conversation with Peter Spence (11:57)

    A short but fascinating interview with the creator and writer of the show, offering many interesting tidbits of information along with the difficulty he faced moving from radio to a visual medium. Presented at 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced, the audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Cast Filmographies

    The usual page or two of information about the actors: Penelope Keith, Peter Bowles, Angela Thorne, John Rudling, Gerald Sim, Daphne Heard and Michael Bilton.

    The Region 2 version of this disc appears to be identical to our release. The R1 release appears to be scheduled for June this year. It is a boxed set of the entire series (three seasons) and includes an interview with Peter Bowles, a profile of Penelope Keith but not the interview with Peter Spence. What it also includes (and I wrote the below summary before I found this out) is the four radio episodes based on the same series.

    As it does not appear that the R2 discs, all series of which have been released, have the radio episodes, I am giving R1 the provisional win.

    There are similarities between Penelope Keith's character in this show and in The Good Life, the show which she was in just prior to this one. In that case it was the middle class to which she belonged rather than the very upper crust. I loved both characters and can easily see why this show still has a large following many years after it was originally aired.

    The video is good for its age.

    The audio is perfectly functional.

    The extra is a nice little inclusion, though again as with other ABC releases there is a missed opportunity by not including the radio broadcast version of the series.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

To the Manor Born-Series 2 (1979)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Interviews-Crew-Peter Spence (Writer) Filmographies-Cast Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1979
Running Time	200:18 (Case: 222)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gareth Gwenlan
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Penelope Keith Peter Bowles
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	Ronnie Hazlehurst John Dunstan Fran Needham

    I am a great lover of English comedy where over the years the best sketch and episodic comedies have been routinely churned out, from Monty Python to Fawlty Towers to Blackadder to Black Books and so on. This classic series from the late 1970s/early 1980s certainly deserves a place in that pantheon. Only three series were made, totalling 21 episodes including a Christmas Special. At the time of writing all three series are available on DVD, either separately or together in a box set. The First Series has previously been reviewed and the release of the new box set version encouraged me to review the other two series and the box set. To cut a long story short, the new box set is little more than a repackage with the actual disc contents being exactly the same, including menus and extras (which are the same on each series set - and therefore repeated three times on the box set!).

    As you are probably aware, the basic plot of this series involves widow Audrey fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) who is the former lady of the manor. After her husband's death, she was forced to sell the manor and move into the Lodge (a smaller house on the estate). She sold the Manor to businessman Richard DeVere (Peter Bowles), who she discovered much to her horror is not even English. After he moves in with his mother, she goes out of her way to make life difficult for him but slowly over the first season it becomes obvious that there was a mutual attraction underneath the barbs. As the show continued over its three year run, that attraction became more and more obvious. These two characters were supported by a good cast of interesting eccentrics including:

• Brabinger (John Rudling) - Audrey's faithful and wryly humorous butler who stays with her on her move to the Lodge. He is missing from the first five episodes of this series and guessing by his appearance in the last two episodes one assumes the actor was very sick.
• Old Ned (Michael Bilton) - Audrey's gardener and also an employee of Mr DeVere. He replaces Brabinger as Audrey's butler during his absence which leads to many comedic moments.
• Mrs Polouvicka (Daphne Heard) - Richard's Czechoslovakian mother who wants him to get married, preferably to Audrey.
• Marjory Frobisher (Angela Thorne) - Audrey's best friend. She has a crush on Richard.
• The Rector (Gerald Sim) - The local rector and spiritual leader of the community.

    This second series includes 6 episodes, however the DVD set also includes the Christmas special which followed the first season. The episodes included here are:

• The Christmas Special (1979) - The manor has traditionally provided the crib for the nativity which causes a clash between Richard and Audrey. Richard invites Audrey to the manor for Christmas but she refuses.
• Episode 1 (1980) - De Vere brings in a new farm manager to modernise the estate causing much consternation. Audrey is trying to teach Ned how to do Brabinger's job while he is away.
• Episode 2 (1980) - Richard takes a fall during the hunt and Audrey has an old school friend coming to visit but hasn't told her about her impoverished circumstances.
• Episode 3 (1980) - Richard has started collecting rare china and one of his pieces goes missing. Audrey is lonely because Marjory has gone off for a week to attend a course.
• Episode 4 (1980) - A tramp who is a regular visitor is in the area. Audrey has always helped him with meals and old clothes but Richard turns him away.
• Episode 5 (1980) - Audrey is involved in the local conservation society, however Richard is determined to make the estate profitable. The New Year's Honours list is due to be announced. Brabinger returns.
• Episode 6 (1980) - Mrs Polouvicka is not well, Audrey hurts her back and Richard is considering a holiday.

    This is a funny and highly entertaining series even 25 years after it was made, with excellent writing and fine performances, especially from the leads..

    Highly Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good for a series of this age.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was surprisingly sharp for a series of this age. There was no evidence of low level noise. There is grain throughout but it is never overbearing. Shadow detail is nothing special but is no worse than you would expect.

    The colour was quite decent, although there is some minor colour bleeding, a little bit of cross-colourisation and some flaring (in red and green) from shiny objects.

    Artefacts included some edge enhancement, some jagged edges and minor aliasing, a few minor spots of tape tracking errors and some spots and blobs.

    There are no subtitles.

    The two discs are both single layered.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this series by Ronnie Hazlehurst mostly consists of the theme song which is justifiably famous. The music sounds a little too strident in this transfer prompting you to jump to the menu instead of watching the credits.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are exactly the same as Series 1 and are repeated again on Series 3.

Menu

    The menu is static and virtually exactly the same on both discs.

Disc 2

Interview with writer Peter Spence (11:57)

    A 2003 interview with the creator and writer which covers his career, the style of writing, the story lines, filming, his inspiration and the characters. Worth watching.

Cast Filmographies

    Text filmographies for all major cast members. Yawn.

Production Notes

    6 text pages about the show and its development.

    This series is available as a box set in Region 1. The differences are as follows.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Closed Captioning 
• Peter Bowles interview
• Penelope Keith profile
• The 4 radio episodes which were not filmed

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• All the extras included here 

    On this basis I think the Region 1 set seems better but the local set is also fine.

    The video quality is good for television of this age.

    The audio quality is good.

    The set has a small set of extras which are repeated on each season set.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

To the Manor Born-Series 3 (1981)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Interviews-Crew-Peter Spence (Writer) Filmographies-Cast Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1981
Running Time	205:47 (Case: 217)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gareth Gwenlan
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Penelope Keith Peter Bowles
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	Ronnie Hazlehurst John Dunstan Fran Needham

    I am a great lover of English comedy where over the years the best sketch and episodic comedies have been routinely churned out, from Monty Python to Fawlty Towers to Blackadder to Black Books and so on. This classic series from the late 1970s/early 1980s certainly deserves a place in that pantheon. Only three series were made, totalling 21 episodes including a Christmas Special. At the time of writing all three series are available on DVD, either separately or together in a box set. The First Series has previously been reviewed and the release of the new box set version encouraged me to review the other two series and the box set. To cut a long story short, the new box set is little more than a repackage with the actual disc contents being exactly the same, including menus and extras (which are the same on each series set - and therefore repeated three times on the box set!).

    As you are probably aware, the basic plot of this series involves widow Audrey fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) who is the former lady of the manor. After her husband's death, she was forced to sell the manor and move into the Lodge (a smaller house on the estate). She sold the Manor to businessman Richard DeVere (Peter Bowles), who she discovered much to her horror is not even English. After he moves in with his mother, she goes out of her way to make life difficult for him but slowly over the first season it becomes obvious that there was a mutual attraction underneath the barbs. As the show continued over its three year run, that attraction became more and more obvious. These two characters were supported by a good cast of interesting eccentrics including:

• Brabinger (John Rudling) - Audrey's faithful and wryly humorous butler who stays with her on her move to the Lodge.
• Old Ned (Michael Bilton) - Audrey's gardener and also an employee of Mr DeVere. He replaces Brabinger as Audrey's butler during his absence which leads to many comedic moments.
• Mrs Polouvicka (Daphne Heard) - Richard's Czechoslovakian mother who wants him to get married, preferably to Audrey.
• Marjory Frobisher (Angela Thorne) - Audrey's best friend. She has a crush on Richard.
• The Rector (Gerald Sim) - The local rector and spiritual leader of the community.

    This third series (first shown in 1981) includes 7 episodes including the famous final episode which held the viewing record for 15 years in Great Britain. During this series the relationship between the leads becomes steadily more romantic, culminating in the final episode. The episodes included here are:

• Episode 1 - Audrey is the Girl Guides County Commissioner and Richard is asked to sponsor the local boy scouts in a raft race. Richard starts seriously wooing Audrey.
• Episode 2 - The local railway line is closing and DeVere wants to put a supermarket on the site of the station. Audrey decides to mount a protest.
• Episode 3 - Audrey has money troubles and starts selling her possessions to make ends meet. Mrs Poo wants Richard to help her but he doesn't think she'll appreciate it.
• Episode 4  - Audrey starts producing honey and selling it but a bee-eater bird turns up and spoils her plans.
• Episode 5  - One of the best episodes of the entire series. Richard is trying to close a business deal with a beautiful woman but when she makes a pass at him he says he is married. When she comes to visit the Manor he persuades Audrey to act as his wife.
• Episode 6 - Richard is having business problems and may lose control of his company. Audrey gets her relatives involved to try and help.
• Episode 7 - In a continuation of the previous episode Richard decides he must sell the Manor to raise funds. An excellent end to a wonderful series

    It is fantastic to see a series which is prepared to finish before it 'jumps the shark'. It went out on top leaving a lasting legacy.

    Highly Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good for a series of this age.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was surprisingly sharp for a series of this age. There was no evidence of low level noise. There is grain throughout which is worse during on-location shots. This series seemed a little grainier than the other two. Shadow detail is nothing special but is no worse than you would expect.

    The colour was quite decent, although there is some minor colour bleeding, a little bit of cross-colourisation and some flaring (in red and green) from shiny objects.

    Artefacts included some edge enhancement, some jagged edges and minor aliasing, a few minor spots of tape tracking errors and some spots and blobs.

    There are no subtitles.

    The two discs are both single layered.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this series by Ronnie Hazlehurst mostly consists of the theme song which is justifiably famous. The music sounds a little too strident in this transfer prompting you to jump to the menu instead of watching the credits.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras are exactly the same as Series 1 and Series 2.

Menu

    The menu is static and virtually exactly the same on both discs.

Disc 2

Interview with writer Peter Spence (11:57)

    A 2003 interview with the creator and writer which covers his career, the style of writing, the story lines, filming, his inspiration and the characters. Worth watching.

Cast Filmographies

    Text filmographies for all major cast members. Yawn.

Production Notes

    6 text pages about the show and its development.

     This series is available as a box set in Region 1. The differences are as follows:

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Closed Captioning 
• Peter Bowles interview
• Penelope Keith profile
• The 4 radio episodes which were not filmed

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• All the extras included here 

    On this basis I think the Region 1 set seems better but the local set is also fine.

    The video quality is good for television of this age.

    The audio quality is good.

    The set has a small set of extras which are repeated on each season set.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall