The classic Penelope Keith/Peter Bowles sitcom is coming back for a Christmas special.

First Del Boy comes back, then Dibley ... I'm not complaining, I love all these Christmas comebacks!

It says on Digital Spy:

Rebirth for 'To the Manor Born'

The classic sitcom To the Manor Born could be about to make a comeback in a Christmas special, according to reports.

The show, which starred Peter Bowles and Penelope Keith, ran for three series between 1979 and 1981. Bowles played Richard DeVere, a rich businessman, who buys a manor house previously owned by the family of Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, played by Keith, leaving her to live in a cottage on the grounds of the property.

The BBC brought back the sitcom to radio - the medium the sitcom was originally intended for - on Radio 2 in 1997. The show's writer Peter Spence adapted six of the original scripts and wrote four new ones. Keith again played the role of Audrey, alongside Keith Barron in the role of de Vere.

A spokesman for the BBC told The Guardian that no details were confirmed, but that the BBC would make an announcement shortly.

The original location, Cricket St Thomas manor house in Chard, Somerset, is expected to be used to film the new show.

Is he still alive...?

Peter Bowles? He was when I saw him in a play about two years ago.

In that case, great!
I love Penelope Keith.

From something I saw when I was in TV Centre a few weeks back, I'm certain that this is going ahead.

Anyway, it's to be called To The Manor Reborn, and Mark posted a news item about it yesterday (I think) - https://www.comedy.co.uk/news/news.php?story=000287

Linky linky.

Coolness!

For anyone interested, The Daily Mail has a picture of the couple from the new To the Manor Reborn episode.

Peter Bowles doesn't look too bad considering he must be over a hundred.

DOCUMENTARY: To the Manor Born
On: BBC 1 London
Date: Tuesday 25th December 2007 (starting in 19 days)
Time: 21:30 to 22:25 (55 minutes long)

I wanted to like this, I really did, but for me it just missed the mark. Some great writing in places, and very funny one-liners, but other parts really just did not work at all. Missed a lot of opportunities there, and fudged some of the details.

Emeridge was, for me at least, the worst thing about the show. Very poor character, didn't fit in at all, and not believable in the slightest. Just... Bad. I don't have anything positive to say about him at all.

Disappointed.

And was the front door to The Lodge not at the bottom of the stairs, rather than behind them? *scratches head*

I wandered off after about 10 minutes.
But I suppose I'm not the target audience. My parents seemed to enjoy it.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Would be interested to hear them. I've not seen it myself yet.

What should be interesting is I'm going to show it to my Gran in the next couple of days - she used to love the old programme so it'll be interesting to hear her thoughts.

I watched it out of duty. I never used to watch it and thought if they've gone to so much trouble it must be good. I was wrong. 2 jokes made me laugh. AA as the nephew when presented with his charred dinner "Give my compliments to the Blacksmith" and after Audrey and whatsername were arrested soething along the lines of "I've never heard language like that from a woman" and Penelope Keith saying she had to do it - or something.

And was the Butlers name - Emmeridge - anything to do with a country pile? Every time his name was mentioned I couldn't help thinking it.

Maybe one for the middle aged - but that's me. Why?????