Peter Spence

To the Manor Born was one of the quintessential cosy 'coms of the '70s and '80s. In a new century, though, with not all that much changed about the show, it seems a very rum thing indeed. Perhaps, as the saying goes, the past is another country.

The latest episode of To the Manor Born (BBC1) was billed as the last instalment of the series, but will no doubt be merely the prelude to another, since the two leading characters are now married. Now at last she will be able to do something about his clothes. One imagines that those slanting pockets on his tweed jackets are meant to indicate an arriviste, but surely he arrived long enough ago to have noticed by now what everyone else is wearing.

To the Manor Born (BBC1) is supposed to do that too, but in fact it is short of everything except two good leading players. Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles deserve the immense popularity they are already enjoying, but the script is so short of pointed writing that the actors can't relax for a minute.

To the Manor Born (BBC1) is what they used to call a vehicle for Penelope Keith. A somewhat antiquated gig, possibly barouche, conceivably landau, perhaps a growler. What ever that is. Sherlock Holmes leaped into them a lot crying "Paddington."

And a new comedy series, He's A Wonderful Wife (Radio 4, Wednesday) which depends on the unfunny, out-dated and overplayed notion that there is something inherently comic in men staying at home and wives working. It needs remarkably skilful dialogue to absorb such a wet idea - and this series, though it is early days yet, looks like being not so much a sponge, as a lead face flannel.