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To the Manor Born

1979 · TV series · 30 min episodes · 3 seasons

Created by Peter Spence

Comedy

Following the love-hate relationship between upper-class Audrey Forbes-Hamilton and Richard DeVere, the nouveau riche businessman who buys her manor house when she can no longer afford to keep it.

2 neutralfrom 2 commenters

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2 comments on Hacker News

  1. NeutralyozJan 24, 2025

    The composer you mention was the most prolific and talented creator of BBC TV show themes: Ronnie Hazlehurst. He usually did arrangement and production of the music as well.

    Other famous themes he created: Are You Being Served?; Last of the Summer Wine; The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin; To the Manor Born; Yes, Minister (and Yes, Prime Minister); Blankety Blank; and The Generation Game. See his Wikipedia page for the full list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Hazlehurst

    AFAIK, the main reason that he received no royalties is because BBC programmes generated no income. The BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, generates revenue through selling and licensing content, but that was created in the 1990s. I don't know whether the royalties situation has changed, but I doubt it.

    So Hazlehurst wasn't well paid, nor were the recordings well funded. This is another great example of constraints triggering innovation: the theme for Are You Being Served? memorably uses the sounds of coins and cash registers, which was Hazlehurst's solution to not being able to afford proper percussion.

    If you have two spare minutes now, watch Matt Berry's lovely tribute to Ronnie Hazlehurst, from Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ui1rdhQljU

  2. NeutralomnicognateJun 22, 2024

    It has manner/manor, but it's missing my favourite one: "to the manor born". There was an English TV series named that (as a pun), and probably a majority of people here don't realise that the original phrase is "to the manner born", from Shakespeare. Arguably it's not even an eggcorn but a phrase in its own right now, so maybe that's why it's not listed.