To The Manor Born

codfanglers

codfanglers

Dedicated Member
The new PBS station in the Washington DC area is really pushing this show. It usually follows Summer Wine. I never watched it for more than two minutes as it seems a struggle for me to get into it. However, I just thought I'd consult my British Brethren about this show. Is it worth getting into? If there are enough positive replies then I will likely sit down in a quiet environment and watch the whole thing. Better yet, I will make sure I start with the pilot.
 
I loved it, another gentle comedy you could watch with your Grannie and not go red.
Its set in the eighty's and I think the class system was still in full swing so it gives a good view of country life of the well off and the former well off.

I do like Penelope Keith, I liked her in the Good Life too.
 
cciaffone said:
Not one of my favorites. Seems like it was
got up for the 'murican audience.
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I generally concur with Susan (though I tend to resist any reference to the "class system" particularly beyond the second world war.

I think the comment "got up for the 'murican audience" is referring to an embryonic radio show which never came to fruition as it was decided to produce this TV show instead. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Manor_Born
 
It was okay. I do agree with Susan, the class system, or the shadows of it were still very much in evidence when this show was made. It's not so obvious these days.
 
It was a very good show and really enjoyed watching the reunion episode which was 25 years later.
 
Thanks for the input, though still a little stumped about the "Murican Audience" comments. I get what Big Unc is saying about it but just having a hard time visualizing it.

I checked out the Wikipedia reference and discovered once again- a successful British sitcom only running for 3 seasons.
 
Some interesting comments on class in UK from Eric Blair (aka George Orwell) especially in various essays and "The Road to Wigan Pier" written in 1936.

He implied that we may not call it class but the social divisions due to background, money and the way we live are still part of the fabric of British Society. If it were not, then how else do you explain the popularity of Keeping Up Appearances?

We still use socio-economic classifications which split us up by type of job, from A through to E (which is retired and armed forces and others if I recall correctly) ...

However job and income may not always neatly co-incide so a real mine field. We would like to think we have a classless society, but not entirely sure ....
 
barmpot said:
Some interesting comments on class in UK from Eric Blair (aka George Orwell) especially in various essays and "The Road to Wigan Pier" written in 1936.

He implied that we may not call it class but the social divisions due to background, money and the way we live are still part of the fabric of British Society. If it were not, then how else do you explain the popularity of Keeping Up Appearances?

We still use socio-economic classifications which split us up by type of job, from A through to E (which is retired and armed forces and others if I recall correctly) ...

However job and income may not always neatly co-incide so a real mine field. We would like to think we have a classless society, but not entirely sure ....
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I would like to think that too, but I think we do still live in that "Them and us" class type times. I see it all the time. I think we have a long way to go before we see the end of it.
 
barmpot said:
Some interesting comments on class in UK from Eric Blair (aka George Orwell) especially in various essays and "The Road to Wigan Pier" written in 1936.

He implied that we may not call it class but the social divisions due to background, money and the way we live are still part of the fabric of British Society. If it were not, then how else do you explain the popularity of Keeping Up Appearances?

We still use socio-economic classifications which split us up by type of job, from A through to E (which is retired and armed forces and others if I recall correctly) ...

However job and income may not always neatly co-incide so a real mine field. We would like to think we have a classless society, but not entirely sure ....
Click to expand...

I think it was a comment of mine which stimulated this minor debate. I do note that George Orwell was writing before the Second World War. I suppose my thought now is that whereas before that war breeding, who your ancestors were, was far more critical. Now wealth is a far greater definer of where you are placed in society.

But I suppose my real bête noire is not so much defining as upper, middle and lower class (or the ridiculous sub-division into such as lower middle class) but the use of the sometimes perjorative term "working class". You can be someone who works their socks off twenty four seven but if you have wealth you get dismissed by trades union leaders and left wing politicians as bosses or management. Put bluntly, as far as I am concerned, Sir Richard Branson is as much working class as any of us. I suppose that is it really. I might be classed socio-economically as AB or E (as retired) but as far as I am concerend I am working class. And how any one can define members of our armed forces as anything but working class is beyond me. So, I suppose what I am saying is that above 90% of our population is working class which is us moving to a classless society.

"Keeping Up Appearances" - delusions of grandeur as was "To the Manor Born" in a way - living in the past but at the same time that is in no way to denigrate good manners but everyone is capable of those. But those themes are very old - think of G & S and "HMS Pinafore" or "Iolanthe".
 
Big Unc - I think you are correct in much of what you say, and I would say the socio-economic groups are weird - I have been in almost every group during my life from Shop Assistant (teens) onwards and technically because of what I do I would be classed AB but I am the same person.

One lady I knew in Swindon who stated "we may be poor but we do not have to be common!" may have been a little outmoded in her approach (but it was the 1960s).

I agree that the term "working class" has a lot of unhelpful overtones: in the 1930s Leeds City Council published statistics of houses constructed and each year the number of " villas (not working class)" was recorded!

However the delusions of grandeur and the questions of status as in G & S are very appropriate.

I could write more but I do not want to bore everyone ....
 
I think this subject is going to be one of those that few people will agree on.
Class is something that we all have our own opinion on and we all have our own perceptions of. Much of it is how we feel individually.

I get what your saying about working class and on that premise I class myself has working class as would David Cameron but I am not in the same social class has him, nor would won't to be. When my son went to university he was the first one on both sides of the family to do so but I suspect that everyone Mr Cameron knows didn't think twice before going.

I'm just saying that there is more to class than working. I think that's what someone else was say but used rather long words. :D
 
Reading all these comments made me decide to write my own. I hate "Classes". Always did. I was brought up in a high class area. We looked down on others who weren't class. We treated our maid badly. She stayed because she needed the money. So I learnt a lot from this. As I became a teen and a man I decided to make my own decisions. I would say good morning to everyone in the street,yes including the street sweeper if he was around. After all he is also a human being. I treat everyone alike and everyone loves me. LOL
 
Everybody needs to " belong" be it a group ,a club or even a gang. Seems to be a part of the human condition. So that is where the "class" system may have come into being. Was it Marx or Engels said that everyone is created equal only some are more equal than others! ::) While on this subject do any of the older members remember "THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS! ? There was a clever "skit" on the class system featuring John Cleese ,Ronny Barker and Ronny Corbett. ( I dont remember the words but there was much of "" I look down on them because.....I look up to him because but look down on him because .......and so on!) "" It caused a bit of a stir in its day. :eek:
 
dick said:
Everybody needs to " belong" be it a group ,a club or even a gang. Seems to be a part of the human condition. So that is where the "class" system may have come into being. Was it Marx or Engels said that everyone is created equal only some are more equal than others! ::) While on this subject do any of the older members remember "THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS! ? There was a clever "skit" on the class system featuring John Cleese ,Ronny Barker and Ronny Corbett. ( I dont remember the words but there was much of "" I look down on them because.....I look up to him because but look down on him because .......and so on!) "" It caused a bit of a stir in its day. :eek:
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“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ― George Orwell, Animal Farm.
John Cleese ,Ronny Barker and Ronny Corbett: The Frost Report, 1966
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_sketch
If anything, both demonstrated the idiocy of the whole concept.
Point of Sue's on first in family going to University. I was first in our family to do so. But had I come to that point pre-war I would never have done so. I suppose one point I am making is that we must not ignore the progress we have made.

Big mistake by many on the left today. They bleat on about the class war and in so doing denigrate the great work better men and women did before in improving the lot of society generally. Things are not perfect but are better than they were. And in the UK the vast majority are far better off than around 90% of the world's population.
 
I stand corrected your worship ! :-[ :-[ I agree though with the second half of your post about progress and " The Class War" The modern left is still fighting it ::)
 
Big Unc said:
....

....
Point of Sue's on first in family going to University. I was first in our family to do so. But had I come to that point pre-war I would never have done so. I suppose one point I am making is that we must not ignore the progress we have made.

Big mistake by many on the left today. They bleat on about the class war and in so doing denigrate the great work better men and women did before in improving the lot of society generally. Things are not perfect but are better than they were. And in the UK the vast majority are far better off than around 90% of the world's population.
Click to expand...

Many of us had a the benefit of a university degree which was denied our parents by all sorts of inequalities. My Mother was told she had to go and earn her living at 14 years of age, when she could leave school even though she was capable of doing far better.

Much of the early improvements came from all sorts of people in the Mechanics Institutes of the mid Victorian Age when self advancement began and the seeds of a different approach began to be sown.

And Big Unc is totally correct, we are very well off compared to much of the world ....
 
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