Audrey Fforbes Hamilton is widowed and forced to sell the family estate. As if this weren’t indignity enough, the new owner of the manor is a supermarket chain owner with no knowledge or experience of the countryside or how to run the estate. Richard Devere moves into the manor house with his mother, Mrs Poo, who immediately sees possibilities of romance between her son and Grantly’s former owner.
This radio series is not a continuation of the BBC television series that ran between 1979-81 , as it mostly comprises reenactments of the most popular episodes, with Keith Baron replacing Peter Bowles as Devere and several other key roles re-cast. This is mainly because these episodes were made in 1997, after many of the original actors had retired or died.
The television series had always relied heavily on character and shot in the static multi-camera style of the day, making To the Manor Born perfect radio material. But it doesn’t quite work.
To me, re-casting key roles merely to re-play stories many of the audience already know is a risky move. Going back in time to a period before Audrey and Devere got married (in the final episode of the television series) is a good idea because it’s the set-up everybody fondly remembers, with the former lady of the manor in the lodge complaining to Marjorie about whatever Richard’s done to annoy her. Some new material, set between the TV episodes, exclusively, for this radio series, with four episodes out of the ten quite new. This softens an otherwise wholesale re-tread.
The performance of the impressive cast successfully evokes the era of the early 1980s, and the cosy comedy of the decade. As an ensemble, the actors play well against each other and do justice to the familiar material. The parts that have been re-cast have been skilfully managed by all concerned and are most definitely not simple karaoke versions. Having Penelope Keith on board for this series, reprising one of her most famous TV roles, is an absolute gift. She slips back into Audrey’s shoes easily, becoming the main reason this series can successfully recreate the atmosphere of the television episodes. Sadly, it is difficult to shake the feeling this was a missed opportunity. In the main, these radio versions simply invite comparisons with their superior TV counterparts.
These episodes are fine for anyone not familiar with the TV episodes, and enjoyable if you don’t have access to your DVDs collection. But with the episodes receiving regular repeats, available for streaming and the DVDs so easy to find, these radio versions seem destined to be forgotten, especially as they offer little that is new or interesting enough for me to revisit.
The diverting radio series of To The Manor Born can be purchased from the usual online retailers but searching for it with your favourite search engine may reveal other options
The Dad’s Army – The Radio Series
67 x 30 minute episodes first broadcast on BBC Radio 1974-76
“Here is the news, and this is John Snagge reading it…” And so is the opening to every radio episode of Dad’s Army. It’s a tidy way to introduce the show, seems to lend these (mostly) faithful adaptations of the classic BBC television comedy a sense of place in the ongoing struggle against the Nazis. Hasn’t Dad‘s Army always felt a little like somebody’s ( Private Pike’s?) latter day reminiscences, being played out at length in front of us? Or is that just me?
For those that don’t know, Dad’s Army is about a World War II Home Guard unit on the English south coast. The Walmington On-Sea platoon, commanded by Captain Mainwaering are a particularly inept example of the Home Guard (a real-life organisation attached to the British army) made up of local volunteers and ex-army officers who were too old or infirm to be called up for service). Often these units were a melting pot of class struggles, local rivalry and ageism, all beneath raining bombs and beside a 20 mile strip of water separating Britain from Nazi occupied France. Britain’s finest hour for sure, but this show is never afraid to show us the in-fighting, backbiting and bloody-minded bureaucracy involved in protecting the nation.
Snagge’s intros are the exception rather than rule because other than him, these episodes are a fairly straight retelling of their television counterparts, though you’d certainly have to be very familiar with the television episodes to notice. But hang on just a sec. Didn’t I only just criticise To the Manor Born a little for failing to offer anything new to those that had seen the television series? So why am I not using that same stick with which to beat this? I think because it is Dad’s Army. The brilliance of it translates seamlessly to audio. The chemistry between every character arrives intact and ever-so-slightly polished. The jokes all hit their mark, even those you might think are too visual to work on just the audio alone.
Three of the early television episodes are still missing from the BBC archives. Fortunately, their radio counterparts survive for us to enjoy in their place. They’re a decent stand-in that lends this series a little more importance that it didn’t enjoy when originally transmitted.
The excellence of the classic Dad’s Army, the television sitcom, is well documented, but the radio series usually gets overlooked. The radio version of a successful television show is often seen as the poor relation to its TV counterpart, and sometimes that’s justified—but not here. This is a comedy classic given the full radio treatment, and was such a hit spawned a radio spin-off series, It Sticks Out Half a Mile. Featuring the post-war characters Wilson, Pike and Hodges, the series followed their attempts to run a family seaside fun pier. How many other radio shows based on a TV show can boast a spin-off series? I don’t think any.
So with every impeccable comedy beat intact, how could Dad’s Army the radio show be anything other than sheer undiluted brilliance? It’s no replacement for the television original but will help you enjoyably while away the hours in the company of familiar voices, and much-loved characters.
Dad’s Army the radio series (and the spin-off It Sticks Out Half a Mile) can be downloaded from radioechoes.com and selected episodes streamed via the BBC Sounds app. It is also available to buy new and second hand on a number of online outlets as either a digital file or CD
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