I.D. this Britcom please...

Cafe Society
1

In the first episode a large palatial country estate had been sold off and its penniless former mistress was bidding a tearful farewell to her servants. She then got into her Rolls and the driver took her perhaps a hundred yards away to the caretaker’s cottage, which somehow she’d managed to keep. She was in genteel poverty while the estate was purchased by a nouveau riche grocer and his horrible mother, and of course an attraction-repulsion romance bloomed between the former and current owners of the estate.

Unfortunately I’m blanking on the name of the show and the stars.

2

Sounds to me like To the Manor Born. My mother was a big fan of Penelope Keith.

3

To The Manor Born?

4

Curse you, murcielago, and your pre-known facts that beat my mad Google skillz by mere minutes!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

5

And mine! Which is funny as we U.K. types should be asleep. :frowning:

6

Well, jayjay. Google’s market cap= $70 Billion, having a parent with good taste= priceless. :wink:

7

That’s it, thanks! (I was thinking “Comedy of Manners” or something like that.)

I wanted to see if it’s available through Netflix because I remembered liking it on PBS.

8

The mother was never portrayed as horrible.

I always enjoyed the show. Penelope Keith claimed on a PBS special that the final episode had the highest ratings of any show in Britain at the time.

9

They’re broadcasting To the Manner Born here these days, on one of our PBS stations. (We get two stations here, from both Baltimore and D.C.) The show might cycle around to you again after a while.

I agree, she was just an “ethnic mother” type who fretted over her son not being married yet, and who was often baffled by the English and their mysterious ways. But her character was meant to be likable, I think.