I say, this old comedy is still jolly good fun

TO the Manor Born, Fox Classic, 8pm.

Undated : actors Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles from 'To the Manor Born'

STARTING from the very beginning, this British comedy classic feels exactly right for Christmas week, where nostalgia and lightheartedness are to the fore.

It marks the first appearance of one of the monumental characters of TV comedy, the haughty, demanding but hugely enjoyable Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, not so much played by Penelope Keith as completely inhabited by her.

Fresh from her triumph as suburban socialite Margo Leadbetter in The Good Life, Keith didn’t merely repeat that character, but broadened and complicated her.

She appears in a seemingly old-fashioned show: posh rural widow forced to adapt to changing circumstances when she falls on hard times.

Behind that veneer of 1970s British conservatism, To The Manor Born offers something edgier and subversive, never more so than in an early scene, where fforbes-Hamilton, walking back to the manor after her husband’s funeral, makes sure no one is watching, throws her hat in the air and let’s out a liberating “Yipee!”.

Freedom and autonomy are now hers and she is determined to enjoy them.

But along comes Richard DeVere, played by the impossibly suave Peter Bowles, who has nouveau riche designs on fforbes-Hamilton’s beloved Grantleigh estate, which she has been overjoyed at inheriting.

This first episode deftly introduces the set up while never dragging.

This is 1979, and fforbes-Hamilton took her place alongside culturally influential woman that included the Queen and then prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Some of the jokes are old, but the characters — the butler Brabinger, jolly best friend Majory, the kindly vicar — remain compelling.

The romance between fforbes-Hamilton and DeVere, conducted in a love-hate series of manoeuvres, drives the comedy and the show.

There is much to enjoy here. Especially the magnificent Penelope Keith. Talent indeed.