To the Manor Born: Cosmetics


7:00 pm - 7:10 pm, Tuesday, January 27 on U&Drama +1 (60)

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About this Broadcast

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Cosmetics
Season 3, Episode 5

Richard tries to clinch a lucrative cosmetics deal with a glamorous French businesswoman, but when she propositions him, he lies that he has a wife. Now all he has to do is persuade Audrey to pose as Mrs DeVere for the weekend. Comedy, starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, with an appearance by Rula Lenska. First shown in 1981


subtitles
Movie/Drama Sitcom

Cast & Crew

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Penelope Keith (Actor) .. Audrey fforbes-Hamilton
Peter Bowles (Actor) .. Richard DeVere
Angela Thorne (Actor) .. Marjory Frobisher
Daphne Heard (Actor) .. Mrs Polouvicka
Rula Lenska (Actor) .. Mlle Dutoit
Anthony Sharp (Actor) .. Brigadier
Gerald Sim (Actor) .. The Rector
John Rudling (Actor) .. Brabinger
Michael Bilton (Actor) .. Ned
Gareth Gwenlan (Director)

More Information

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Did You Know..

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Penelope Keith (Actor) .. Audrey fforbes-Hamilton
Born: April 02, 1940 in Sutton, Surrey
Best Known For: Playing snobby women in a variety of sitcoms.
Early-life: Born Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield in Clapham, South London, on April 2, 1940; her father reportedly disappeared soon after she was born. She met him once, during an outing, but did have a very close relationship with her mother and grandmother. Unfortunately, she failed to bond with her stepfather and still doesn't like to talk about him. After deciding on acting as a career, she attended London's Webber Douglas Academy, where Terence Stamp was among her fellow students. After graduating, she worked in local repertory theatre.
Career: Keith became a star on the small screen in 1975, playing snooty Margo Leadbetter in BBC sitcom The Good Life. More success followed with To the Manor Born, in which she played penniless aristocrat Audrey fforbes-Hamilton alongside Peter Bowles, with whom she was reunited in ITV's Executive Stress in 1986. No Job for a Lady in which she played a rebellious Labour MP and Next of Kin, in which she depicted a retired woman coping with her estranged daughter's children, failed to make much of a mark. She has since largely stayed away from TV, concentrating instead on the theatre, gardening and charity work. However, Keith did return to the small screen in 2003 in Margery and Gladys opposite June Brown, and starred in a one-off To the Manor Born Christmas Special in 2007.
Quote: "I was very tall and very plain. I wasn't going to get very far on looks - so I thought I'd better be the funny girl."
Trivia: In 2002, she spent a year as the High Sheriff of Surrey and was made a Dame in 2014.
Peter Bowles (Actor) .. Richard DeVere
Born: October 16, 1936 in London
Best Known For: To the Manor Born.
Early-life: Peter Bowles was born on October 16th, 1936, in London. He moved to Northamptonshire as a child, and lived in a cottage on the estate of a manor house where his father was butler and chauffeur. At six, the family settled in Nottingham, but he spent his summers in Scotland, where his grandfather worked for an estate manager. He claims to have been a show-off from an early age, making his first stage appearance at three during a village fete. He went on to train at Rada, where his contemporaries included Alan Bates, Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney.
Career: Bowles spent his early years in theatre before making his TV debut in 1959's Last Chronicle of Barsett. He had roles in such classic series as The Avengers, Danger Man and The Prisoner throughout the 1960s. He continued to work steadily in such shows as I, Claudius and Rumpole of the Bailey, but didn't become a star until appearing concurrently in two sitcoms in 1979: the BBC's To the Manor Born and ITV's Only When I Laugh. Since then he's appeared in The Bounder, Lytton's Diary (a series he created), Executive Stress and Perfect Scoundrels. His movies include Blowup and For the Love of Benji. In 2007 he returned along co-star Penelope Keith in a Christmas special of To the Manor Born. He also starred with Keith in 2010 at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in The Rivals. In 2011, he had a supporting role in the big-screen romantic comedy Love's Kitchen.
Quote: "Acting on stage is like algebra: it's a puzzle you have to get right without letting the audience know you are doing so. That's the actor's art."
Trivia: In 2010, he published his autobiography, Ask Me If I'm Happy.
Angela Thorne (Actor) .. Marjory Frobisher
Daphne Heard (Actor) .. Mrs Polouvicka
Rula Lenska (Actor) .. Mlle Dutoit
Born: September 30, 1947 in St Neots, Cambridgeshire
Best Known For: Playing Coronation Street's Claudia Colby.
Early-life: Countess Roza-Marie Leopoldyna Lubienska was born in 1947 in Huntingdonshire to Major Count Ludwik Lubienski, the chief of the Polish military mission in Gibraltar during the Second World War. Her mother was the former Countess Elzbieta Tyszkiewicz. The family moved to the United Kingdom in 1946. Aspiring actress Roza-Marie changed her name to Rula Lenska, and appeared in early 1970s projects including Peter Sellers comedy Soft Beds, Hard Battles, TV series Special Branch and Edward the Seventh.
Career: After appearing in Confessions of a Pop Performer and Space: 1999, she became a mainstream British star in 1976 series Rock Follies. Despite having little fame in North America, her appearance on shampoo commercials helped make her a cult star, largely thanks to chat show host Johnny Carson who used the ads as a running gag. Rula has been a TV regular in Britain for decades, starring in Minder, Boon, Casualty, Return of the Saint and Robin of Sherwood. She's also no stranger to soapland, having starred in Doctors and EastEnders. From 2009 to 2011 she played Coronation Street's Claudia Colby, leaving the role for the stage show Calendar Girls.
Quote: "I don't like getting older. It's not so much the looks changing, it's that your body doesn't obey you in the same way."
Trivia: On stage, Lenska has also appeared in The Vagina Monologues and 84 Charing Cross Road.
Anthony Sharp (Actor) .. Brigadier
Gerald Sim (Actor) .. The Rector
John Rudling (Actor) .. Brabinger
Michael Bilton (Actor) .. Ned
Peter Spence (Writer)
Christopher Bond (Writer)
Gareth Gwenlan (Director)

Before / After

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