First broadcast 10 Jan 1992
- As the lift doors jam in the opening few minutes and the staff gather in the boardroom for one last time, we hear some familiar old jokes from the original series.
- For the first time, the staff go outdoors.
- We finally get to see Mrs Slocombe’s pussy at Millstone Manor.
- We meet two new characters who run the farm on the estate: Maurice Moulterd (Billy Burden), the farmer and his long-suffering daughter, Mavis (Fleur Bennett) who also helps in the Manor’s kitchen.
- Another new character is the much-despised secretary to the late Young Mr Grace, Miss Lovelock (Joanne Heywood).
- Mr Humphries is in for a big surprise!
Young Mr Grace has passed on and the staff of Grace Brothers finds out that they are beneficiaries in a rather dilapidated country Manor House, Millstone Manor, which turns out to be run by Mr Rumbold. Most of the hotel staff have left due to Mr Rumbold’s abrasive management style – all, that is, except for the local farmer, Mr Moulterd, and his daughter Mavis, who helps on the farm and is also the cook in the Manor. They soon decide their best option is to run the hotel themselves so they can earn some income now that they are retired.
No sooner have the staff arrived at the Manor than we see them attempting to round up the hens – a novel experience for Mr Humphries, who remarks that his mother would never believe that he was chasing birds! And that’s not all. When he goes to bed that night, he finds to his horror that he’s sharing it with the farmer’s daughter, Mavis.
We first meet Mavis, however, when the staff is sitting in the lounge, waiting expectantly for an evening meal. Mrs Slocombe bangs the gong for dinner, which Mr Moultered mistakes for the fire alarm, and much to their dismay, Mavis brings them takeaways instead.
But it’s the final few minutes that really make this episode, when Mr Humphries is sitting up in bed and Mavis enters, only to casually climb into bed with him, as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do. On the phone to his mother, he tells her, ”It’s worked out quite well, but not how you would expect!” Then the closing scene – a close-up shot of Mr Humphries telling his mother she has nothing to worry about, just as Mavis’s arm encircles him. “In fact,” he says, “you may never have anything to worry about again!”
Location
All outdoor filming was at Chavenage House, a 16th Century Manor House near Tedbury, Gloucestershire
Also Appearing
Miss Prescott……………….Shirley Cheriton
Mr Thorpe…………………… .Michael Bilton
Secretary…………………… . Penny Gonshaw
For more on this episode see also my introduction to the series and my post on Miss Lovelock
. Next month: Episode 2, Season 1: Under Arrest in which Mrs Slocombe is arrested for stealing a gypsy cart and Mr Humphries goes to-ing and fro-ing with Mavis in the woodshed.
Image: Paul Best/ Chavenage House / CC BY-SA 2.0
© 2020, John Fraser. All rights reserved.