<P> All the episodes were directed by Gareth Gwenlan, who also produced the original series . The 2007 special was co-produced by Gwenlan and Justin Davies . </P> <P> During the filming, many cars were used; but the BBC continued to use the same vintage Rolls Royce motorcar through the entire series, including the opening titles for the show . The Rolls Royce (BMG443) has also been used in other BBC programmes such as Dad's Army . </P> <P> The cast is led by Penelope Keith as Audrey fforbes - Hamilton and Peter Bowles as Richard . The other main cast members in the original series are Angela Thorne (playing Audrey's old friend Marjory), Daphne Heard (Richard's mother, Mrs Polouvicka), John Rudling (Brabinger the butler), Michael Bilton (Ned, the odd - job man) and Gerald Sim (the Rector). Rudling was absent in the 1979 Christmas special and for much of the second series due to his ill health; his character was temporarily replaced as butler by Ned . Rudling died in 1983 . Angela Thorne had worked with Keith before when she had played Lady "George" Truscott in a 1977 episode of The Good Life . Michael Bilton played Basil Makepeace, a main character in the first four series of the sitcom Waiting for God in the 1990s before his death in 1993 . </P> <P> Peter Bowles had been asked some years earlier to play Jerry Leadbetter, the husband of Keith's Margo, in The Good Life . Owing to prior commitments, Bowles turned down the role, but had he played Jerry, it is unlikely he would have been offered the part of Richard; as Bowles later said, "There's no way I could have played Penelope Keith's screen husband in two separate sitcoms ." However, in 1987 Bowles replaced Geoffrey Palmer as Keith's onscreen husband in the ITV sitcom Executive Stress . </P>

Who played brabinger in to the manor born