<P> Perhaps one of the most famous modern incarnations of She Stoops to Conquer was Peter Hall's version, staged in 1993 and starring Miriam Margolyes as Mrs. Hardcastle . The most famous TV production is the 1971 version featuring Ralph Richardson, Tom Courtenay, Juliet Mills and Brian Cox, with Trevor Peacock as Tony Lumpkin . It was shot on location near Ross - on - Wye, Herefordshire and is part of the BBC archive . </P> <P> The type of comedy which She Stoops to Conquer represents has been much disputed but there is consensus amongst audiences and critics that the play is a comedy of manners (see below for details). It can also be seen as one of the following comedy types: </P> <P> When the play was first produced, it was discussed as an example of the revival of laughing comedy over the sentimental comedy seen as dominant on the English stage since the success of The Conscious Lovers, written by Sir Richard Steele in 1722 . In the same year, an essay in a London magazine, entitled "An Essay on the Theatre; Or, A Co Laughing And Sentimental Comedy", suggested that sentimental comedy, a false form of comedy, had taken over the boards from the older and more truly comic laughing comedy . </P> <P> Some theatre historians believe that the essay was written by Goldsmith as a puff piece for She Stoops to Conquer as an exemplar of the laughing comedy which Goldsmith (perhaps) had touted . Goldsmith's name was linked with that of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, author of The Rivals and The School for Scandal, as standard - bearers for the resurgent laughing comedy . </P>

Who is the central character in she stoops to conquer