Odd Couple with Jack Klugman in 1984 and then in another tour of Run for Your Wife from 1987 to 1988; other members of the cast in the production were Jack Smethurst, David McCallum and Eric Sykes. Manning appeared as Rita in Educating Rita from 1989 to 1991 at the Sydney Opera House, the venue at which she also played Elvira in Blithe Spirit in 1990. She also appeared in the films Melvin, Son of Alvin (1984) and Frog Dreaming (1986). Manning wrote a comedy pilot entitled Two in the Bush in 1986 with her friend and fellow actress Penelope Whiteley. Manning also wrote the TV series Private Wives and has been involved in other writing and directing projects. Manning was also offered a role in popular Australian soap Home and Away but she had to turn it down due to busy work commitments. In 1993, Manning was reunited with Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney for the first time since she emigrated to Australia at the PanoptiCon 93 event; their interview was filmed and released on DVD. Some time between 1994 and 1996, Manning moved to live in Los Angeles where she shared a flat with her best friend Liza Minnelli and had large house parties that had guests including Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine and Whoopi Goldberg. In 1996, Manning and Minnelli appeared drunk on Ruby Wax's television series Ruby Wax Meets... which has since gone on to become one of the most popular and well-known moments in the show's history. Wax's interview was initially to be with Minnelli but Manning appeared with her and spent most of the interview on the floor. While living in the U.S., Manning and Minnelli started up a production company. It was living in L.A. that Manning started writing her first one-woman show called Not a Well Woman in which she portrays twenty-six characters all with different voices and some scenes depict several of these characters interacting with each other. Not a Well Womans opening performance was in New York and Minnelli invited some top producers to watch the premiere including Blake Edwards. After the show, Edwards personally complimented Manning on her performance calling it "extraordinary". The show was only limited to a few shows as it started to take its toll on Manning. She later recorded an audio version of Not a Well Woman for Big Finish Productions in 2011, as part of