<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> 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>
who played brabinger in to the manor born
who played brabinger in to the manor born
John Rudling
John Rudling