To the Manor Born new Lord of the Manor is Richard DeVere, a recently widowed self-made millionaire who started his career on an East End fruit barrow and founded the "Cavendish Foods" supermarket chain, who to Audrey is simply a "grocer". DeVere brings his domineering mother, who is soon nicknamed by Audrey 'Mrs. Poo', her full name being Maria Jaroslava Vladimira Martinka Polouvicka. She reveals to Audrey, who does not like foreigners, that she and her son came to Britain in 1939 from Czechoslovakia, and that Richard, whose real name is Bedrich Polouvicek, is half-Polish (on his late father Lazlo's side) and half-Czechoslovakian. Mrs.
British sitcom short lived Roman Britain sitcom Chelmsford 123 (1988–1990) which has fallen into relative obscurity. The new Channel 4 began to have successful long-running situation comedies. "Desmond's" (1989–94) was the first British sitcom with a black cast set in the workplace, and "Drop the Dead Donkey" (1990–98) brought topicality to the form as it was recorded close to transmission. Some of the biggest hits of the 1990s were "Father Ted", "Men Behaving Badly", "Game On", "Absolutely Fabulous", "I'm Alan Partridge", "Keeping Up Appearances", "Goodnight Sweetheart", "Bottom", "The Brittas Empire", "The Thin Blue Line", "Mr. Bean", "The Vicar of Dibley" and "One