''Down to Earth'' is a British television

situation comedy A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

, aired in 1995 on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

. It was devised by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. It starred

Richard Briers Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in ''Marriage Lines'' (1961–66), but ...

, who also featured in Esmonde and Larbey's earlier series called '' The Good Life'' (1975-1978) and ''

Ever Decreasing Circles ''Ever Decreasing Circles'' is a British sitcom which ran on BBC1 between 1984 and 1989, consisting of four series and one feature-length special. It was written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, and it reunited them with Richard Briers, who ha ...

'' (1984-1989). One series consisting of seven episodes was produced.

Plot

Richard Briers played Tony Fairfax, who upon graduating from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

had been appointed as a "cultural advisor" in a South American

banana republic In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resources. In 1904, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and neighboring ...

(as a university friend was its president) and was used to a life of luxury, only to be exiled back to Britain when the regime was overthrown at the start of the series. He moves in with his brother Chris (

Christopher Blake Christopher Blake (born Peter Ronald Gray, 23 August 1949 – 11 December 2004) was an English actor and screenwriter. He is perhaps best remembered for starring in the British sitcoms '' Mixed Blessings'' (1978–80) and '' That's My Boy'' ...

), who finds him work at his landscape gardening business with limited success.

External links

*
Obituary of John Esmonde
in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''
Esmonde and Larbey: A Life in Comedy
''Television Heaven'' 1995 British television series debuts 1995 British television series endings 1990s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms English-language television shows {{BBC-tv-prog-stub