I found it!

Thanks for your suggestions, but I was just sitting here thinking about the actor with the red nose and the glasses and I had a feeling he was probably in Carry On films. So I Wikipedia'd them and found it was Jack Douglas.

Then I IMDb'd Jack Douglas and spotted it! The Shillingbury Tales!

"Classic ITV comedy-drama from 1980, set in the fictional village of Shillingbury in Hertfordshire. Londoners Peter and Sally Higgins move to the idyllic English countryside to enjoy the ambiance of fine thatched-roofed cottages, strawberry cream teas, oak-timbered pubs and a collection of eccentric locals, including grumpy farmer Jake (Jack Douglas), his sexy daughter Sally (Linda Hayden), crafty tramp Cuffy (Bernard Cribbins), old busybody Mrs Simpkins (Diana King), nosy postman Harvey (Joe Black) and the twittering Reverend Norris (Nigel Lambert)."

It wasn't David Janson at all. It was Robin Nedwell! And his wife was played by Diane Keen. I don't know how I forgot she was in it, because I loved her when I was a kid, particularly in The Cuckoo Waltz.

It was on Sunday nights and an IMDb user compares it to The Darling Buds of May (like I just did in the comments!).

So do you remember it now?! I'm off to order the DVD.

Comments

[Suzi]

No recollections of it at all.

[Keris]

But how old were you in 1980?

[Joyce]

"Blood and stomach pills!" - the Cuckoo Waltz. Loved it Flis and Chris and the gorgeous Lewis Collins as lodger Gavin. How great was that programme! I vaguely remember the Shillingbury Tales now, but would never have got it from your description in a million years! ;-) But you made me remember Get Some In so you've more than made up for it (I can even sing the theme tune!)

[Keris]

"I vaguely remember the Shillingbury Tales now, but would never have got it from your description in a million years!"

What?! I described it almost exactly! Old man. Young man with lots of teeth. Village. Sheesh. ;)

And I'd forgotten Lewis Collins in The Cuckoo Waltz. Will have to hire that one too. I think I'd appreciate him even more now than I did when I was 10. Mmmmmmm. (My mum LOVED him.)

[Sarah]

Vaguely remember it but never watched it.

[maz]

Oh dear! What's gone wrong? From Gilmore Girls to this? I'm a tad devastated, tbh!
The only thing I remember about Robin Nedwell was that he was in a lot of silly programmes and then he died relatively young, in his 50s.
The end. Seeya!
xxx

[jill mansell]

I grew up in a village in the Cotswolds and didn't see this series because it aired during my living-in-the-city, village-hating phase. But now I dream of living back in a village so will probably love it! I'll wait for your verdict, then order the DVD if you think it's stood the test of time...