Blandings 

Blandings Castle is dysfunction junction, the home of a chaotic family struggling to keep itself in order. Clarence Threepwood, Ninth Earl of Emsworth and master of Blandings Castle, yearns... See full summary »

Stars:

Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders, Jack Farthing

Cast

Series cast summary:
Timothy Spall	...	Lord Clarence Emsworth 13 episodes, 2013-2014
Jennifer Saunders	...	Connie, Lady Keeble 13 episodes, 2013-2014
Jack Farthing	...	Freddie Threepwood 13 episodes, 2013-2014
Tim Vine	...	Beach 7 episodes, 2014
Mark Williams	...	Sebastian Beach 6 episodes, 2013

Storyline

Blandings Castle is dysfunction junction, the home of a chaotic family struggling to keep itself in order. Clarence Threepwood, Ninth Earl of Emsworth and master of Blandings Castle, yearns with all his soul to be left in peace; preferably in the company of his beloved pig, The Empress. But he never is. There is always someone who wants him to do something. Presiding over the blitzkrieg on his equilibrium is the baleful figure of his sister Connie, with whom he shares the house; at her shoulder is Clarence's brainless younger son Freddie and a panoply of friends, enemies, servants, spongers, private detectives, bookies and confidence tricksters

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 January 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

PG Wodehouse's Blandings

Filming Locations:

Northern Ireland, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Mammoth Screen

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in The Wright Stuff: Episode #18.5 (2013)

User Reviews

Yes, yes - the usual complaints abound but this viewer gets desperate for non-insulting comedy

and so I can enjoy even a distressed imitation of a Wodehouse work if it includes a good cast, adequate sets and settings and some recognizable associations with the original. Well, I can enjoy it if I have not read Wodehouse recently, so that the comparison is not acutely felt.

The usual complaints, spattered throughout the reviews here like the results of sneezes or holy water sprinkles, depending on your mind, are:

1. It's not a fair copy.

No, it's not. The show demonstrates the difference between burlesque and farce. I have to take the episodes on their own merits in order to enjoy rather than suffer them. Anyone who has attempted to watch any Shakespeare film ever made is familiar with the rigors required. However, the result is that I smiled at much of what I saw and heard.

2. The earl and Lady Keeble do not evidence the manner of the manor.

No, they do not. Some charm is missed in the characters lacking THAT demeanor. I would have enjoyed a more committed attempt towards the exquisite hauteur of the country nobility, the complacent superiority infused with the scent of manure. But at a time when even the actual country nobility cannot manage the pose, is it reasonable to demand it of mere actors? And Jack Farthing's Freddie does hit some good notes as a more urban variety of the posh fool.

3. Not only are the episodes not Wodehouse, they're NOT Wodehouse.

No, they are not and the others are NOT. One must accept the episodes on their own terms or one must do something else rather than watch them. Such as reading Wodehouse and not imagining other situations into which the characters might have wandered.

4. The humor (Excuse me. Humour.) is too coarse.

Yes, it is. The point here is that country life does not find anything especially funny in excrement and digestive noises. They are a part of life. I tolerated the contemporary lowness of the jokes because I live in a country where presidential candidates disparage the size of their competitors' genitals. A mere fart joke is something I can tolerate, the way I tolerate the real thing occurring in my presence.

5. It's not Wodehouse.

No, it's not. We've covered that. And, you see, that is the principal complaint and the one reviewers keep returning to, like people whose minds have been branded by trauma and the loops of PTSD keep them reliving it. I have been lucky enough not to be branded in this way, and so I have enjoyed the show for what it is - a silly, well-made, well-acted, loose and slapdash farcical turn on rural ways in a farcical British past that may for some bear a resemblance to P.G. Wodehouse works. This resemblance could cause pain for those who notice it.

When such discomfort occasionally rises in me, I try to concentrate on something else. Such as the question of whether Mr. Small intentionally avoided dental and orthodontic care throughout his life for the sake of his craft, or he just didn't get around to it. That gets me through the pangs of disappointment.