''Blandings'' is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

comedy television series adapted by

Guy Andrews Guy Andrews, educated at Cranleigh School (1974–79) and St. Peter's College, Oxford University, is an English television writer who has written for television programmes including "Lost in Austen", " Absolute Power", "Agatha Christie's Poirot", ...

from the

Blandings Castle Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth (Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth), home to many of his family and the setting for numerous ta ...

stories of

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

. It was first broadcast 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 ...

from 13 January 2013, and stars

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''. Spall performed in '' S ...

Jennifer Saunders Jennifer Jane Saunders (born 6 July 1958) is an English actress, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Saunders originally found attention in the 1980s, when she became a member of The Comic Strip after graduating from the Royal Central School of ...

Jack Farthing Jack Farthing (born 14 October 1985) is a British actor. Early life Born and raised in North London, Farthing attended two independent schools; the Hall School, Hampstead and Westminster School in central London. He read History of Art at St C ...

Tim Vine Timothy Mark Vine (born 4 March 1967) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter best known for his one-liners and his role on the sitcom ''Not Going Out'' (2006–2014). He has released a number of stand-up comedy specials and has wr ...

and Mark Williams. The series was produced with the partial financial assistance of the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...

Plot

Set in 1929,

Lord Emsworth Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl Emsworth, commonly known as Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings Castle series of stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of t ...

(Spall) resides at

, along with his imperious sister

Connie Connie is a given name. It is often a pet form (hypocorism) of Concetta, Constance, Cornelia, or Cornelius. Given name or nickname Women * Connie Achurra, Chilean chef * Connie Binsfeld (1924–2014), American politician * Connie Booth ...

(Saunders), his empty-headed son Freddie (Jack Farthing), and any number of houseguests, love-struck nieces and their boyfriends. He would rather be left in peace with his prize pig The Empress, but his family is always at hand to complicate his life. Offering a reluctant helping hand is his loyal and long-suffering butler,

Beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

( Mark Williams/

Production

The series was produced by

Mammoth Screen Mammoth Screen is a UK-based production company that was established in 2007 by Michele Buck and Damien Timmer. It produces drama for key UK broadcasters, especially ITV, and international distribution. Others may be looking for Mammoth Pictu ...

and was filmed on location at Crom Castle, near

Newtownbutler Newtownbutler or Newtown Butler is a small village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the southeast corner of the county, near Lough Erne, the border with County Monaghan, and the town of Clones. It is surrounded by small lakes and ...

, in

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 a ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Some scenes were also filmed at

Florence Court Florence Court is a large 18th-century house and estate located 8 miles south-west of Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is set in the foothills of Cuilcagh Mountain. The nearby village is distinguished by the one-word name Flo ...

, a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

property near

Kinawley Kinawley or Kinawly () is a small village, townland (of 187 acres) and civil parish straddling County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland and County Cavan, Republic of Ireland. The village and townland are both in the civil parish of Kinawley (founded b ...

in south-west County Fermanagh. The producer was

Spencer Campbell Spencer Campbell (born 1953) is an English television producer and director. He is perhaps best known for producing the television series '' Cold Feet'' and ''4 O'Clock Club'', the former of which earned him a BAFTA TV Award in 2002. Career ...

and the director was

Paul Seed Paul Seed (born 18 September 1947) is a British television director and former actor. Born in Bideford in Devon, Seed began his career as an actor and appeared in numerous television series including ''Z-Cars'', '' Softly Softly: Taskforce'', '' S ...

. It was the first adaptation of ''Blandings'' for British television since the BBC's film of Wodehouse's novel '' Heavy Weather'' in 1995. On 7 June 2013, BBC commissioner Danny Cohen confirmed that ''Blandings'' would return for a second series.BBC media centre http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/blandings-series2.html Retrieved 24 October 2013 The second series has seven episodes and began airing 16 February 2014. On 24 October 2013, it was announced that

would join the cast for the second series as Beach replacing Mark Williams.BBC media centre http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/blandings-series-2.html Retrieved 24 October 2013

Cast and characters

Main

Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl Emsworth, commonly known as Lord Emsworth, is a recurring fictional character in the Blandings Castle series of stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. He is the amiable and somewhat absent-minded head of th ...

Lady Constance Keeble Lady Constance Keeble (née Threepwood, later Schoonmaker) is a recurring fictional character in the ''Blandings Castle'' stories by British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being Lord Emsworth's most formidable sister, a strikingly handsome woman, wi ...

as The Hon. Frederick Threepwood * Mark Williams as

Sebastian Beach Sebastian Beach is a fictional character in the Blandings stories by P. G. Wodehouse. He is the butler at Blandings Castle, seat of Lord Emsworth and his family, where he serves for over eighteen years. Inspiration Beach's name was inspired by B ...

(series 1) *

(series 2)

Recurring

Ron Donachie Ronald Eaglesham Porter (born 26 April 1956), known professionally as Ron Donachie, is a Scottish actor. He is known for starring as DI John Rebus in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of the Ian Rankin "Rebus" detective novels and for his supporti ...

as Angus McAllister *

Robert Bathurst Robert Guy Bathurst (born 22 February 1957) is an English actor. Bathurst was born in The Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. In 1959 his family moved to Ballybrack, Dublin, Ireland and Bath ...

Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, 7th Baronet (usually called Sir Gregory Parsloe) is a fictional character from the Blandings Castle short stories and novels of British author P. G. Wodehouse. In the stories, Parsloe resides at Matchingham Hall, near ...

Episodes

Series 1 (2013)

Series 2 (2014)

Reception

Ben Lawrence of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' awarded the first episode two stars out of five and wrote that the lack of Wodehouse's "authorial voice", ever present in the books to add "clarity and depth" and "invest psychological complexity into hecharacters", left the cast "all at sea". Tributes were paid to Empress, the

Middle White The Middle White is a British breed of domestic pig. It originated in Yorkshire, and derived from the Large White and the now-extinct Small White. It was recognised in 1852, and the first herd-book was published in 1884. It is a porker, rear ...

sow used in the show, when she died from what vets believe was a "massive heart attack" just before the final episode was broadcast. Timothy Spall said he was "very upset" at the news.TV stars pay tribute to Blandings pig actor The Empress after she dies
/ref>

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blandings 2010s British sitcoms 2013 British television series debuts 2014 British television series endings BBC high definition shows BBC television sitcoms Television series by Mammoth Screen Television series by ITV Studios English-language television shows Television shows set in Shropshire Television shows based on works by P. G. Wodehouse