First Aired: January 13rd, 2013
Status: Ended
Genre: Comedy
Network: BBC One
Summary: Set in 1929 in the fictional Blandings Castle, Timothy Spall plays the amiable but permanently distracted Lord Emsworth - known to his friends as Clarence - in what should be a cracking new adaptation of some much-loved tales by PG Wodehouse.
The series is bound to win a whole new and well-deserved audience for Wodehouse, the great comic writer whose dates were 1881-1975. He has a host of fans, not least among them, writers and actors like Stephen Fry and Simon Callow, and indeed our own Marian Keyes.
Marian declares him to be "the ultimate in comfort reading, because nothing bad ever happens in PG Wodehouse's land."
In the Blandings series, Emsworth struggles to keep his dysfunctional family in order but usually confuses things himself. All he wants is to be left in peace with his beloved pig The Empress, but friends, visitors, servants and spongers get in the way.
Jennifer Saunders stars as his indomitable sister Connie, Jack Farthing as hapless son Freddy and Mark Williams as long-suffering butler Beach. There are guest appearances from David Walliams, Paloma Faith and David Bamber.
The show was filmed at 400-year-old Crom Castle, near Newtownbutler in Northern Ireland, home of Lord Erne.
There have been some spiffing PG Wodehouse series in the past, yet his achingly funny Blandings stories have been mostly overlooked. This high-spirited adaptation see Timothy Spall as fuddle-headed pig-fancier Lord Emsworth and Jennifer Saunders as his terrifying sister Lady Constance. Plum purists may snort at liberties taken with the opener Pig-Hoo-o-o-o-ey! but its tale of a porcine hunger-strike and frustrated young love is Wodehouse to a T.
Next Episode:
All episodes are aired.
Episode Statistics:
# of Episodes: 13
# of Episodes I watched: 0
# of Episodes I haven't watched: 13
Last Episode I watched: -
Episode Summaries
My Season Progress:
0 %
Season 2
Episode 2: Dirty Work at the Crossroads
Air Date: February 23rd, 2014
Summary: Clarence and Connie's censorious elder sister Charlotte (Celia Imrie) is staying and making everybody's life miserable. The situation deteriorates when Freddie tries to unite two star-crossed lovers by stealing the Empress, and Clarence - getting the wrong end of the stick - steals Sir Gregory's pig in revenge.
Episode 4: Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best
Air Date: March 9th, 2014
Summary: Clarence has grown a preposterous beard and Beach must ensure the world never gets to see it. Meanwhile, Freddie woos a Hollywood starlet by making a movie at Blandings - but Connie mustn't find out. Matters are complicated by religious maniac Drusilla on the prowl.
Episode 5: Sticky Wicket at Blandings
Air Date: March 16th, 2014
Summary: Colonel Fanshawe (James Fleet) calls to sound out Clarence as his successor as Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire, an honour for which Connie is desperate; but Beach has become positively peculiar. Blandings is more than ever an embarrassing shambles. And there is the question of Mugsy, the dog.
Episode 6: Necessary Rhino
Air Date: March 23rd, 2014
Summary: Dunstable's even more irascible brother Hannibal (John Sessions) is terrorising Clarence over a dubious painting. Meanwhile, Connie decides to get Hannibal married to her new American friend Vanessa. Freddie and Gally resolve to spare Vanessa (Daisy Beaumont) this grisly fate
Information about series and episodes are provided by TMDB API. If you think that episode information is wrong or missing, please click here to request an update. After your request, update process can take up to 30 minutes.