Blott on the Landscape
Encyclopedia
Blott on the Landscape is a novel written in 1975 by Tom Sharpe
. It was adapted into a 6-part television series for the BBC in 1985.
The story revolves around the proposed construction of a motorway (M101 in the book and the M399 in the film) through Cleene Gorge in rural
South Worfordshire (a fictional gorge in a fictional English
county). At one end of the gorge is Handyman Hall, home to politician
Sir Giles Lynchwood and his wife Lady Maud Lynchwood.
Sir Giles is secretly in favour of ensuring the motorway passes through the Cleene Gorge as it will mean he will be paid the compensation for the destruction of Handyman Hall, which is under a covenant preventing its sale. While superficially pretending to be supportive he takes steps to undermine the inquiry and prevent alternatives being adopted, to ensure the new road travels through the Gorge. By contrast, Lady Maud's family has lived in the gorge for over 500 years, and she is fiercely defensive of her heritage and expects Giles to support her.
Matters are further complicated by their on-going marital problems, including Sir Giles's fetish
ist infidelity
and Lady Maud's wish for children to continue her line (to which Sir Giles is opposed), and the actions of Maud's gardener, Blott, a former German prisoner of war
(it is a common misconception that Blott is Italian, however he was brought up in a Dresden Orphanage (where he learnt his skill in impersonation), he does not know his parents (whom he believes might be Jewish) and served in the German Army. However the Army got fed up with Blott and so the High Command decided to get rid of him by assigning him to an Italian bomber on a raid to England. Blott, who served as navigator (and who wasn't very good at it), got completely lost and was forced to bale out, whereupon he was captured, and he is strongly patriotic towards his new home nation and home. Maud's and Giles's marriage settlement
leaves Giles with Handyman Hall in the event of a no-fault divorce
but not in the event of death or infidelity, a situation he also seeks to provoke by refusing to co-operate in his marital duties
and which Maud sees as a potential solution.
With his military
training, and some leftovers of the war found beneath the hall, Blott begins a covert campaign including blackmail
and wire tapping to scrutinize Sir Giles's activities on Maud's behalf and to undermine the construction of the motorway. He also discovers and aims to foil Giles's plans. In the course of the fight for the Gorge, the picturesque village is destroyed by Blott's using a demolition crane
to whip up popular opposition for the works. Giles is discovered seeing a prostitute and is blackmailed, as is Dundridge, the official in charge of the works, and the Hall is quickly converted into a wildlife park in an attempt to prevent the removal of its occupants. Giles himself is finally killed by lions when he is discovered by Blott and Maud trying to burn down
the Hall.
As a final resort, Blott concretes himself into his home, located in the entrance archway to the estate, preventing works progress. Dundridge, frustrated, demands the SAS
are called in to remove Blott. Blott secretly launches an attack on his own archway for which the SAS are blamed, finally compelling enough public attention to cause the plans to be dropped. Dundridge is imprisoned for his part in the 'attack', and Maud and Blott (who have fallen in love by this time) marry and state their intention to add to the Handyman family.
Shropshire
. Handyman Hall was filmed at Stanage Park
, near Heartsease, Powys
. Ludlow
stood in for the fictitious town of Worford, and Deddington
near Banbury
became the village of Guildstead Carbonell, where several mock buildings were demolished in the market place for the film. Ludlow's Butter Cross, in the busy and constricted town centre, was used as the courtroom. The Lodge, where Blott lives, was built on land at Blaise Castle
Estate near Bristol. The series was originally broadcast between 6 February and 13 March 1985.
The series was scripted by Malcolm Bradbury
and Sir Giles Lynchwood was played by George Cole, with Geraldine James
as Lady Maud, David Suchet
as Blott, Paul Brooke
as Mr Hoskins, Clare Grogan
as the receptionist at the Handyman Arms hotel, Julia McKenzie
as Mrs Forthby and Simon Cadell
as Mr Dundridge.
In the TV version, a series of flashbacks provides glimpses of Blott's past. Because the series was set ten years later than the book, Blott would have been too young to have served in WWII, so the flashbacks reveal that he was an incompetent Eastern European soldier who accidentally found himself on the western side of the Iron Curtain
, was refused re-entry to the east, and was brought back to England and employed by Lady Maud's father.
Roger Bamford directed and the producer was Evgeny Gridneff. The music was composed by David McKay. The title music, and much of the incidental music, is notable for its faithful portrayal of a brass band, when in fact most instruments were imitated by multivocalist Viv Fisher
.
The 1985 televised version was released on DVD
in the UK.
Tom Sharpe
Tom Sharpe is an English satirical author, best known for his Wilt series of novels.Sharpe was born in London and moved to South Africa in 1951, where he worked as a social worker and a teacher, before being deported for sedition in 1961...
. It was adapted into a 6-part television series for the BBC in 1985.
Plot
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
South Worfordshire (a fictional gorge in a fictional English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
county). At one end of the gorge is Handyman Hall, home to politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
Sir Giles Lynchwood and his wife Lady Maud Lynchwood.
Sir Giles is secretly in favour of ensuring the motorway passes through the Cleene Gorge as it will mean he will be paid the compensation for the destruction of Handyman Hall, which is under a covenant preventing its sale. While superficially pretending to be supportive he takes steps to undermine the inquiry and prevent alternatives being adopted, to ensure the new road travels through the Gorge. By contrast, Lady Maud's family has lived in the gorge for over 500 years, and she is fiercely defensive of her heritage and expects Giles to support her.
Matters are further complicated by their on-going marital problems, including Sir Giles's fetish
Fetish
Fetish may refer to:* Fetishism, the attribution of religious or mystical qualities to inanimate objects* Sexual fetishism, sexual attraction to objects, body parts, or situations not conventionally viewed as being sexual in nature....
ist infidelity
Infidelity
In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...
and Lady Maud's wish for children to continue her line (to which Sir Giles is opposed), and the actions of Maud's gardener, Blott, a former German prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
(it is a common misconception that Blott is Italian, however he was brought up in a Dresden Orphanage (where he learnt his skill in impersonation), he does not know his parents (whom he believes might be Jewish) and served in the German Army. However the Army got fed up with Blott and so the High Command decided to get rid of him by assigning him to an Italian bomber on a raid to England. Blott, who served as navigator (and who wasn't very good at it), got completely lost and was forced to bale out, whereupon he was captured, and he is strongly patriotic towards his new home nation and home. Maud's and Giles's marriage settlement
Prenuptial agreement
A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into prior to marriage, civil union or any other agreement prior to the main agreement by the people intending to marry or contract with each other...
leaves Giles with Handyman Hall in the event of a no-fault divorce
No-fault divorce
No-fault divorce is a divorce in which the dissolution of a marriage requires neither a showing of wrong-doing of either party nor any evidentiary proceedings at all...
but not in the event of death or infidelity, a situation he also seeks to provoke by refusing to co-operate in his marital duties
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
and which Maud sees as a potential solution.
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
training, and some leftovers of the war found beneath the hall, Blott begins a covert campaign including blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
and wire tapping to scrutinize Sir Giles's activities on Maud's behalf and to undermine the construction of the motorway. He also discovers and aims to foil Giles's plans. In the course of the fight for the Gorge, the picturesque village is destroyed by Blott's using a demolition crane
Wrecking ball
A wrecking ball is a heavy steel ball, usually hung from a crane, that is used for demolishing large buildings. It was most common during the 1950s and 1960s. Several wrecking companies claim to have invented the wrecking ball...
to whip up popular opposition for the works. Giles is discovered seeing a prostitute and is blackmailed, as is Dundridge, the official in charge of the works, and the Hall is quickly converted into a wildlife park in an attempt to prevent the removal of its occupants. Giles himself is finally killed by lions when he is discovered by Blott and Maud trying to burn down
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
the Hall.
As a final resort, Blott concretes himself into his home, located in the entrance archway to the estate, preventing works progress. Dundridge, frustrated, demands the SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
are called in to remove Blott. Blott secretly launches an attack on his own archway for which the SAS are blamed, finally compelling enough public attention to cause the plans to be dropped. Dundridge is imprisoned for his part in the 'attack', and Maud and Blott (who have fallen in love by this time) marry and state their intention to add to the Handyman family.
1985 television edition
The 1985 film (which was broadcast in six episodes of 50 minutes each) was filmed mainly in SouthSouth Shropshire
South Shropshire was, between 1974 and 2009, a local government district in south west Shropshire, England.South Shropshire was the most rural district of one of the UK's most rural counties, the population of the district was 40,410 in 2001 spread out over 1,027 km² of forest, mountains,...
Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
. Handyman Hall was filmed at Stanage Park
Stanage Park
Stanage Park is a park located some 3 miles east of Knighton, Powys and near the settlement of Heartsease.It is an outstanding picturesque parkland laid out by Humphry Repton. The last and most complete of his three recognized Welsh landscape commissions...
, near Heartsease, Powys
Heartsease, Powys
Heartsease is a small settlement or hamlet in the Welsh district of Radnor and part of the county of Powys. It is close to the border with England and lies near the junction of the two counties of Herefordshire and Shropshire....
. Ludlow
Ludlow
Ludlow is a market town in Shropshire, England close to the Welsh border and in the Welsh Marches. It lies within a bend of the River Teme, on its eastern bank, forming an area of and centred on a small hill. Atop this hill is the site of Ludlow Castle and the market place...
stood in for the fictitious town of Worford, and Deddington
Deddington
Deddington is a civil parish in Oxfordshire about south of Banbury. In scale Deddington is a village, but it has a town centre with a market place and the local football team is called Deddington Town FC.-History:...
near Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
became the village of Guildstead Carbonell, where several mock buildings were demolished in the market place for the film. Ludlow's Butter Cross, in the busy and constricted town centre, was used as the courtroom. The Lodge, where Blott lives, was built on land at Blaise Castle
Blaise Castle
Blaise Castle is an 18th century mansion house and estate near Henbury in Bristol , England. Blaise Castle was immortalised by being described as "the finest place in England" in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey....
Estate near Bristol. The series was originally broadcast between 6 February and 13 March 1985.
The series was scripted by Malcolm Bradbury
Malcolm Bradbury
Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was an English author and academic.-Life:Bradbury was the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
and Sir Giles Lynchwood was played by George Cole, with Geraldine James
Geraldine James
Geraldine James, OBE is an English actress.-Early life and family:James was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, to a cardiologist father...
as Lady Maud, David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
as Blott, Paul Brooke
Paul Brooke
Paul Brooke is an English actor of film, television, and radio. He is the father of actor Tom Brooke.He and Ernie Fosselius played Malakili the Rancor Keeper in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He played British Conservative politician Ian Gow in the 2004 BBC series The Alan Clark Diaries...
as Mr Hoskins, Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan
Clare Grogan is a Scottish actress and singer. She is sometimes credited as C. P. Grogan.-Early life:...
as the receptionist at the Handyman Arms hotel, Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
as Mrs Forthby and Simon Cadell
Simon Cadell
Simon John Cadell was an English actor.Born in London, he was the grandson of the Scottish character actor Jean Cadell, the brother of the actress Selina Cadell, and the cousin of the actor Guy Siner. He was educated at Bedales School at Petersfield where his close friends included Gyles...
as Mr Dundridge.
In the TV version, a series of flashbacks provides glimpses of Blott's past. Because the series was set ten years later than the book, Blott would have been too young to have served in WWII, so the flashbacks reveal that he was an incompetent Eastern European soldier who accidentally found himself on the western side of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, was refused re-entry to the east, and was brought back to England and employed by Lady Maud's father.
Roger Bamford directed and the producer was Evgeny Gridneff. The music was composed by David McKay. The title music, and much of the incidental music, is notable for its faithful portrayal of a brass band, when in fact most instruments were imitated by multivocalist Viv Fisher
Viv Fisher
Viv Fisher is an ex-BBC audio engineer and multivocalist who performed all parts of the Brass band used in the title sequence of the BBC's 1985 TV series, Blott on the Landscape....
.
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the UK.
Audio book
- Blott on the Landscape was released as an audiobook in two formats: abridged by Listen for Pleasure read by George Cole (ISBN 1858481538), and unabridged by Chivers Audio Books read by David SuchetDavid SuchetDavid Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
(ISBN 0745142036).