Timothy Spall plays the ninth Earl of Emsworth, a 1929 aristocrat who only wants to potter round his County Fermanagh pile with prize pig The Empress, but his domineering sister Connie (Jennifer Saunders) and feckless son Freddie (Jack Farthing) import suitors, swindlers and stolen necklaces that wreck every quiet afternoon. Between the pig contests, mistaken identities and butler Beach (series one’s Mark Williams, replaced in series two by Tim Vine) trying to pour oil on the chaos, the castle clock never strikes peace.
Filmed at Crom Castle and Florence Court, this Mammoth Screen production was the BBC’s first Wodehouse since 1995’s Heavy Weather, and Andrews’s scripts trim the author’s interior voice in favour of brisk farce and sight gags. Critics sniffed at the loss of psychological shading—Telegraph reviewer Ben Lawrence gave the opener two stars—but the cast’s comic timing, particularly Farthing’s gormless grin and Saunders’s cut-glass glare, keeps the action ticking across thirteen half-hour episodes.
Empress the Middle White sow, the show’s four-legged co-star, died of a suspected heart attack hours before the final episode aired in 2014; Spall said he was “very upset” at losing his porcine scene partner, a reminder that the real star power here trotted on trotters.
Production Details
BBC One / 2 Seasons / 13 Episodes / 2013
Created by: P.G. Wodehouse
Showrunner(s): Kristian Smith, Damien Timmer, Guy Andrews
Writer(s): Guy Andrews
Producer(s): Matthew Mulot, Spencer Campbell
Music: Paul Honey
Main Cast
Jack Farthing as The Hon. Frederick Threepwood
Timothy Spall as Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth
Jennifer Saunders as Lady Constance Keeble
Tim Vine as Sebastian Beach
Mark Williams as Sebastian Beach
Robert Bathurst as Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe
Tony Maudsley as Cyril Wellbeloved
David Walliams as Baxter
Ron Donachie as Angus McAllister
Julian Rhind-Tutt as Galahad
Ashley Foster as Ern
B.J. Hogg as Constable Evans
