Uncle Fred in the Springtime

[adina]

Welcome, Ricky Gilpin!


Joyous all-star spring fever, led by Alfred Molina, Patricia Hodge, Jared Harris, Martin Jarvis and Rufus Sewell. A pig-napping romantic thriller! PGW's dialogue dances across the Blandings Castle lawns. Charming Earl of Ickenham (Uncle Fred) has received a plea from affably dotty Lord Emsworth to help foil a plot to steal his prize-winning pig. And to examine the sanity of eccentric Duke of Dunstable.

Delighting in such entertainment, Uncle Fred arrives at Blandings in the guise of "brain specialist" Glossop, with nephew Pongo posing as his secretary. Lively Polly Pott is the third imposter, secretly engaged to Dunstable's nephew Ricky and hoping to charm her prospective uncle-in-law. Emsworth's devious secretary Rupert Baxter (Jared Harris) spots them but can't call their bluff for fear of blackmail. Emsworth's sister Connie suspects they are jewel thieves. Bosham, Emsworth's son, thinks all is above board. But then Polly's detective Dad is called in. Will the pig-napping happen?

Cast:
Uncle Fred ..... Alfred Molina
Lady Constance ..... Patricia Hodge
The Duke of Dunstable ..... Christopher Neame
Rupert Baxter ..... Jared Harris
Ricky Gilpin ..... Rufus Sewell
Horace Davenport ..... Lloyd Owen
Mustard Pott ..... Julian Holloway
Polly Pott ..... Sophie Winkleman
Lord Emsworth ..... Martin Jarvis
P.G. Wodehouse ..... Ian Ogilvy
Lord Bosham ..... Simon Templeman
Pongo Twistleton ..... Matthew Wolf
Beach ..... Kenneth Danziger
Valerie Twistleton ..... Moira Quirk
Webster/Footmen ..... Darren Richardson
Singing Gardener ..... Mark Holden

Director: Martin Jarvis
Producer: Rosalind Ayres

Episode 1:
Sun, 22 Apr 2012, 15:00 on BBC Radio 4

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gf4lq


, a Wodehouse novel!!! Have fun, everybody!

[judypatooty]

(Adina, I moved your thread!)

How exciting!!! I love, love, LOVE Wodehouse stories.

And, it's on BBC Radio, so we can all listen to it on iPlayer with no problem.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!!

[judypatooty]

And, in search of more info about this story, I found this list of characters on Wikipedia that gives a bit more detail:

Characters in "Uncle Fred in the Springtime"

Lord Emsworth, absent-minded master of Blandings Castle
George Threepwood, Lord Bosham, Emsworth's eldest son
Lady Constance Keeble, Emsworth's domineering sister
Empress of Blandings, Emsworth's cherished prize pig
Alaric, Duke of Dunstable, a cantakerous peer
Rupert Baxter, Dunstable's secretary, formerly employed by Lord Emsworth
Horace Pendlebury-Davenport, Dunstable's nephew
Ricky Gilpin, another nephew of Dunstable, a poet
Polly Pott, Ricky's fiancee and Horace's dance-teacher
Claude "Mustard" Pott, Polly's father, a detective
Pongo Twistleton, an impoverished friend of Horace
Valerie Twistleton, Pongo's sister, engaged to Horace
Frederick Twistleton, 5th Earl of Ickenham, Pongo and Valerie's Uncle Fred
Sir Roderick Glossop, a prominent nerve-specialist
Beach, butler at the castle

[francesca]

oh! joy of Joys

Wodehouse and Roof

Bliss

[Petruchio - Good God]

Great find ... thx you adina !!!

[rueful]

Fantastic! This sounds like it will be a lot of fun to listen to!

Thank you, Adina!!!!

[nell]

Great find Adina! Thanks for posting

And thanks for the extra info too Judy.

I see it's another Martin Jarvis production like England Their England. I hope our Roof has a bigger role in this one.

I spot it says episode 1. Hope I'm not being too optimistic hoping for a few episodes. I'm in need of some new listening material.

[adina]

Apr 14, 2012 7:31:36 GMT nell said:

I spot it says episode 1. Hope I'm not being too optimistic hoping for a few episodes.

There will be two episodes. The first one is 60 minutes long, so I think we'll get two hours of amusement.


I have read only one of the Blandings Castle stories (A Pelican at Blandings - I loved it ;D), but I just found this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_Blandings_characters

Alaric "Ricky" Gilpin
The nephew of the Duke of Dunstable, Ricky Gilpin is, despite being a poet, a large, beefy chap with red hair and a quick-temper. His mother, the Duke's sister, married beneath her, to one William "Billy" Gilpin, a member of the Connaught Rangers, who was a friend of Uncle Fred; Billy, apparently, looked the dead spit of his son and had same hot temper - Fred often had to sit on his head. The muscular Ricky once cleaned up against three simultaneous Covent Garden costermongers in five minutes. On another occasion, he rescued "Mustard" Pott from a gang of thugs bent on his destruction, and, on taking him home, met and fell in love with Polly Pott. His uncle disapproves of the match, and also of Ricky's plan to buy an onion-soup bar in Coventry Street off Piccadilly from an American friend, despite its great financial potential. Ricky attended a ball as Little Lord Fauntleroy, in Uncle Fred in the Springtime.


Okay, I know, it's not only from the Uncle Fred in the Springtime, but we are interested in the characters, aren't we? ;D

[kygal]

Great news. More Rufus. Thanks!

[anyother]

Thanks for finding this!

[lassie]

Great find - thank you!

More of his lovely voice - yummy, and not too long to wait.

Thanks so much for finding and alerting us!

[GreenEyesToo]

GREAT find, Adina - well-spotted! And thank you for the character portrait, too, and Judy for the extra info.

Can't wait for this! I wonder if he has done even more stuff with Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres's company? Hope so!

[voiceover]

Wonderful news, but I wish, wish, wish, Rufus would read the whole book himself unabridged and on Silk Sounds audio books with all the voices just as he did with Joseph Andrews.

[walt]

Great news! Thanks to Adina for finding and posting, and to Judy for the extra info!

[rueful]

Thanks for all the additional information, Judy and Adina! Two episodes--fantastic!

Apr 14, 2012 15:22:02 GMT GreenEyesToo said:

I wonder if he has done even more stuff with Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres's company? Hope so!

That would be wonderful!