Post by Dirty Epic on Aug 19, 2016 14:43:53 GMT
I recently watched this on DVD and just wondering if anyone else is a fan of this comedy from 1985. 
{Spoiler Alert - Click Here To Reveal}
I don’t want to reveal to much about it but Blott on the Landscape for those who’ve not seen it but it features Geraldine James plays as ‘Lady’ Maude Lynchwood. She’s almost perfect as the fastidious/madcap lady of the manor of Handyman Hall of her beloved ‘Cleane Gorge’ all of which is under threat of demolition from a motorway being built in the region. Her husband Sir Giles Lynchwood (George Cole) is also very, very good as a devious (Tory?) MP who in private is only too happy for the motorway to be built and to be shot of Maude too. He also enjoys a kinky secret life in London with his mistress Mrs Forthby (Julia McKenzie) who usually acts as his ‘Nanny Whip etc. …a very loose approximation of Cynthia ‘Madame Cyn’ Payne! Then there’s Blott (David Suchet). Blott has a hidden Eastern Bloc past and holds a massive candle to Lady Maude. He becomes a major force in the movement to resist the motorway in the ‘Gorge’ too. Then there’s dim-witted civil servant Dundridge (the late Simon Cadell) who the big wigs in Whitehall task to ensure the motorway gets built through the ‘Gorge’. For me he’s the epitome of ineffectual people in the government/civil service and after a ill-fated liaison with Lady Maude Dundridge does everything he can to ensure the motorway bulldozes its way through Handyman Hall with disastrous results! Based on Tom Sharpe’s novel Blott on the Landscape is still funny (perhaps not quite as much) these years on. It also features a brilliant bit part for Jimmy Nail as demolition expert ‘Edwards’. Yes he is pretty much Oz as Edwards and perhaps this was one of the reasons Nail’s career changed tack in the 1990’s but he’s brilliant in the scenes and aftermath of him being taken in by Blott who has plied him and his workmates with super-strength ale. At least Edwards gets one back for Oz on Georgine Anderson’s character ‘Mrs Bullet-Finch’… for the swimming pool scene form Auf Pet. LOL!
All in all I’d say Blott on the Landscape is worth a watch or DVD purchase and I’d rate it around say 8 or more out of 10. In many respects it typifies the ‘Little Englander’/’NIMBY’ ideology perfectly and ramps things up accordingly. Yes some of the humour (maybe a bit Ealing comedy in parts) has dated and like most things BOTL isn’t quite as good as I remembered it in 1985 but Geraldine James, George Cole, David Suchet – who as Blott sounds almost like a prototype Poirot, Simon Cadell and Julia McKenzie all put in very good performances as do the bit part characters like Mr Edwards (Nail), Hoskins (Paul Brook), the Whitehall spooks and the villagers who all work very well here. In my opinion it’s all good fun and there’s many twists, turns and mayhem to enjoy here with BOTL. Why the hell this hasn’t/doesn’t turn up on say BBC Four or channels like Drama/Yesterday for a repeat I’ll never know! Mind you However Geraldine James didn’t seem to age well in the intervening time from her role as Shirley Glass in The Sweeney’s Pay Off. 
I don’t want to reveal to much about it but Blott on the Landscape for those who’ve not seen it but it features Geraldine James plays as ‘Lady’ Maude Lynchwood. She’s almost perfect as the fastidious/madcap lady of the manor of Handyman Hall of her beloved ‘Cleane Gorge’ all of which is under threat of demolition from a motorway being built in the region. Her husband Sir Giles Lynchwood (George Cole) is also very, very good as a devious (Tory?) MP who in private is only too happy for the motorway to be built and to be shot of Maude too. He also enjoys a kinky secret life in London with his mistress Mrs Forthby (Julia McKenzie) who usually acts as his ‘Nanny Whip etc. …a very loose approximation of Cynthia ‘Madame Cyn’ Payne! Then there’s Blott (David Suchet). Blott has a hidden Eastern Bloc past and holds a massive candle to Lady Maude. He becomes a major force in the movement to resist the motorway in the ‘Gorge’ too. Then there’s dim-witted civil servant Dundridge (the late Simon Cadell) who the big wigs in Whitehall task to ensure the motorway gets built through the ‘Gorge’. For me he’s the epitome of ineffectual people in the government/civil service and after a ill-fated liaison with Lady Maude Dundridge does everything he can to ensure the motorway bulldozes its way through Handyman Hall with disastrous results! Based on Tom Sharpe’s novel Blott on the Landscape is still funny (perhaps not quite as much) these years on. It also features a brilliant bit part for Jimmy Nail as demolition expert ‘Edwards’. Yes he is pretty much Oz as Edwards and perhaps this was one of the reasons Nail’s career changed tack in the 1990’s but he’s brilliant in the scenes and aftermath of him being taken in by Blott who has plied him and his workmates with super-strength ale. At least Edwards gets one back for Oz on Georgine Anderson’s character ‘Mrs Bullet-Finch’… for the swimming pool scene form Auf Pet. LOL!
All in all I’d say Blott on the Landscape is worth a watch or DVD purchase and I’d rate it around say 8 or more out of 10. In many respects it typifies the ‘Little Englander’/’NIMBY’ ideology perfectly and ramps things up accordingly. Yes some of the humour (maybe a bit Ealing comedy in parts) has dated and like most things BOTL isn’t quite as good as I remembered it in 1985 but Geraldine James, George Cole, David Suchet – who as Blott sounds almost like a prototype Poirot, Simon Cadell and Julia McKenzie all put in very good performances as do the bit part characters like Mr Edwards (Nail), Hoskins (Paul Brook), the Whitehall spooks and the villagers who all work very well here. In my opinion it’s all good fun and there’s many twists, turns and mayhem to enjoy here with BOTL.
Why the hell this hasn’t/doesn’t turn up on say BBC Four or channels like Drama/Yesterday for a repeat I’ll never know! Mind you However Geraldine James didn’t seem to age well in the intervening time from her role as Shirley Glass in The Sweeney’s Pay Off. 
