004 Historical Comedy – Old
I stumbled upon series two of The Wordsmiths of Gorsemere, spoof literary series that preceded Gloomsbury (which was Sue Limb’s parody
of the Bloomsbury set). It’s a very
thinly veiled parody of the Romantic poets, centering on William Wordsmith
(Geoffrey Whitehead) and his sister Dorothy (Denise Coffey), living in
Gorsemere in the Lake Country (near the Devil’s Danglers). The Wordsmiths is an odd kettle of fish because it’s not a
joke-a-minute like most (modern-day) Radio 4 comedy series. Instead—while certainly some sections are
very absurd and funny—there’s a lot of time for the characters to actually
develop, which is a bit weird, since they are comedy characters and their
actual growth seems somewhat circumscribed.
It’s easy to see that the whole thing has been influenced by BlackAdder, all the way down to the
weirdly jaunty acapella music contributed by Cantabile. Dear me, the women do not fare well in this
parody. Dorothy’s blind devotion to her
brother borders on the sickening (in more ways than one), which is perhaps a
less-than-frivolous comment on the fact Dorothy Wordsworth could have been a great
talent if she was not relegated to being her brother’s amanuensis. William’s wife Mary is such a non-entity she
never gets a word in edgeways, literally, and as such is played by Simon
Callow—who is bursting at the seams in his other role as Samuel Tailor
Colericke. Naturally, this role is very
amusing after having listened to Coleridge played “straight” by Tom Wilkinson
in Young Coleridge, which is perhaps
what Sue Limb was going for. There are
hints that Colericke would marry Dorothy and whisk her away, if not for the
barrier of his existing wife and children.
During this series, Colericke is banished for having an argument with
William over fowl, but bounces back and is forgiven, although the appearance of
(minute) Thomas De Quinine (Chris Emmet) puts him back on the bad habit of
opium-eating. De Quinine is very
amusing, being played as a tiny, short-sighted Mancunian who seduces the
Wordsmiths’ housekeeper “Stinking” Iris (the irrepressible Miriam
Margolyes). In fact, the Wordsmiths seem
to be visited by a succession of regional poets, including Sir Walter Splott (a
bit hoity-toity, played delightfully by Bill Paterson), John Sheets aka Keats
(Dracula himself, Nicky Henson), and a
car salesman-sounding William Bloke (the oddly-named John Shrapnel). Naturally,
some time compression has occurred: this
series takes us from the end of 1799 to 1800 (when the real Keats wouldn’t have
finished studying medicine at King’s until 1817). I think I enjoyed most of all the cricket
game in which the women played against the men, to disastrous results
(including a parody of Test Match
Special commentary). Most bizarrely,
however, William Bloke became a medium and conjured up the spirit of Milton
himself, who could only comment on how good-looking he was! One gets the feeling that Dorothy’s life
would be vastly improved if she just slept with somebody (Colericke or
otherwise), not something I would often say about fictional characters—or
indeed, anyone. (I’ve evidently missed
the visit from Lord Byro—played by Tim Curry!!!) Originally from 1987, The Wordsmiths of Gorsemere was produced by Jonathan James-Moore.
