Quarter 2 Reviews- 004 Historical Comedy - Old

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.