Blott on the Landscape

First edition

Blott on the Landscape is a novel by Tom Sharpe which was first published in 1975. The book was adapted into a 6-part television series for the BBC in 1985.

Plot

The story revolves around the proposed construction of a motorway (M101 in the book and the M399 in the film) through Cleene Gorge in rural South Worfordshire (a fictional gorge in a fictional English county). At one end of the Gorge is Handyman Hall, home to politician Sir Giles Lynchwood and his wife Lady Maud Lynchwood.

Sir Giles is secretly in favour of ensuring that the motorway passes through the Cleene Gorge (and is actually the originator of the plan) as it will mean he will be paid the compensation for the destruction of Handyman Hall, which is under a covenant preventing its sale. While superficially pretending to be supportive he takes steps to undermine the inquiry and prevent alternatives being adopted, to ensure the new road travels through the Gorge.^[1] By contrast, Lady Maud's family has lived in the gorge for over 500 years, and she is fiercely defensive of her heritage and expects Giles to support her.

Matters are further complicated by their on-going marital problems, including Sir Giles's fetishist infidelity and Lady Maud's wish for children to continue her line (to which Sir Giles is violently opposed); and the actions of Maud's gardener, Blott, a former German prisoner of war who is believed to be Italian. The German Army had gotten so fed up with Blott that the Nazi High Command decided to get rid of him by assigning him to an Italian bomber on a raid to England. Blott, who served as navigator (and wasn't very good at it), got them completely lost and was the only survivor when his plane crashed into a mountain, whereupon he was captured, with his captors believing him to be Italian. Blott is strongly patriotic towards his new home nation and home and fiercely devoted to the Handyman family, Maud in particular. Maud's and Giles's marriage settlement leaves Giles with Handyman Hall in the event of a no-fault divorce but not in the event of death or infidelity, a situation he also seeks to provoke by refusing to co-operate in his marital duties and which Maud sees as a potential solution.

With his military training, and some leftovers of the war secretly buried on the estate, Blott begins a covert campaign including blackmail and wire tapping to scrutinize Sir Giles's activities on Maud's behalf and to undermine the construction of the motorway. He also discovers and aims to foil Giles's plans. In the course of the fight for the Gorge, a picturesque nearby village is destroyed by Blott using a demolition crane to whip up popular opposition to the works. Giles is discovered by Lady Maud and Blott in bed bound by his mistress Mrs Forthby and is blackmailed, as is Dundridge, the official in charge of the motorway construction, and the Hall is quickly converted into a wildlife park in an attempt to prevent the removal of its occupants. Giles himself is finally killed by lions when he is discovered by Blott and Maud trying to burn down the Hall.

As a final resort, Blott concretes himself into his home, located in the entrance archway to the estate, preventing work progress. Dundridge, frustrated, demands the SAS are called in to remove Blott. Blott, after repelling the SAS' attempts to scale the arch, secretly launches an attack on his own archway for which the SAS is blamed, finally compelling enough public attention to cause the plans to be dropped. Dundridge is imprisoned for his part in the 'attack' and the destruction of the village (in which one person had been accidentally killed), and Maud and Blott (who have fallen in love by this time) marry and state their intention to add to the Handyman family.

1985 TV series

The 1985 BBC TV series (which was broadcast in six episodes of 50 minutes each) was originally broadcast between 6 February and 13 March 1985 and was scripted by Malcolm Bradbury. Sir Giles Lynchwood was played by George Cole, with Geraldine James as Lady Maud, David Suchet as Blott, Paul Brooke as Mr Hoskins, Clare Grogan as the receptionist at the Handyman Arms hotel, Julia McKenzie as Mrs Forthby and Simon Cadell as Mr Dundridge.^[2]

The series was filmed mainly in the Ludlow area of south Shropshire and north Herefordshire. Handyman Hall was filmed at Stanage Park, near Heartsease, Powys, a few miles west of Ludlow. The town of Ludlow stood in for the fictitious town of Worford, with a number of pubs and other buildings used there, though the Town Hall used as the courthouse was demolished in 1986.^[3] Deddington in Oxfordshire was the filming location for the village of Guildstead Carbonell, where several mock buildings were demolished in the market place for the film. The Lodge, where Blott lives, was built on land at Blaise Castle Estate near Bristol. Sir Giles is seen drawing the proposed motorway route on his Ordnance Survey road atlas - the page is that of south Shropshire/Herefordshire, but with a few minor amendments made showing names of places used in the book and TV series (for instance, "Worford"- a cross between Worcester and Hereford - instead of "Ludlow"). The maps in the town planning offices show Ludlow and the South Shropshire district, and the map shown at the planning inquiry shows the north Herefordshire/south Shropshire area.

In the TV version, a series of flashbacks provides glimpses of Blott's past. Because the series was set ten years later than the book, Blott would have been too young to have served in WWII, so the flashbacks reveal that he was an incompetent Eastern European soldier who accidentally found himself stuck on a bridge between the eastern and western sides of the Iron Curtain, was refused re-entry to the east, and was brought back to England and employed by Lady Maud's father.

Roger Bamford directed and the producer was Evgeny Gridneff. The music was composed by David McKay. The title music, and much of the incidental music, is notable for its faithful portrayal of a brass band, when most instruments were imitated by multivocalist Viv Fisher.

The 1985 televised version was released on DVD in the UK.

French film

A French film — titled Sexes faibles! — was made in 1992, on a similar plot to Blott on the Landscape, but with a TGV railway line rather than a motorway.

Audio book

• Blott on the Landscape was released as an audiobook in two formats: abridged by Listen for Pleasure read by George Cole (ISBN 1858481538), and unabridged by Chivers Audio Books read by David Suchet (ISBN 0745142036).

References

External links

• Blott on the Landscape at BBC Programmes
• Blott on the Landscape at BBC Online Comedy Guide
• Blott on the Landscape at the Internet Movie Database
• Blott Cast and Summary
• Deddington Online - Blott