TV review: Blandings

The Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression, skirmishes between China and the Soviet Union, rioting between Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem – they don't provide the greatest inspiration for humour.

But lo and behold, here we have exactly that, in the form of a new series based on the Blandings comedy stories of PG Wodehouse.

Staring Timothy Spall and Jennifer Saunders, the show follows the domestic dramas of a family trying to maintain both the status quo in 1929 and their prize pig.

Spall plays the bumbling Lord Emsworth, known as Clarence to his friends, the ninth earl and master of Blandings Castle.

He'd like to be left to his own devices but is frustrated by the naggings of his sister Connie, the real head of the household, who is played by Saunders.

Consistently looking like she's chewing a wasp, the battle-axe spends her time piping out demands and picking fights – taking gripes with her brother for anything from him making too much noise or hiding from her.

They are joined by Clarence's brainless youngest son Freddy, played by Jack Farthing.

Freddy is a well-meaning and charming young man but he is not the brightest lamp on the street. And then there is the loyal long-serving butler Beach, played by Mark Williams, the only character who seems to possess any ounce of rationality.

The first of six episodes last night saw Clarence trying to get his pig eating again, to stop him from losing the Fattest Pig prize to his rival Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, played by Robert Bathurst.

In the end the tide turns in Clarence's favour thanks to a universal hog call that reignites his pet's appetite.

So is it any good? Well... it won't be everyone's taste.

Blandings is slapstick at its purest. There are exaggerated raised eyebrows, double takes, flared nostrils, people falling into suits of armour.

But the main weapon in the show's humour arsenal is the splutterings and tomfoolery of the characters themselves.

Clarence is at the centre of this. He's a toff. Lazy, ignorant, eccentric. All the comedy spurns from his interactions with others around him.

There is the odd double entendre: "I'm rather in the mood for a sticky willy," said Sir Gregory at one point last night as he reached out for a cake.

But if none of this prompts a smirk it's unlikely there's going to be much else that will float your boat.

My main issue with the programme is that it feels a bit dated. While Blandings has an impressive cast and will inevitably win over some viewers, I question whether it is the type of programme that deserves a prime time BBC slot in 2013.

This is the second Wodehouse TV adaptation since ITVs Jeeves and Wooster in the 1990s – but comedy has moved on since then.

In an era when Ricky Gervais, Frankie Boyle and John Bishop continue to do well with their shock-based controversial sitcoms, sketches and stand-up – it's debatable if something like Blandings has enough to hold its own.

David Lumb