Timothy Spall

This adaptation of the PG Wodehouse stories has inevitably been dubbed a comic riposte to Downton Abbey and I'm all for that. Timothy Spall is bumbling ninth earl Clarence, much more interested in winning fattest pig prize at the country show than any of the human dramas, forgetting his son's name and being reluctant to intervene in highly unsuitable courtships.

Timothy Spall on Blandings

"It was like drinking a beautiful, nourishing soup - the cleverness of his language, the idiosyncratic form it takes"

PG Wodehouse feels like one of the less frequently adapted British literary totems. On one hand, it's surprising, given that his light, deft comedy seems perfect for TV formats. But set against that is Wodehouse's remarkable facility for language - it takes an intrepid writer to attempt to do him justice, and quite a cast too. This, the first TV Wodehouse since Fry & Laurie's 1990s adventures, is underpinned by Timothy Spall's gleeful portrayal of the amiable but befuddled Lord Emsworth, and promises tales of various misadventures involving underfattened pigs, unsuitable suitors and ineffectual fops. It's minor fare but the jauntily affectionate silliness might just get you in the end. Anyone disenchanted by the will-this-do? cynicism of the Downton Christmas special could do worse than give this a go.

With their grand houses and period settings, it's a wonder PG Wodehouse's work hasn't been plundered by television more often. Clive Exton's exuberant Nineties adaptations of Jeeves and Wooster, starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, were highly successful, but there has been nothing since. However, judging by the iffy first episode of this new six-part series, based on the Blandings Castle stories and reworked by Guy Andrews, it seems that Wodehouse's precise comic world is pretty hard to pull off.

The problem lies not with the cast, which is certainly top-notch. Timothy Spall plays bumbling Lord Clarence Emsworth, more interested in pigs than people. Jennifer Saunders delights as his battleaxe sister Connie. And there's good work from Jack Farthing as Clarence's hapless son Freddie, and Mark Williams as Beach, the butler. But the episode can't quite sustain the necessary brio and the bonhomie eventually wears thin. Tonight's tale involves Clarence's rivalry with neighbour Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe (Robert Bathurst) over a Fattest Pig competition and Connie's attempt to prevent niece Angela (Alice Orr-Ewing) from an unsuitable marriage.

Blandings (BBC1, Sunday), a jolly new series based on the Blandings Castle stories of PG Wodehouse, features with a starry cast. Pick of the performances is Jack Fathing's, as Freddie, Lord Emsworth's - Clarence's - ass of a son. A charming ass, mind. I don't quite believe Timothy Spall as Clarence, but this is probably more to do with association than performance. Bumbling, befuddled, sure. But I'm not convinced Spall should be a toff, should he? He does look right, actually. He also looks a bit like Empress, the pig. Well, they say owners look like their dogs, don't they, so why not pigs as well?

Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey! is the title of this one. It's the master call - like a master key - to unlock a pig's, any pig's, appetite if it goes on hunger strike. Which Empress does. Not helpful when she's up for Fat Pig of the Year. It's silly - of course it is, it's Wodehouse. It's also rather charming. What?

Video: BBC News preview of Blandings

Timothy Spall and Jennifer Saunders star in a new television series set in 1929 and based on the Blandings Castle comedy stories by PG Wodehouse. Saunders jokes that the comedy series is "more realistic" than the hit ITV drama Downton Abbey.

Meet the cast of BBC1's comedy drama Blandings

Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders and a pig star in the Sunday night adaptation of PG Wodehouse's stories.

A castle, Empress the pig & a rather porky aristocrat

Timothy Spall goes posh in a new PG Wodehouse adaptation.

Timothy Spall interview

Ahead of his new BBC comedy, Timothy Spall tells Daphne Lockyer how a tempestuous voyage around Britain mirrored his victory over leukaemia.

David Walliams and Timothy Spall gatecrash wedding

Britain's Got Talent judge David Walliams and Harry Potter star Timothy Spall crashed their wedding during a break from filming the new BBC period-style comedy series, Blandings.