Doctus Interruptus

[captainsblog]

No, Mel, I haven't watched anything since "The Unquiet Dead." But we got our dose of Who-ness tonight, all the same.

Whitnail & I is a delightfully quirky piece. Released in 1987 but set in 1969, it features the Eighth and "Ninth-in-Finger-Quotes" Doctors in the two leading roles, and Also Also Wik a 30-year-old Richard Griffiths (Harry's Uncle Vernon) in the most significant supporting role.

I vaguely thought I'd seen this film ages ago, but unless I rolled myself  a Camberwell Carrot at the time, I now have no recollection of having seen it before. What brought it to mind was a news article last week which reported that the film's Lake District location site- a Cumbrian "ramshackle cottage"- sold at auction early last week for more than three times its expected fetching price, owing mostly to the labouriness of love of its many fans from the past 22 years:

IT IS a "horrible little shack" featuring "the kind of windows that faces look in at", whose only neighbours are a randy bull and a poacher with apparently murderous intentions. But Sleddale Hall – an uninhabitable Cumbrian farmhouse immortalised in the British film Withnail and I – sold at auction yesterday for nearly three times its original guide price.

In a sale that saw the decorum of the auction room shattered by fans hollering quotes from Bruce Robinson's screenplay, a flurry of bids ended at £265,000.

There was rumoured interest from celebrities including the Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans, the supermodel Kate Moss, and entrepreneur Sir Philip Green.

But the successful telephone bidder for lot 88 proved to be a pub landlord who lives only a short stroll away from Sleddale.

Sebastian Hindley, a confirmed Withnail fanatic who runs the Mardale Inn in Penrith, told The Scotsman that he bought the property to prevent it becoming an "exclusive retreat for the rich and famous". The 40-year-old plans to carefully restore Sleddale to a place where his fellow fans can pay homage.

It is news that will cheer the film's legions of followers, many of whom sought to raise funds to buy Sleddale themselves.

Before the auction began, one Withnail enthusiast shouted: "Anyone who buys this house – look after it!"

He will be relieved to learn that Mr Hindley counts himself among their number, and is inviting suggestions regarding Sleddale's future.

Despite a subdued reception on its release 23 years ago, the film, starring Richard E Grant and Paul McGann as a pair of struggling actors at the tail end of the 1960s, is now considered a modern classic, bewitching generations with its acerbic yet poetic script.

Sleddale features as Crow Cragg, the tumbledown cottage of Richard Griffiths' Montague H Withnail, an unfulfilled member of the gentry with a ravenous appetite for food and young thespians.

As the film's popularity has grown, swathes of fans have descended on the 19th century farmhouse, scrawling their favourite lines on the walls.

That idea of a pilgrimage, Mr Hindley said, is something he is keen to preserve. "It would have been sad if Sleddale was bought by someone rich who didn't understand what it means," he said.

"All the folk who go up there and leave their little bit of graffiti, that's part of the heritage of the place. It's as important as Wordsworth's home to this area.

"I'd love to turn it back to how it looks in the film. I first went there 15 years ago. It's a classic British comedy, and I see Withnellys, as I call them, around here all the time."

Mr Hindley lives in the hamlet of Bampton, the location for the scenes where Withnail calls his agent, and both he and Marwood encounter a stray bull.

The publican says the film's enduring message is the stark difference between Britain's urban and rural dwellers.

"We once had the girls from (pop band] Atomic Kitten visiting when it was snowing heavily," he recalled. "Their Range Rover got stuck, and when they got out they were all wearing high heels."

The Savills auction in London attracted seven bidders in total, including a couple with a baby. Before the sale, the guide price was raised from £90,000 to £145,000, such was the level of interest.

A spokesman for United Utilities, the water company that sold the property, said: "We are absolutely delighted. We have never sold a building quite like it for the sheer amount of interest it has generated."

Early in the film, Whitnail ("'Nine in Finger Quotes'") complains about the lack of appreciation of his acting talents, resigning himself to a career in which he, as his uncle also lamented, will never "play the Dane." Yet the film ends, as Eight moves on to a leading theatrical role, with Whitnail soliloquizing as well as even Olivier ever did, in his own way:

I have of late, but Wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth,
forgone all Custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily
With my disposition that this goodly from, the Earth,
seems to me a sterile promontory; this most Excellent canopy,
the air, look you, this brave O'erhanging firmament,
this majestical roof fretted With golden fire:
why, it appeareth nothing to me But a foul and pestilent
congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man,
how noble in reason, How infinite in faculties,
in form and moving how Express and admirable,
in action how like an angel, In apprehension how like a god:
the beauty of the World, the paragon of animals;
and yet to me, what Is this quintessence of dust?
Man delights not me; Nor woman neither.

Nor TARDIS, even that.

Comments

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

Watch more DW. Trust me, I'm an expert in the field (and I can't even type that with a straight face...)

I've been meaing to see Withnail and I. I'll get around to it eventually, I expect.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Oh don't get your knickers in a wad. We've just been diversifying, is all.

If somebody hadn't told me the next two eps sucked, we prolly woulda by now:P But we will.

(And yes, I edited the entry re. the last episode we watched. You're not smoking anything. Although you might well have a contact high.)

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

*swats* watch those two and then get onto the great stuff. :)

[princesskraehe.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it. It's one of my fave movies, and the hike up to Sleddale Hall (while miserable and wet) was so worth the pilgrimage. I'm still elated that someone who cares has bought it up. I e-mailed and asked if he might consider keeping a blog on renovations as they progress. Especially glad he's keeping the doors -- someday I wanna go back and find my graffiti.

Was about to inform you of Marwood's name, but saw that you have a link to the trivia page that says exactly what I was going to say. ^^;

This also reminds me that it's time for another viewing, possibly with the drinking game attached.

ETA: You might get a kick out of the doors of the real house:

One view
Same door, more writing
Down low
Second door from the right
There's mine! (and Gareth and Kevin's)