The Bagthorpe Saga

The Bagthorpe Saga is a series of 10 fiction books written by author Helen Cresswell between 1977 and 2001. The series became the basis of a TV comedy series - also called The Bagthorpe Saga - in 1981, and also won two International Reading Association awards. The books were published in the UK and the United States by Faber and Faber.

Background

The saga follows the farcical and blackly comic lives of the eccentric, relentlessly self-absorbed and largely disloyal Bagthorpe family, who live at Unicorn House in the fictional village of Passingham, near the small market town of Aysham.

Books in the Saga

1. Ordinary Jack (1977) ISBN 0-380-43349-4
2. Absolute Zero (1978) ISBN 0-571-11155-6
3. Bagthorpes Unlimited (1978) ISBN 0-380-49296-2
4. Bagthorpes Versus the World (1979) ISBN 0-340-72246-0
5. Bagthorpes Abroad (1984) ISBN 0-14-031972-7
6. Bagthorpes Haunted (1985) ISBN 0-340-71655-X
7. Bagthorpes Liberated (1989) ISBN 0-02-725441-0
8. The Bagthorpe Triangle (1992) ISBN 0-571-17805-7
9. Bagthorpes Besieged (1996) ISBN 0-571-17423-X
10. Bagthorpes Battered (2001) ISBN 0-340-78824-0

Main characters

Parents

• Henry Bagthorpe, father of the family. A scriptwriter for the BBC although notably these feature no love scenes. Has written for Michael Hordern and Hannah Gordon. Often questions his mental health and fears an imminent nervous collapse and even contemplates self-slaughter during the holiday in Wales. He is prone to hyperbolic rant reserving a particular distaste for the infant graffiti artist Daisy, stating "she will herself be in immediate need of an elegy" should she write poems on his walls. At another point he wishes her incinerated through electrocution. He often seeks monetary reparations from Uncle Parker for Daisy's destructions, typically exaggerating the total. The inclination to suggesting death for those that offend him is repeated with Aunt Lucy who doesn't believe in time "the only logical thing for her...is to clear off to where there isn't any - namely eternity." Neither is he fond of Zero often referring to him as numbskulled, mutton-headed and pudding-footed. He cuts a ragged figure "...like that of an ill-made bed..." and is known for extreme discourtesy. Laura considers him "...yellow and idle" whilst he shows his selfishness by not knowing her age, birthday, height or hair colour, but settles upon her being "obese" and "mud-eyed" when questioned by the police. He has no friends.
• Laura Bagthorpe, mother of the family. An agony aunt (under the name "Stella Bright"), and part-time magistrate, ironically any advice she gives to her own clan is rarely taken. Known as a serial apologist and soft touch by the criminal fraternity who encounter her on the Bench. She has a marked propensity to use the phrase "Oh dear!" in response to the myriad catastrophes she endures and in one novel this amounts to twelve examples. She further copes via "...Breathing, Yoga and Positive Thinking." By the seventh novel these are augmented by "Balance" but she loses her mind and suffers a mental breakdown regardless.

Children

Three of the four children are held (chiefly by themselves) to be frightfully gifted ('genii') and work assiduously at the many 'Strings to their Bows'. The view of their stellar intelligence and conduct is not shared by their headmaster who leaves blank his comment boxes on their reports since "If he said anything complimentary he would be perjuring himself." The Bagthorpe children steam open the envelopes for their reports to forge flattery.

• William Bagthorpe, sixteen, whose talents include drumming, amateur radio, mathematics, tennis and electronics. He spends much of his spare time communicating with a character called "Anonymous from Grimsby."
• Tess Bagthorpe, fourteen, fluent in French, (in one book, Tess undertakes to rewrite Voltaire to get into the Guinness Book of Records), she also plays the oboe and piano and has a black belt in judo. She is highly literate and quotes from mythology and literature and is a capable forger. Claims a burgeoning String in hypnotism.
• Jack Bagthorpe, twelve, who has no 'Strings' whatsoever. He is attached to Zero so thoroughly that he considers suicide at the thought of losing him. Mr Bagthorpe's disputes his legitimacy but Grandma is fond of him "in her own way." He is the family member whose thoughts are most often expressed by the narrator. Gentle, caring and sincere, Uncle Parker considers him a "pearl among swine."
• Rosie Bagthorpe, ten, whose 'Strings' include mathematics (putting her in competition with William), violin, cello, painting and photography.

Other family members

• Maud Bagthorpe/Grandma, mother of Henry Bagthorpe. She is also known as Grace. Married to Alfred, they live with the other Bagthorpes at Unicorn House on a 'temporary' basis which has extended to ten years. Henry is described as being her favourite child since he is always easy to goad into stupendous rows. Despite this one of her fondest wishes is to see him arrested. An accomplished stirrer and cheat, her joy is obtained mainly via schadenfreude. She holds a vendetta against Uncle Parker for running over her spiteful cat Thomas years ago but acquires a replacement. She dotes upon Daisy, calling her a "shining jewel of a child" and probably recognizing her as a kindred spirit. Grandma loves the frequent visits of the police and trains herself to memorise car registration numbers in the hope she will one day be a key witness to a criminal event featuring a vehicular element.
• Alfred Bagthorpe/Grandpa, 85, father of Henry. Unlike all the other Bagthorpes, he is described as living a quiet life, enjoying fishing and watching television with the sound turned off. Both watching television without sound and his ability to live a peaceful parallel life in the Bagthorpe household can be attributed to his reduced hearing - Russell describes him as "S.D. - Selectively Deaf".
• Aunt Celia Parker, daughter of Maud and Alfred, and sister to Henry. Married to Russell Parker. She wears cheesecloth in the manner of a dishevelled Greek heroine but her attire can stretch to resembling a waterfall. She writes poetry and often irrelevantly quotes to the bemusement of the family and can finish The Times crossword faster than Mr Bagthorpe. She is possesses a willowy beauty but this is undercut by accusations of being "wishy-washy". A vegetarian, she believes in fairy tales, often speaks in murmurs and by the seventh novel is pregnant again. Has a room called The Bower in her house which is "like a cross between the tropical house at Kew and a potting exhibition" and also features a fountain, hidden speakers and a hammock. Maintains her lithe figure by "performing Isadora Duncan-type dances, often barefoot and in the dew." Seems to drift in and out of consciousness. Mrs Fosdyke disputes her mental health claiming she's "only half there".
• Uncle Russell Parker, husband of Celia Parker. He has a large private income from "something in shares", drives fast (on one occasion running over Thomas, Grandma Bagthorpe's cat) and also enjoys goading Henry Bagthorpe into confrontations. A well-groomed man, he cultivates the image of enjoying a life of ease and is described as a "...gin-swigging tailor's dummy." No-one has ever seen him work.However, he secretes the fact he jogs every morning at 6am and is partial to a fry-up with Daisy. His mother resembles an ageing Vogue model.
• Daisy Parker, the precocious and trouble-making 4-year-old daughter of Celia and Russell Parker. Goes through phases, which include flooding, arson, graffiti and morbidity (described as "Intimations of Mortality" by her mother). The latter phase marks a nadir in her popularity, which is notoriously low with all but Rosie and Grandma at Unicorn Housewhen both William and the usually mild Jack wish her "dead and buried". Mrs Fosdyke too has little regard saying she "... should've been put down at birth." When thought lost there is little appetite for her being found. She writes elegies for the interred such as a lamb chop: "All the lams are dying/All the lams are ded" and ascribes arbitrary dates for birth and death such as a mouse living from "1692-1792 Forevver and evver" [sic]. A terror of disappearing down the plughole render her antithetical to bathing. Described as having a plump neck and "chubby" fingers. Her inadvertent slaughter of Mr Bagthorpe's goldfish by flooding the pond with curdled milk lead to the issuing of a death threat "It's that bloody infant! I'll kill her!"
• Uncle Claud, a vicar. He is the son of Grace and Alfred, and brother to Henry. Married to Penelope, they have two children, Luke and Esther. He and his family are considered very boring by the rest of the Bagthorpes.
• Luke, and Esther, Penelope's and Claud's two genius children. Luke is a Young Brain of Britain, Esther a published poet.
• Aunt Penelope, an obsessive compulsive and religious woman, who is the wife of Claud. She is sufficiently worried for her children's health that she puts all library books in the oven to sterilise them before letting her children read them. The rest of the Bagthorpes were very amused to learn that on one occasion she forgot the books, burning them.
• Great Aunt Lucy, 87, an eccentric and wealthy relative of Henry, who lives in Torquay. She visits the family following Mr Bagthorpe's invitation since he seeks to benefit from her testamentary disposition. She does not believe in Time, consequently has no set time for anything, is afraid of the full moon and has a belligerent Pekinese called Wung Foo.

Other characters

• Mrs Gladys Glenys Fosdyke, the Bagthorpes' housekeeper. Widowed from the foreman Charlie who died when struck by an errant brick. Has a tendency to malapropisms eg "vegitinararians", "syllabubs" "Pekingese" "silver handshake" and "barbicans" (for barbeque). Prone to misquoting proverbs e.g "..cow in a manger" and the troubling "...hiding my bush under a shovel". She critiques the family as "that bunch of lunatics" whilst supping Guinness at the local pub The Fiddler's Arms. She is a devotee of pub culture generally, becoming a fixture in one during the Welsh sojourn. In a permanent feud with Mr Bagthorpe who is distressed, inter alia, by her excessive vacuuming and its deleterious effect upon the longevity of the carpet fibres. Often claims to be on the verge of insanity due to the family's antics. An expert cook who could've been a Cordon Bleu if she knew what it meant, she is a master of the stuffed egg in particular. Has a fear of murderers and "rapers". An avid reader of the most down market tabloids upon which she bases her various hackneyed and ill-informed opinions. And Mills & Boon novels.
• Zero, the Bagthorpe family's pet dog. Despite lacking confidence and being near untrainable he achieves world fame through TV advertisements and earns more money than all the others. Known to have been chased by cats.
• Arry Awk, Daisy's imaginary friend and scapegoat. Known as the "most malignant and slippery member of the Unholy Alliance" and a "hell-raising entity." She buries him having forgotten he was merely meant to attend his own funeral during the Intimations of Mortality phase with the epitaph "Only me knows Arry Awk/Only me can here him tawk". He is resurrected in the sixth novel.
• Joseph O'Toole, an amiable, generously proportioned, gingery grey bearded and silver tongued alcoholic tramp who makes his début in the seventh novel by being found dossing in Jack's room. His stench leads to kinship with the equally noisome Billy Goat Gruff and the favour of Daisy. Known as "Irish Joe" within the vagrant community and "Hobble-Gobble" to Daisy who interprets him as a hobgoblin. Wears a sari following a bath and obtains numerous intoxicant based gratuities on Grandma's fallaciously claiming he's an eccentric multimillionaire. Claims skills in spotting "a fag end in the gutter at twenty yards" and "serviceable shirts on unattended washing lines." A regular host of fleas but considered a personal guru and spiritual ancient by Celia and subject to an unlikely tug of love between her and Mrs Fosdyke (on the basis of perceived wealth). Despised by the younger Bagthorpes mainly due to his prodigious food-based appetite and its concomitant effect upon their potential consumption of any second helpings.
• Max Fosdyke, Son of Mrs Fosdyke and on the run for stealing £50 from his landlady's cash card. Infantilised by his mother into adolescence, he is a very petty criminal of dwarfish aspect.
• Billy Goat Gruff, Daisy's beloved, psychotic pet goat. Initially purchased by Mr Bagthorpe on the basis of mistaken gender. He is not house-trained, has a permanent malodorous aura and sleeps inside at The Knoll. The bane of the Welsh town of Llosilli. He is erroneously believed shot which provokes no sympathy since he is generally either "hated or detested" by the Bagthorpes.
• Little Tommy/Thomas II, Grandma's kitten whom she teaches the ways of ferocity.
• P.J, a director from Borderline Television whom Tess unwillingly invites into the Bagthorpe household after she wins a competition on The Happiest Family in England. He is thoroughly unpleasant and the Bagthorpes accordingly give him hell.
• Atlanta, the Danish au pair. William and several of his friends develop crushes on her.
• Mr Grice, Mr Bagthorpe's solicitor.
• Mr Winter, Mrs Fosdyke's doctor.
• Mrs Brown, Grandma's clairvoyant. A charlatan and part-time check-out operator.
• Mrs Mavis Pye, drinking buddy of Mrs Fosdyke. She favours hirsute gentlemen.
• Mrs Flo Bates, friend of Mrs Fosdyke. Narrow-minded and "vocal on the subjects of black leather and studs."

Television series

The Bagthorpe Saga
Created by	Helen Cresswell
Starring	Edward Hardwicke Angela Thorne Dandy Nichols Tim Preece Madeline Smith
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	25 March – 29 April 1981

The Bagthorpe Saga, a six-part adaptation of the first two novels (Ordinary Jack and Absolute Zero) was broadcast by the BBC in 1981. The character of Rosie was eliminated and some of her dialogue and character attributes were given to Tess. The series was filmed in the summer of 1980 in Tetbury, Gloucestershire; Manor Farm on the Chavenage House estate was used as the Bagthorpes' home, Unicorn House. Each episode ran for 30 minutes.

Cast

• Edward Hardwicke - Henry Bagthorpe
• Angela Thorne - Laura Bagthorpe
• Phillada Sewell - Grandma
• Ceri Seel - William Bagthorpe
• Richard Orme - Jack Bagthorpe
• Ruth Potter - Tess Bagthorpe
• Dandy Nichols - Mrs Fosdyke
• Tim Preece - Uncle Parker
• Rebecca Lalonde - Daisy Parker
• Madeline Smith - Aunt Celia

External links

• The Bagthorpe Saga at IMDb
• Reviews of the first six books of the series by Russ Allbery