Revolting People
Encyclopedia
Revolting People is a BBC Radio 4
situation comedy
set in colonial
Baltimore, Maryland
, just before the American Revolutionary War
. The series is written by the Briton Andy Hamilton
and the American Jay Tarses
, with Tarses playing a sour shopkeeper named Samuel Oliphant and Hamilton playing a cheerfully corrupt, one-legged, one-eyed, one-armed, one-eared one-nostrilled British soldier, Sergeant Roy McGurk, billeted on him.
Samuel's children are Mary, in love with McGurk's commanding officer Captain Brimshaw while at the same time operating as a notorious anti-British pamphleteer
under the pseudonym
Spartacus
; Cora, in an unconsummated marriage with the pompous pro-British official Ezekiel but nevertheless a mother; and the dimwitted Joshua, whose favourite recreation is wrestling bears.
Repeats on the series now play on BBC Radio 7
Additional roles played by Philip Pope
, Michael Fenton Stevens
, Rebecca Front
and the cast. Series 1 had guest appearances by William Hootkins
as Samuel's brother Dan, and Timothy West
as General Venables.
Produced by Paul Mayhew-Archer
in Baltimore and the springing up of a torrid, though also chaste, love affair between Oliphant's daughter Mary and an officer of the local British garrison, Captain Brimshaw. The show starts on March 5, 1770, the day of the Boston Massacre
.
This series was released on CD on September 3, 2007.
This series was released on CD on January 7, 2008.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
set in colonial
Colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...
Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, just before the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. The series is written by the Briton Andy Hamilton
Andy Hamilton
Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:...
and the American Jay Tarses
Jay Tarses
Jay Tarses is an American television comedy writer and producer. He created and produced The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and The Slap Maxwell Story, co-created Buffalo Bill , and was an executive producer for The Bob Newhart Show...
, with Tarses playing a sour shopkeeper named Samuel Oliphant and Hamilton playing a cheerfully corrupt, one-legged, one-eyed, one-armed, one-eared one-nostrilled British soldier, Sergeant Roy McGurk, billeted on him.
Samuel's children are Mary, in love with McGurk's commanding officer Captain Brimshaw while at the same time operating as a notorious anti-British pamphleteer
Pamphleteer
A pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets. Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions on an issue, for example, in order to get people to vote for their favorite politician or to articulate a particular political ideology.A famous pamphleteer...
under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Spartacus
Spartacus
Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...
; Cora, in an unconsummated marriage with the pompous pro-British official Ezekiel but nevertheless a mother; and the dimwitted Joshua, whose favourite recreation is wrestling bears.
Repeats on the series now play on BBC Radio 7
Cast
- Andy HamiltonAndy HamiltonAndrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:...
- Sergeant McGurk - Jay TarsesJay TarsesJay Tarses is an American television comedy writer and producer. He created and produced The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and The Slap Maxwell Story, co-created Buffalo Bill , and was an executive producer for The Bob Newhart Show...
- Samuel Oliphant - Sophie ThompsonSophie ThompsonSophie Thompson is an award-winning English actress, best known for playing Stella Crawford in EastEnders.-Early life:...
/ Jan RavensJan RavensJanet "Jan" Ravens is an English actress and impressionist, famous for her voices on Spitting Image and Dead Ringers.-Early life:...
/ Julia HillsJulia HillsJulia Hills is a British actress, known for being a member of the cast of the Channel 4 late-night comedy sketch show Who Dares Wins in the 1980s. She also played the character of Rona, the man-hungry neighbour, in eight series of the BBC hit sitcom 2point4 children...
- Mary Oliphant - James FleetJames FleetJames Edward Fleet is an English actor. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the dim-witted Hugo Horton in the BBC situation comedy television series The Vicar of Dibley.-Personal life:Fleet...
- Captain Brimshaw - Hugh DennisHugh DennisPeter Hugh Dennis is an English actor, comedian, writer, impressionist and voice-over artist, best known for his work with comedy partner Steve Punt. He is also known for his position as a permanent panelist on the TV comedy show Mock The Week...
- Ezekiel Spriggs - Felicity MontaguFelicity MontaguFelicity Montagu is an English actress, known for her performances in radio and television comedy series and films.Educated at Loughborough University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, Felicity Montagu has played the foil to a series of prominent comedy characters.-Television:Montagu...
/ Penelope NicePenelope Nice-Filmography:*Revolting People - Cora Oliphant *Doctors - Sarah Shapiro *Mr. Bean *Bodger and Badger *Drop the Dead Donkey - Nurse...
- Cora - Tony MaudsleyTony MaudsleyTony Maudsley is a British film actor who was cast as Grawp in the film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. His career started when he landed a role in the film A Life for a Life in 1998 where he played the part of Stefan Kiszko to much acclaim...
- Joshua - Susie BlakeSusie BlakeSusie Blake is a British actress.-Personal life:Blake trained at the Arts Educational School and LAMDA in London. She is the granddaughter of the actress Annette Mills and a great - niece of the actor Sir John Mills...
- Mrs. Arbuthnot
Additional roles played by Philip Pope
Philip Pope
Philip R. J. Pope is a British composer and actor. He was educated at Downside School and New College, Oxford.-Performer:He appeared in the Oxford Revue in Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1978 and 1979, both with Angus Deayton...
, Michael Fenton Stevens
Michael Fenton Stevens
Michael Fenton Stevens , sometimes credited as Michael Fenton-Stevens, is a UK actor and comedian, a founder member of The Hee Bee Gee Bees and the voice behind the Spitting Image 1986 number 1 hit "The Chicken Song"...
, Rebecca Front
Rebecca Front
Rebecca Front is a BAFTA Award–winning English comedian and actress best known for her performances in The Thick of It in the late 2000s, and series of critically acclaimed satirical comedies in the early 1990s: On The Hour, The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You...with Alan Partridge...
and the cast. Series 1 had guest appearances by William Hootkins
William Hootkins
William Michael Hootkins was an American character actor, most famous for supporting roles in Hollywood blockbusters such as Star Wars, Batman and Raiders of the Lost Ark.-Early life:...
as Samuel's brother Dan, and Timothy West
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
as General Venables.
Produced by Paul Mayhew-Archer
Paul Mayhew-Archer
Paul Mayhew-Archer is a writer, producer and script editor for the BBC.He studied English at Cambridge University after attending Eastbourne College, being a member of Reeves House. He spent his time at school writing plays...
Series 1 (2000)
Originally ran in 2000. Revolved around the imposition of martial lawMartial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
in Baltimore and the springing up of a torrid, though also chaste, love affair between Oliphant's daughter Mary and an officer of the local British garrison, Captain Brimshaw. The show starts on March 5, 1770, the day of the Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, called the Boston Riot by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support...
.
- January 18 - Storm Clouds
- January 25 - More Storm Clouds
- February 1 - Even More Storm Clouds
- February 8 - Tons of Storm Clouds
- February 15 - A Helluva Lot of Storm Clouds
- February 22 - An Incredible Amount of Storm Clouds
This series was released on CD on September 3, 2007.
Series 2 (2001)
Originally ran in 2001. Less continuous than series 1 but developed the same theme with the added introduction of Oliphant's long-departed wife reappearing as a lesbian (to McGurk's lecherous satisfaction).- April 24 - Trying Times
- May 1 - Even More Trying Times
- May 8 - Some More Trying Times
- May 15 - And Yet Even More Trying Times
- May 22 - A Bunch More Trying Times
- May 29 - Still in Trying Times
This series was released on CD on January 7, 2008.
Series 3 (2004)
The third series originally ran in 2004 and consisted of stand-alone episodes parodying various classic films with a final episode that turned the series on its head.- May 27 - Young Love
- June 3 - A Kiss is Just a Kiss (parodying CasablancaCasablanca (film)Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
) - June 10 - The God-Given Talent
- June 17 - Over the Rainbow (parodying The Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz (1939 film)The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
) - June 24 - Them Thar Hills (parodying gold rushGold rushA gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
westerns) - July 1 - Secrets And Lies
Series 4 (2006)
First broadcast in 2006, and repeated from 31 March 2007.- May 2 - Ezekiel is Kidnapped - Samuel's pompous son-in-law, Ezekiel, is kidnapped by a rebel militia
- May 9 - McGurk Runs the Shop - Samuel goes in search of his cousin
- May 16 - George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
- Samuel realises he's in the middle of a war when half his shop is burnt down by colonists and the other half by the British. - May 23 - Pirates - Samuel, McGurk and the others flee to England
- May 30 - Reunion - Samuel, McGurk and the others arrive in London
- June 6 - The King - Samuel, McGurk and the others finally meet King George IIIGeorge III of the United KingdomGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
.