Sir Henry At Rawlinson End - Vivian Stanshall

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Take Sir Henry for example a pompous arrogant buffoon with very few redeeming qualities to his character. He drip feeds his marrow, described as a monstrous jade zebra veg, the reason for this being "should some rascal half-inch and eat it, it'll give him the liquorice for weeks" very quickly we are faced with the full pomposity of Sir Henry's character and in here there is definitely shades of Churchill being saterised, ...
...one who could live with Sir Henry would have to have both these qualities.

Sir Henries attitude to the staff is shockingly bad they are there to satisfy his needs and nothing else his request to the housekeeper Mrs E "I don't know what I want, but I want it now" shows this quite clearly, as is his repost to Old Scrotum "You are supposed to love me, You vile Jelly" before hitting him over the head with a gun reinforces ... more

Vivian Stanshall quite often walked on both sides of the line between genius and insanity. He was the leader of the Bonzo Dog Band amongst other things if you must know, and "Sir Henry at Rawlinson End" one of his finest achievements as a writer.

"Sir Henry at Rawlinson End" is set in Rawlinson Manor somewhere in rural England and was originally broadcast on John Peel's radio show. It is a fantastically absurd piece exploring the absurdities of the English aristocracy, note that I do not say Brittish as in my eyes Brittishness does not really exist, you have Englishness, Welshness, Scottishness and Irishness, but Brittishness is an artificial construct. Anyway I have meandered from the main thoroughfare here. During this CD Vivian narrates his way through a story which has a minimal plot about the strange inhabitants of Rawlinson Mannor. What make the tale so good is the construction of the characters all of them celebrations of English eccentricity taken to the extreme.

Take Sir Henry for example a pompous arrogant buffoon with very few redeeming qualities to his character. He drip feeds his marrow, described as a monstrous jade zebra veg, the reason for this being "should some rascal half-inch and eat it, it'll give him the liquorice for weeks" very quickly we are faced with the full pomposity of Sir Henry's character and in here there is definitely shades of Churchill being saterised, quite viciously. However Vivian's relaxed treatment and the bizarreness of the setting hides this within the context of the piece. Other characters are treated similarly for instance Old Scrotum the wrinkled retainer, a long serving family servant who knows his place but there appears to be some menace hidden within his character. Then there is Aunt Florry who appears to have all but a tenuous link with reality and lives within a bubble, though any one who could live with Sir Henry would have to have both these qualities.

Sir Henries attitude to the staff is shockingly bad they are there to satisfy his needs and nothing else his request to the housekeeper Mrs E "I don't know what I want, but I want it now" shows this quite clearly, as is his repost to Old Scrotum "You are supposed to love me, You vile Jelly" before hitting him over the head with a gun reinforces this.

Vivian's ability to use and abuse the English language is displayed throughout and abilities as a wordsmith make this an absolutely fascinating listen especially some of the more poetic passages. This use of the English language combined with Vivians ability to make each character come to life by adopting their vocal mannerisms makes this recording absolutely superb, and during the whole 52 minutes of it you are enveloped in the world of Rawlinson Mannor and all the bizarre humor contained within it's walls.

The humor within it is surreal, whimsical and scathing all at the same time. It could be compared to works of Spike Milligan, Python or the Goodies, as they all worked with similar concepts. "Sir Henry at Rawlinson End" can be taken on many levels at the simplest you have a very surreal tale about very surreal characters, but you could take it to be a scathing satire on English Rural life, or it could be a homage to a past age where everyone in this country knew their place. I think that Vivian meant it to be taken on all three of these levels and a few more as each time I go back to it I spot something new. You can also get it from HMV for £5-99
 

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