Decline And Fall
- TV comedy drama
- BBC One
- 2017
- 3 episodes (1 series)
Adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's 1928 novel about a young teacher falling in love with the aristocratic mother of one of his pupils. Also features Jack Whitehall, Eva Longoria, David Suchet, Douglas Hodge, Stephen Graham and more.
Episode menu
Series 1, Episode 1
Further details
Paul Pennyfeather was set upon a quiet life of contemplation as a priest, so it comes as a shock when he is unceremoniously expelled from Oxford University through no fault of his own.
Without a private fortune to fall back on, Paul is forced to take a position as a teacher at a substandard boarding school in rural Wales. All too quickly it becomes apparent that Paul is not a natural disciplinarian. He finds scant comfort in drinking - too excess - with the other teachers.
Things start to look up, however, when Paul meets Margot Beste-Chetwynde, a wealthy widow and a mother to one of the boys at the school. Could it be that the attraction Paul feels for Margot is returned? Could his fortunes be changing?
Broadcast details
- Date
- Friday 31st March 2017
- Time
- 9pm
- Channel
- BBC One
- Length
- 60 minutes
Cast & crew
Jack Whitehall | Paul Pennyfeather |
Eva Longoria | Margot Beste-Chetwynde |
David Suchet | Dr Fagan |
Douglas Hodge | Captain Grimes |
Stephen Graham | Philbrick |
Vincent Franklin | Predergast |
Oscar Kennedy | Peter Beste-Chetwynde |
Gemma Whelan | Diane 'Dingy' Fagan |
Katy Wix | Florence 'Flossie' Fagan |
Matthew Beard | Arthur Potts |
Tim Pigott-Smith | Sniggs |
Chiké Okonkwo | Chokey |
Nickolas Grace | Prostlethwaite |
Tom Stourton | Alistair Digby-Vaine-Trumpington |
John Woodvine | Master of the College |
Michael Gould | Porter Blacknall |
Kevin Eldon | Mr Levy |
Felix Griffin Pain | Tangent |
Hugo Beazley | Clutterbuck |
Steve Speirs | Davis (Station Master) |
Ashley McGuire | Lady Circumference |
Tony Guilfoyle | Vicar |
Evelyn Waugh | Writer |
James Wood | Writer (Adapted By) |
Rhian Petty | Script Editor |
Guillem Morales | Director |
Matthew Bird | Producer |
Ben Cavey | Executive Producer |
Will Gould | Executive Producer |
James Wood | Executive Producer |
Shane Allen | Executive Producer |
Chris Sussman | Executive Producer |
Frith Tiplady | Executive Producer |
Joe Randall-Cutler | Editor |
Kristian Milsted | Production Designer |
Kate Rhodes James | Casting Director |
Yves Barre | Costume Designer |
Tim Fleming | Director of Photography |
Sallie Adams | Make-up Designer |
Paul Englishby | Composer |
Dan Mumford | 1st Assistant Director |
Video
Pennyfeather gets pranked
Pennyfeather takes his first class of students.
Featuring: Jack Whitehall (Paul Pennyfeather), Vincent Franklin (Predergast), Oscar Kennedy (Peter Beste-Chetwynde), Felix Griffin Pain (Tangent) & Hugo Beazley (Clutterbuck).
Press
A grand surprise arrived on Friday in the shape of Decline and Fall. It shouldn't, perhaps, have been that much of a surprise, given that the man responsible for adapting Evelyn Waugh's first published (and most splenetically Welsh-hating, liberal-baiting) novel was James Wood, also responsible for the ever-subtle Rev., and that the casting was able to plumb such glorious heights as Stephen Graham, Douglas Hodge, David Suchet and Eva Longoria.
For once, an adaptation caught Waugh's inner voice, that singular interwar fruity whine of pomp, self-pity and high intellect, the all leavened by an utterly redemptive sense of the absurdity of the human condition, particularly Waugh's own. Crucially, this was achieved without resort to the artifice of narrative voiceover, à la Brideshead. Wood just picked his quotes very cleverly. In episode one (of three), Jack Whitehall's beleaguered Everyman is sent down from Oxford (with an achingly unfair whiff of un-trouser-edness) and reduced to teaching in the boondocks, where every pupil is as damaged, yet at least 10 times as smart, as the masters. He soon alights on the ultimate piece of time-wasting for his spoilt charges, "an essay on self-indulgence. There will be points for the longest, irrespective of any possible merit."
There are the stock grotesques, yes - even Douglas Hodge, as the chief sot/pederast, doesn't get to chew the scenery with quite the liberated zest of David Suchet's headmaster, reacting to freedom from all those dreary Poirots as would a vampire released on virgin necks, toothily telling Whitehall's straight-bat ingenu that "we schoolmasters must temper discretion with... deceit" - but, by and large, this is happily grounded more in realism than caricature. What emerges is a true comic fantasy, yes, but also one which captures that dreadful damp twixt-war tristesse: a certain boredom with politics, a certain class obsession, an irresolute yet total anger at... something. An End of Days. This BBC production, in which all excel, is thrillingly timely, given our fractious nation's rude recent decision to Decline, and Flail, and also gives trembling hope that, finally, we might get a faithful rendition of the wisest funny novel of the 20th century, Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim.
Euan Ferguson, The Guardian, 2nd April 2017Decline and Fall review
A riotously successful adaptation. Evelyn Waugh brilliantly brought to BBC One with Jack Whitehall and Eva Longoria.
Mark Sanderson, The Arts Desk, 1st April 2017Decline and Fall review
The ghastly gaggle of toffs are back with Jack Whitehall as the perfect Pennyweather and Eva Longoria bringing the glamour in this excellent companion to Evelyn Waugh's classic novel.
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 1st April 2017Jack Whitehall was born to play Paul Pennyfeather in this Evelyn Waugh adaptation. In a lively opener, Pennyfeather is expelled from Oxford for "running the length of the quadrangle without his trousers" so is forced to take a job as a teacher in Wales. There he meets a kidnapper (Stephen Graham) and headmaster Dr Fagan (David Suchet). Life gets more interesting when his eyes meet those of wealthy widow Margot (Eva Longoria) over a foie gras sandwich. What larks.
Hannah Verdier, The Guardian, 31st March 2017Preview: Decline and Fall
Famed for his posh boy humour in Fresh Meat and Bad Education, will Whitehall shine to a new role in which he must become less upfront and more of a push over?
Eloise Craven-Todd, On The Box, 31st March 2017Decline And Fall review
Imagine such a bygone world where someone would get a job they are ill-suited for, simply because they are posh. How foolish! Still, it will be interesting to see how George Osborne's London Evening Standard reviews the new BBC One adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's stinging social satire Decline And Fall.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 31st March 2017TV preview: Decline And Fall, BBC1
Well we've gone back to the 1970s this week, we might as well go the whole hog and go back to the 1920s with this three-part television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel. And talking of hogs, we've barely been a minute into the action when the chumps from Oxford's riotous Bollinger Club have lobbed a pig's head out of the window into the quad.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 30th March 2017TV Review: Decline and Fall
It's a long overdue adaptation, but the first episode is slightly let down by a slight stagnancy that plagues it.
Nasim Asl, The National Student, 28th March 2017