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The Castle
The Castle
Nov 14, 2025 6:05 PM

Author:Kim Fuller,Paul Alexander,Nick Doody,Matt Kirshen,Paul Dornan,James Fleet,Neil Dudgeon,Ingrid Oliver,Full Cast

The Castle

Hie ye to The Castle, a rollicking sitcom set way back then, starring James Fleet (The Vicar Of Dibley), Neil Dudgeon (Life Of Riley, Midsomer Murders), Martha Howe-Douglas (Horrible Histories) & Ingrid Oliver (Doctor Who).

Thrill! - as brave knight Sir William De Warenne’s dungeon renovation falls foul of the Health & Safety inspectors

Swoon! - as young Lady Anne tries to lose her cut-glass accent in an attempt to get on “The Only Way Is Wessex”

Sympathize! - as Lord of the castle Sir John hires the latest top-of-the-range horse, but can’t work out what to do with the built-in “ashtrays”

…and Get Out Your Laughing-Spats! as Bates the new valet arrives hotfoot from Downton Abbey...

This is medieval England seen from a 21st century comedy perspective complete wit the now-legendary lute jingles. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the medieval versions of Jumping Jack Flash, Mama Mia, I Shot The Sheriff or even Agadoo, this is the series to buy!

Sir John Woodstock (James Fleet) is the Lord of the Castle and basically in charge of keeping order in the ramshackle medieval village. Although he hates all that torturing and usually lets the peasants off with a bit of community service. He lives in his huge but slightly falling down castle (but then it was built by the French so what can one expect) with his daughter Anne (Martha Howe-Douglas) and very teenage son Henry (Steven Kynman). Anne’s best friend Charlotte (Ingrid Oliver) nearly always joins Anne on her constant quest to find fit men in the village. And Anne certainly isn’t interested in Sir William De Warenne ("Knight errant, scourge of the Levant") (Neil Dudgeon) who lives across the way. Unfortunately he can’t take a hint and is besotted with Lady Anne and Sir John thinks it a good match. Ah! what is a Lady to do! Cardinal Duncan (Jonathan Kydd) (a man of the cloth – in particular crushed silk which he loves), has to endure De Warenne’s incessant plans to woo Lady Anne and has little time to peruse sweethearts of his own. Which oddly enough, he doesn’t seem to mind...

Written by......................................................... Kim Fuller

with additional material by Nick Doody& Matt Kirshen

Music by Guy Jackson

Produced and directed by............................ David Tyler

Reviews

Lovely . . . Made me long for a long hot summer by the sea with friends and family. I loved that new beginnings turn up when you least expect them.

—— Jo Thomas, author of The Oyster Catcher

Warm summer reading

—— Choice Magazine

Jose Saramago's brilliant evocation...is magical realism of a sort that stirs real wonder

—— James Park , Time Out

Saramago's lovely and original questing story, in a lineage of others such as Don Quixote and Kipling's Kim, is a journey of the spirit told as a journey of the feet

—— Richard Eder , Los Angeles Times

Tremendous wit is always apparent in his imaginative conceits, comic digression and verbal and narrative games

—— Ian Critchley , Sunday Times

An engaging fantasy...this book can't be pinned down however, either as magic realism, Swiftian satire, or dystopian science fiction: in fact its concerns are largely philosophical... Pontiero's excellent translation preserves the strange, looping rhythms of Jose Saramago's prose, as well as his likeably self-referential humour and, most important of all, the sense of a deep and luminous intelligence which informs the whole enterprise

—— Jonathan Coe , Mail on Sunday

Wry and trenchant . . . highly entertaining.

—— The New York Times Book Review

His funniest book since Breakfast of Champions . . . There are nuggets of Vonnegutian wisdom throughout.

—— Newsweek

Timequake is a novel by, and starring, Kurt Vonnegut . . . What Vonnegut does, which no one can do better, is give a big postmodern shrug . . . You've got to love him.

—— The Washington Post Book World

Humorous, sardonic . . . Timequake makes for irresistible reading that's loaded with more important truths than it lets on . . . Moralizing has never been funnier.

—— Chicago Sun-Times

Vonnegut is at his best.

—— Atlanta Journal & Constitution

MAGICAL, MESMERISING AND INVENTIVE

—— Karen McManus, bestselling author of One of Us is Lying

THE HAZEL WOOD KEPT ME UP ALL NIGHT . . . as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years

—— Jennifer Niven, bestselling author of All the Bright Places

A WINDING, CREEPY, INSIDIOUSLY DELICIOUS NOVEL. UTTERLY SPECTACULAR - I read it in one sitting

—— Melinda Salisbury, bestselling author of The Sin Eater’s Daughter

THIS BOOK WILL BE YOUR NEXT OBSESSION. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure - it's not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave.

—— Stephanie Garber, Bestselling Author of Caraval

Katz's debut is one that will have readers gripped from the very first words until the last - and a book that will stay with you for a long while afterwards.

—— Her.ie

[A] smart debut, both compelling and disturbing, delivered with the kind of confidence that makes me keen to see what Katz will come up with next.

—— A Life in Books Blog

[G]ripping debut … Here’s a page-turner you’ll devour before the week is out

—— Stylist Daily Newsletter

A razor sharp psychological deconstruction of the motivations, regrets and secrets behind a picture-perfect façade.

—— The Week

White-knuckle ride

—— RTE Guide

I really wanted to just press the book into anyone’s hands and say ‘please read this’! [...] An important read

—— Bookish Chat

Readers hungry for an in-depth study of a man searching for control, power and ownership will find satisfaction in A Good Man. But caveat emptor - this story inevitably hurtles at the end towards a chilling finale

—— Crime Review

This stellar debut from Ani Katz had us gripped from the beginning.

—— That’s Life!
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