Rowan Atkinson isn’t exactly known for sentimentality, but when asked to pick the one book he’d take to a desert island, he chose a comic classic he first read as a teenager.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 1988, the actor behind Mr Bean and Blackadder described Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse as “probably the first book that I ever read of his” and said it was the one book he’d choose to read for the rest of his life.
“I’m not very well read at all. I’m a terribly bad reader of books,” Atkinson admitted. “It’s really only on holiday that I get the John le Carré out, and if it’s not John le Carré, then it tends to be P.G. Wodehouse, because he makes me laugh more than anyone else in print.”
“It would probably be the first book that I ever read of his, which I found in the school library at the age of 16, and it was called Uncle Fred in the Springtime.”
Published in 1939, Uncle Fred in the Springtime is one of Wodehouse’s most beloved comic novels. The plot follows Frederick Altamont Cornwallis Twistleton, Fifth Earl of Ickenham – known to readers as Uncle Fred – on a mission to Blandings Castle.
There, pretending to be nerve specialist Sir Roderick Glossop, he must steal a prized pig (the Empress of Blandings), spoil the schemes of the Duke of Dunstable, and navigate a maze of romantic entanglements and imaginary diagnosis – all while keeping his wife unaware that he’s left home.
The novel is the fifth full-length book in Wodehouse’s Blandings series, and is the first full novel to feature Uncle Fred, a character who had previously appeared in the short story Uncle Fred Flits By in the 1936 collection Young Men in Spats.
In 2012, it was adapted into a two-part radio drama for BBC Radio 4, with Alfred Molina starring as Uncle Fred, directed by Martin Jarvis. The cast also included Patricia Hodge as Lady Constance and Ian Ogilvy as the narrator.
Now, in the digital age, Uncle Fred in the Springtime holds a high 4.2/5 rating on Goodreads.
As for the rest of his Desert Island Discs selections, Atkinson’s playlist was a mix of musical legends and personal favourites. His ultimate pick was Gregorio Allegri’s ‘Miserere’, which he chose to feature on his playlist that consisted of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin, The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’, and Paul Simon’s ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’.
He also chose Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Miss Otis Regrets’, Chopin’s ‘Nocturne in C Sharp Minor’, ‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye’ by Simply Red, and ‘Lady Writer by the Dire Straits.