Wednesday, July 15, 2015

AS SEEN ON TV - THE MAD KING GEORGE



'JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL'
"ALL THE MIRRORS IN THE WORLD"


AS SEEN ON TV:
King George III

AS PORTRAYED BY:
Edward Petherbridge

LOCATION:
A BookWorld/Toobworld Borderland

From Wikipedia:
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738[a] – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg ("Hanover") in the Holy Roman Empireuntil his promotion to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors he was born in Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

His life and reign, which were longer than any other British monarch before him, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American Revolutionary War. Further wars against revolutionaryand Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

In the later part of his life, George III suffered from recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he suffered from the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, and George III's eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent. On George III's death, the Prince Regent succeeded his father as George IV.


On television, George has been portrayed by:

TV MOVIES
Albert Lieven in the British drama "Rake's Progress" (1939) - As this was a TV movie, it can be relegated to any one of the many TV dimensions created for housing so many historical recastaways (like JFK, Lincoln, and Princess Di.)

EARTH PRIME-TIME
Eric Pohlmann in the drama 'The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh' (1963), part of the 'Disneyland' series, based on the novel by Russell Thorndike - This mini-series can stand on its own, and Pohlmann's King George III is the preception of the Mad King by other characters in the drama.  As such, it doesn't have to be relegated to a Borderland overlapping with BookWorld.  

Mark Hadlow in the comedy/action series 'Jack of All Trades', in the episode "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Opera" (2000) - This never actually took place.  The series was a dramatization of the ravings of a syphilitic old Jack Styles.

FRENCH TOOBWORLD
Jean Muselli in the French children's drama 'Le matelot de nulle part', based on the novel Israel Potter by Herman Melville - This takes place in an alternate Toobworld, one of the French Toobworlds.

SKITLANDIA
Graham Chapman in the BBC comedy series 'Monty Python's Flying Circus', in the episode "The Golden Age of Ballooning" (1974) - This is definitely set in Skitlandia.

Simon Farnaby in the British children's sketch show 'Horrible Histories' (2009 - 2015) - This is also located in Skitlandia, which has no alternate dimensions.  Everything in Skitlandia changes with every new comedy sketch broadcast.

MINI-SERIES
Many mini-series can be situated in the main Toobworld.  But when they are focused on the recastaways of historical figures without interaction with established TV characters, then they should be sent off to other TV dimensions which they can share with other such mini-series......

John Tillinger in the American drama series 'The Adams Chronicles' (1976) 

Nigel Davenport in the BBC drama series 'Prince Regent' (1979) 

Rhys McConnochie in the ABC miniseries 'Captain James Cook' (1987)

Nicholas Rowe in the miniseries 'Longitude' (2000)

Anthony Cochrane in the miniseries 'Benjamin Franklin' (2002)

Tom Hollander in the HBO miniseries 'John Adams' (2008)

DOOFUS TOOBWORLD
Gertan Klauber as a complete madman with a German accent in the final episode of the BBC comedy series 'Blackadder the Third' (1987) - This series takes place in the Doofus Toobworld, where historical figures suffer from a diminished intelligence.  Other series in ths dimension are 'The Secret Files Of Desmond Pfeiffer' and 'That's My Bush!'.

DOCU-TOOB
David Warner in the drama documentary 'The American Revolution' (1994) - As with Skitlandia, documentaries share the same dimension with the unseen characters voices ever changing.

THE TOONIVERSE
Charles Shaughnessy (voice) in the animated series Liberty's Kids: Est. 1776 (2002) - O'Bviously located in the Tooniverse.

THE BORDERLANDS
Edward Petherbridge in 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell', a TV adaptation of the novel of the same name (2015) - as mentioned above, this is a Borderland in which denizens of BookWorld appear in an alternate dimension of the TV Universe.

BCnU!

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