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Whenever possible, Toobworld Central will accept the background information established for some of the fictional characters shared by the TV Universe and the much more expansive Wold Newton Universe. Some of the main figures this would involve would be Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Lord Peter Wimsey. The same can't be said for others that should belong to the Wold Newton family, like Tarzan, Lord Greystoke or Fu Manchu, because they've been updated to more modern times in Earth Prime-Time.
It is of Lord Peter Wimsey whom I'm writing today, in making the claim that his genealogy can link his televised mysteries (at least those five serials starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter) to the TV series 'The Avengers'.
First off, the most minimal of thumbnail biographies for Lord Peter:
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (fictional character) is a bon vivant sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries—usually but not always murders. Wimsey is an archetype for the British gentleman detective. [Wikipedia]
In the story "Murder Must Advertise", Lord Peter used his middle names of "Death Bredon" as his alias when he went undercover at an advertising agency.
In the excellent Wold Newton Universe website run by the esteemed Win Scott Eckert, Mark Brown wrote an essay about the Wimsey family tree. In it, he establishes the connection between the families of the Wimseys and the Deaths:
Peter and Gerald's father was Mortimer, the 15th Duke of Denver. His wife, Honoria Lucasta Delagardie, was the aforementioned Dowager Duchess. Mortimer's father was George, the 14th Duke. According to Scott-Giles, his wife was Mary Death, the Deaths being an ancient noble family. Apparently, the Deaths and the Wimsey had intermarried several generations in the past.
This information was culled from a book by C.W. Scott-Giles entitled "The Wimsey Family".Thanks to that family name, we can theorize a link between the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries and 'The Avengers' TV series.
Aye, there be spoilers ahead, laddie!
In the episode "Castle De'ath", John Steed (top professional) and Mrs. Emma Peel (talented amateur) went undercover at the castle in order to find the link between Clan De'ath and the disappearance of fish along the Scottish coast. (The investigation was sparked by the drowning death of a frogman who was found four inches taller dead than he was alive.)
According to Clan member Angus De'ath, the 5th Laird of the Castle, Ewan De'ath, was executed with William "Braveheart" Wallace. (Angus got some of his facts wrong though - Wallace died in 1305 and Angus placed it a year earlier.) From the current Laird, Iain De'ath, Steed and Mrs. Peel learned that the 13th Laird was a traitor to the family. He betrayed the Clan to the other clans and as punishment, "Black Jamie" De'ath was sealed away in the East Tower until Doomsday.
It turns out that the Castle De'ath was being used by outside agents as an enemy submarine base with the help of Angus De'ath. In his attempt to escape, Angus killed his cousin Laird Iain before being slain himself in a malfunctioning iron maiden.
I have no clue as to who the current Laird of Clan De'ath would be in Earth Prime-Time.With some alteration to the name of De'ath over the years to be more anglicized as "Death", it can be postulated that Lord Peter Wimsey was related to the Clan. And he may have found time to visit his distant Clan relatives when he and Bunter took a holiday over the border into the highlands (as seen in the serial "The Five Red Herrings).
It's all tele-speculation, of course, but of the best kind - it can't be disproven! I'm only sorry that I couldn't have made the link between the two series stronger by having Lord Peter related to either Steed or Mrs. Peel. (But in a future theory of relateeveety, it will be established that Emma Peel's family tree can link 'The Avengers' to 'Knight Rider' - which some might have expected - but also to 'Columbo'.)
Check out that episode of 'The Avengers' - "Castle De'ath". Not only is it one of the best, but you get to see the characters dressed in traditional Scottish costume - including Mrs. Peel.....
If you're interested in reading more about the background of the Wimsey family, check out Mark Brown's essay at the Wold Newton site......
BCnU!
[This Toobworld post is dedicated to John O'Creagh.]
ELEANOR BRON
"Not Only, But Always"
AS PLAYED BY:
Josephine Davison
Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress and author.
Eleanor Bron's earliest work for television included appearances on 'Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life' and in particular 'BBC-3', where she performed in sketches with John Fortune; they had already worked together at Peter Cook's Establishment Club. Later, her work included such programmes as 'Where Was Spring?' and 'My Father Knew Lloyd George'.
She collaborated with novelist and playwright Michael Frayn on the BBC programmes 'Beyond a Joke' (1972) and 'Making Faces' (1975).
She appeared in a 1982 episode ("Equal Opportunities") of the BBC series 'Yes Minister', playing a senior civil servant in Jim Hacker's Department. Hacker plans to promote her to strike a blow for equal opportunities.
Bron appeared in a brief scene in the BBC science fiction television series 'Doctor Who' serial "City of Death" alongside John Cleese as art critics in Denise Rene's art gallery in Paris. The pair are admiring the TARDIS, thinking it to be a piece of art, when the Doctor (Tom Baker), Romana (Lalla Ward) and Duggan (Tom Chadbon) rush into it and it dematerialises. Bron's character, believing this to be part of the work, states that it is "Exquisite, absolutely exquisite!"
She also appeared as an art critic in a parody of an Andy Warhol documentary on the BBC sketch comedy show 'French and Saunders'.
Later, she had a more substantial guest role in another 'Doctor Who' television serial, 1985's "Revelation of the Daleks". She has more recently also appeared in an audio drama based on 'Doctor Who' by Big Finish Productions, ("Loups-Garoux"), in which she plays the part of wealthy heiress Ileana de Santos.
She plays, through flashback, the recurring character of Patsy's mother in the sitcom, 'Absolutely Fabulous', an exuberantly horrible woman who "scattered bastard babies across Europe like a garden sprinkler". After giving birth, she would always say "Now take it away! And bring me another lover." BCnU!
When I was in sixth grade, I discovered Edith Hamilton and her re-telling of the Greek myths. I never knew about the Greek gods before and they capture my imagination. I used to say that it was Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' that first ensnared me in my love for fantasy, but now I have to say it was 'Hamilton's Mythology'.
I started handing out Greek gods for all of my classmates - the alpha male being Zeus, his girl friend was Hera, etc., with me being Hermes. (I've always had a soft spot for the Tricksters, probably starting with Bunny Rabbit on 'Captain Kangaroo'.) This fascination with Greek gods did not go over well with the nun I had for that grade.....
Anyhoo, in Greek mythology, everything has its own god or is even personified. And one of those personifications was represented in Toobworld, making her an appropriate "goddess" to talk about today.
March 20th was the first day of Spring, 2010, and in Toobworld, the personification of Springtime was the mother of an apprentice grim reaper named 'Mulberry' (from an eponymous British sitcom). Mulberry's father was Death himself, who despaired that his son would never get the hang of the family trade. But at least he understood why Mulberry was so,,, well, flighty. It was that side of his mother's nature which he inherited.
The union of Death and Spring sounds as if it was short-lived, and that she was not Death's first mistress. This is why 'Mulberry' is a Toobworld essential - it gives us a splainin for why Death never looks the same from TV show to TV show (aside from the boring real world splainin of recasting.) Death has many sons to carry on his work, and on occasion, a daughter as well.
But it's Springtime; we shouldn't be concerned with Death....
Springtime was only seen in the last episode of the series; she was portrayed by Silvia Sims (of whom I have yet to find a picture of in the role.) But whenever I picture her, she also resembles my vision of Goldberry, from the first book in "The Lord Of The Rings", "The Fellowship Of The Ring"......
Your visions may vary.......
BCnU!
In "Marple: Sleeping Murder", a mystery starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Jane Marple,
Gwenda Halliday and Hugh Hornbeam were presented with a choice at a fork in the road: 
Hugh suggested Torquay, as there was a decent hotel located there.
Even if this had not been an alternate TV dimension because of Ms. McEwan's presences as Miss Marple (Joan Hickson is the official televersion.), then we'd have to throw it over into another world because of that description. In the main Toobworld, 'Fawlty Towers' is located in Torquay, and "decent" is too kind a recommendation.
(I realize that there are other hotels in the Torquay area, supposedly known as the "English Riviera". However, the God of Coincidence in Toobworld doesn't work that way. It's like when Charlie Pace mentioned a paper company in Slough during an episode of 'Lost'.)
O'Bviously, in that alternate TV Land, the hotel must have other owners instead of Basil Fawlty.....
BCnU!
PETER COOK & DUDLEY MOORE
"Not Only... But Always"
AS PLAYED BY:
Rhys Ifans (Peter Cook)
Aidan McArdle (Dudley Moore)
From Wikipedia:
'Not Only... But Also' was a popular 1960s BBC British television series starring 
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.The show was originally intended as a solo project for Moore, called 'Not Only Dudley Moore, But Also His Guests'. However, unsure about going it alone, Moore invited his partner from Beyond the Fringe, Peter Cook, to guest in the pilot (along with Diahann Carroll and John Lennon, who was to make two more appearances during the course of the series). So popular was the double act — in particular "The Dagenham Dialogues", that Cook was invited to become a permanent fixture and the show became 'Not Only Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, But Also Their Guests', though it was only ever really referred to as 'Not Only... But Also'."Not Only But Always" is a British TV movie, originally screened on the Channel 4 network in the UK on December 30, 2004. Written and directed by playwright Terry Johnson, the film tells the story of the working and personal relationship between the comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, a hugely popular duo in the UK during the 1960s and '70s.Focusing primarily on Cook, the film traces the pair from their first meeting through their career as part of the Beyond the Fringe review, their television series 'Not Only... But Also' (from which the film takes its title) and various other projects before their later estrangement as Moore became a successful Hollywood film star and Cook remained in the UK. Although some events are fictionalised and condensed, and the film was criticised in some quarters for an unsympathetic portrayal of many of Cook's faults, it was generally well-received critically.
BCnU!
Here's a reprint of the NY Times overview of the Daniel Boone legend as seen on TV.......
October 29, 2006
DVD
A Tubful of Coonskin and Corn
By VINCENT COSGROVE
EIGHTEEN months after the premiere of the television series “Daniel Boone” in 1964, the Kentucky Legislature approved a resolution to express its displeasure with the show’s historical inaccuracies.
The actor Fess Parker responded in much the same way he played Boone: with a gentle firmness. Pointing out that his show was a mix of fact and legend, he described “Daniel Boone” as an entertaining and wholesome series for the whole family.
Then, with a wryness the real Boone (1734-1820) might have appreciated, Mr. Parker added that he was “certain that if Boone were alive today he would be as astonished as I that that august body of men, the Kentucky Legislature, has turned into a passel of television critics.”
The controversy faded, and “Daniel Boone” went on to a lucrative six-year run. The first season is now available in an eight-DVD collection.
Of course, the Kentucky Legislature was right. In the series, Boone and his wife, Rebecca (Patricia Blair), have but two children. In reality, they had seven surviving offspring by the mid-1770’s, the era in which these episodes are set. Boone did not explore Kentucky and establish Boonesborough at the behest of George Washington. He did not save Benjamin Franklin from hanging by the British. Unlike the strapping 6-foot-5 Parker, Boone stood 5-foot-10 by the most generous estimate. And he hated coonskin caps.
That cap is a telling link between Mr. Parker’s Boone and Davy Crockett, the role that made Mr. Parker a star in the 1950’s. John Mack Faragher, in his excellent 1992 biography, “Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer,” wrote that “Mr. Parker’s Crockett/Boone, in fact, is largely responsible for the persistent popular confusion that exists today between these two frontier heroes. Is it true, people ask, what they say about Daniel Boone’s death at the Alamo?”
Unlike Crockett, Boone was one trailblazer who avoided violence whenever possible. Mr. Parker’s Boone shares this philosophy, although he does raise Tick Licker, his trusty rifle, in self-defense, usually against attacking Indians. It’s unfortunate that over the opening credits, Boone shoots an Indian as the theme song declares, “He fought for America to make all Americans free.”
On the other hand, one of Boone’s closest friends in the series is Mingo, an Oxford-educated Cherokee played by Ed Ames. (Mr. Ames made broadcast history during a 1965 appearance on the “Tonight” show, demonstrating his prowess with a tomahawk by hurling one at the painted outline of a man — and embedding the blade in the figure’s crotch.)
Mr. Parker was correct when he told the legislators that his series was wholesome family entertainment. “Daniel Boone” at its best offers exciting stories of conflict that teach tolerance and stress a basic humanity among pioneers, Native Americans and Redcoats. Some incidents are grounded in fact, though filtered through the standard Hollywood simplifications. At its most routine, the series can be slow and contrived, with Daniel endlessly stalking an enemy or bear. Given that there are 28 black-and-white episodes in Season 1, the show’s batting average is solid. But what appeal “Daniel Boone” may have among kids in an iPod-Xbox-YouTube world is unclear.
The real Boone’s adventures became the stuff of folklore, tales told around a campfire. Boone’s event-filled life inspired writers as diverse as James Fenimore Cooper (Natty Bumppo owes much to Boone) and Lord Byron, who devoted seven stanzas to Boone in “Don Juan.”
Mr. Parker’s series, in a way, added its own shades to Boone’s legend, luring an audience around the modern version of the campfire — the television. That image of television as a campfire would be invoked again in the opening credits of 'Amazing Stories'.BCnU!
Fess Parker's roles as 'Davy Crockett' and 'Daniel Boone' are the official televersions of Earth Prime-Time. Other portrayals - like Peter Graves' Boone and Tim Dunagin's Crockett - would be assigned their own Toobworlds in the TV Multiverse.
As such, you look at them side by side and you can't help noticing how similar the two men looked. (Remember, we're now looking at them from within the Toobworld perspective. The fact that Parker played both roles doesn't enter into it.)
Since telegenetics is so strong in Toobworld, there should be only one conclusion - Daniel Boone was the biological father of Davy Crockett.
Daniel Boone was 52 when Crockett was born. He'd be around for another 34 years and Davy would only outlive him by 16 years. So Boone was hale and hearty enough to have made a really solid Tennessee excursion in his fifties. And while there he could have sired the young cub Davy.
Now, there's no way either of these men could live up to their legends in the real world. Maybe Boone was uncouth and unfaithful in real life, but the rules should apply in this as well when it comes to Toobworld. The facts of the real world should not contradict what is established in the televised story. Therefore, the Toobworld Daniel Boone doesn't seem likely to have betrayed his betrothed, Rebecca.
Still, Toobworld does provide an exit strategy to get out of this situation.
The precedent can be found in a 1973 'Gunsmoke' two-parter, "Matt's Love Story". Marshall Dillon was in Arizona when a bullet grazed his head and caused him to suffer amnesia. He fell in love with the woman who tended to his wounds, but he left her behind once he regained his memories and returned to Dodge City.
It wasn't until the 'Gunsmoke' TV movies of the 1990's that we - and Matt - found out that he fathered a daughter. (I wrote about this just the other day in a theory of relateeveety to connect 'Gunsmoke' to 'Fury'.)
The same situation could apply to Daniel Boone. He could have traveled south to Tennessee from Kentucky, only to get a head wound, perhaps from a tomahawk. After losing his memory, he meets Rebecca Hawkins Crockett who takes him in to bring him back to health. Perhaps her husband John was away with his former mountain men cronies from the war, but there would still be four children underfoot. (There would be four more children after Davy.) Still, she might have taken a fancy to this big man (as he is described in the theme song.) She may have wanted to find out exactly how big a man he really was.
Maybe Boone was able to remember that he was supposed to be with a woman named Rebecca and so easily acquiesced to her advances. And pretty soon he had her spread wider than that tree he split in the show's opening credits. (Whoa, Nellie! Don't want this turning into slash-fic!) 
Daniel Boone's memory may have returned while he was away from Mrs. Crockett's company, and he might have returned to his own Rebecca without ever remembering what he had done. Nine months later, David Crockett would be born on a mountain top in Tennessee, the spitting image of his biological father, Daniel Boone.
Daniel Boone was a man, alright!
BCnU!
It is of Lord Peter Wimsey whom I'm writing today, in making the claim that his genealogy can link his televised mysteries (at least those five serials starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter) to the TV series 'The Avengers'.
