Porterhouse Blue
ISBN 0-330-24667-4 | | |
Followed by | Grantchester Grind |
---|
Porterhouse Blue is a novel written by
The novel has a sequel, Grantchester Grind. In 1987, Channel 4 adapted Porterhouse Blue into a TV series of the same name.
Characters
The central characters are Skullion, the Head Porter; Zipser, a research graduate student; Sir Godber Evans, the Master; Lady Mary, the Master's wife; the Dean; and Mrs. Biggs, Zipser's bedder.
Plot
For the first time in five hundred years, the master of Porterhouse fails to name his successor on his deathbed before dying. He succumbs to a Porterhouse Blue - a
Meanwhile, the only research graduate student in the college, Zipser, visits the hard-of-hearing Chaplain and explains his fixation for Mrs Biggs, his middle-aged, large-breasted bedder. As the Chaplain is hard of hearing he requires Zipser to use a megaphone. To his intense embarrassment Zipser is overheard by members of the college who gather outside to listen. Mrs Biggs is not within earshot, but nevertheless has sensed that something is up from Zipser's awkward behaviour around her every time she comes to clean his room and especially when she teases him sexually, such as when she asks him to help take off her bright red PVC raincoat in the tight confines of the "gyp".
While Sir Godber congratulates himself on having defeated the traditionalists, investigative journalist Cornelius Carrington is brought in on the pretext of helping both parties, while secretly having his own agenda.
Meanwhile, having been advised to pick up a foreign student, so as to avoid his lust for Mrs Biggs, after a series of frustrating attempts to buy condoms Zipser drunkenly acquires two large boxes. Concerned that he has technically stolen them, he tries many ways to get rid of them and eventually inflates them with
Mrs Biggs has decided to reciprocate Zipser's passion, and sneaks up to Zipser's room in the middle of the night and wakes him up. To his amazement she undresses and, despite his protests, promptly enters his bed and
Skullion refuses to open the main gates of college to let the
When Skullion is visited by the college officials with the good news, he thinks they have found out his involvement with Sir Godber's death and whilst they are telling him about his great promotion it causes in him a debilitating Porterhouse Blue, and he suffers paralysis. Nonetheless, he is installed as the Master and his shares are sold for rebuilding the Bull Tower, so Porterhouse's traditions are firmly re-established.
Adaptations
TV mini-series
Audio books
There have also been two audio book versions;
- Porterhouse Blue. read by David Jason. ISBN 0-00-104635-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link - Porterhouse Blue: Complete & Unabridged (Word for Word Audio Books). read by ISBN 0-7451-2817-3.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link
See also
References
External links
- Porterhouse Blue (1987) (TV) at IMDb
- "Porterhouse Blue (The first book in the Porterhouse Blue series)". fantasticfiction.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2009. A list of book editions.
- "British TV Comedy - Porterhouse Blue". phill.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2009.
- "TV Cream - Porterhouse Blue". tvcream.co.uk.
- Sharpe, Tom (1989). Hardback. ISBN 0-87113-279-6.
- Sharpe, Tom (1979). Hardback. ISBN 0-436-45802-0.
- Paperback. 1976. ISBN 0-330-24667-4.