This marks the first televisual adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline And Fall, one of the greatest comic novels of all time, and is written by James Wood (Rev). Decline And Fall sees Paul Pennyfeather (Jack Whitehall) as an inoffensive divinity student at Oxford University in the 1920s, who is wrongly dismissed for indecent exposure having been made the victim of a prank by The Bollinger Club.
David Suchet plays Dr. Fagan, the headmaster of Llanabba, an obscure public school in Wales where Paul first finds employment and works with fellow teacher Grimes (Douglas Hodge). It is at the school that he meets a beautiful South American woman, the Honourable Mrs Margot Beste-Chetwynde, played by Eva Longoria, who is the mother of one of the pupils. For Paul, it is love at first sight, but little does he know the surprises that lie ahead of him when he agrees to tutor her son over the summer holidays.
cast
Jack Whitehall as Paul Pennyfeather
Eva Longoria as Mrs Margot Beste-Chetywynde
David Suchet as Doctor Fagan
Douglas Hodge as Grime
Stephen Graham
Vincent Franklin
Gemma Whelan
Jason Watkins
key behind the scenes crew
James Wood as Writer / Executive Producer
Evelyn Waugh as Original Author
Ben Cavey as Executive Producer
Will Gould as Executive Producer
Frith Tiplady as Executive Producer
Guillem Morales as Director
show type
period comedy
broadcast from
30 March 2017
network and production companies
BBC One – Tiger Aspect Drama
