Review: Gormenghast
Set in the huge Castle Gormenghast, a place of rigid tradition over all else. A young kitchen hand named Steerpike (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) plots and schemes to advance his station in life, manipulating the various characters in the castle. Ian Richardson and Celia Imrie play the revolting Lord and Lady of the castle (their family have ruled the place for centuries), the latter of whom has just birthed the new Earl of the castle. Zoe Wanamaker and Lynsey Baxter play Richardson’s twit twin sisters, Neve McIntosh is Lady Fuchsia (eldest daughter of Richardson and Imrie), whilst John Sessions and Fiona Shaw turn up as Dr Alfred Prunesquallor and his daffy spinster sister. Sir Christopher Lee plays the gaunt, taciturn devoted manservant Flay. This 2000 BBC comic fantasy miniseries really ought to have been up my alley. In basic terms it’s a mixture of Charles Dickens, Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling. Sounds brilliant, right? Yeah, it’s really not. It’s just very, very st