Tim Vine to play Blandings butler!

Comedian Tim Vine has joined the cast of the second series of BBC One and Mammoth Screen comedy, Blandings.

Vine (best known for his role in Not Going Out) will join the seven-part series based on PG Wodehouse‘s classic stories of the same name as, Beach, Blandings‘ long-suffering and loyal Butler.

Timothy Spall (Harry Potter Films, The King’s Speech) and Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous, Jam & Jerusalem) reprise their roles as the absent-minded Lord Emsworth (Clarence to his friends) and his indomitable sister Connie, alongside Jack Farthing (Da Vinci’s Demons) as Clarence’s feckless son, Freddie.

Guest starring in the series are Julian Rhind-Tutt (The Hours), Celia Imrie (Love & Marriage), Harry Enfield (Bad Education), Matthew Baynton (The Wrong Mans), John Sessions (Filth), Daisy Beaumont (Star Stories), Zoe Boyle (Breathless), Michael Brandon (Episodes), Nicola McAuliffe (Cheri) and Jemima Rooper (Atlantis), alongside other returning semi-regulars Robert Bathurst (Cold Feet) and Ron Donachie (Game Of Thrones).

The series is set in 1929 in the fictional Blandings Castle, home to a chaotic family struggling to keep itself in order. This time around, Clarence, who wants nothing more than to spend time with his precious pig The Empress of Blandings, faces the prospect of being committed to an asylum thanks to an obnoxious house guest; disgrace at the hands of his incorrigible brother Galahad; a leather-gusseted religious maniac and visiting Hollywood film crew; his terrifying sister Charlotte and subterfuge, kidnap and rivalry with Stinker Parsloe in the race for the biggest pumpkin and fattest pig.

Writer and executive producer, Guy Andrews (Lost In Austen, Absolute Power) says: “As ever, all Clarence wants is to be left in peace with his beloved pig. But events conspire against him as never before. His incorrigibly rakish brother Galahad is on the prowl with a glittering monocle and a case full of shocking memoirs. Other guests and impostors include a voracious Hollywood producer, a dancing saxophonist secretary, Clarence’s frankly terrifying sister Charlotte and – worst of all – the poker-wielding Duke of Dunstable, the rudest man in Shropshire. Will tranquillity ever reign at Blandings Castle, even for an afternoon?”

Kristian Smith, BBC Commissioning Editor, is executive producing for the BBC, alongside Joint Managing Director Damien Timmer for Mammoth. Also producing is Matthew Mulot; the directors are Mandie Fletcher and Geoffrey Sax.

Blandings series two has begun filming on location at Crom Castle in Northern Ireland and is due to air on BBC One in early 2014.