Not sure if any of you are Mervyn Peake fans, but I think a couple of you are into whistles. Mervyn Peake wrote a trilogy of books usually referred to as the Gormengahst trilogy, a very dense and kinda beutifully revolting read in my opinion. Anyway, the BBC did a production of it at some time, and the character of Steerpike, played by John Reese Meyers, plays the whistle about half way through. At least I think he’s playing the whistle. I’ve been meaning to post this for months and always forget. I’m not sure if I’m a good enough eyballer to tell if he is actually playing, and thought maybe somebody out there might have seen it and could tell. I will watch it again so I can give a better approximation of when it occurs during the dvd. I’m such a geek that I could tell you that in the course of the narrative they have it happen as Mr. Flay, Dr. Prunesqualler, and Titus are following Steerpike through the ancient unused maze of delapidated castle that is Gormenghast in order to witness what nefarious deeds Steerpike has been up to.
Oh yeah, while I thinking of things I’ve been meaning to post, has anyone read (don’t know how to underline a title; I’m a fantasy and whistle geek but computer illiterate, go figure) The Stone and the Flute by Hans Bemman. Just curious. Worth reading if you’re into fantasy.
Don’t know the answer to the question, but the Gormenghast trilogy is absolutely fantastic, IMO. Shame he went completely mad - and then, died, of course - before he could finish it properly. Brilliant piece of writing. As I recall, there was controversy for a time over whether or not it’s allegorical. I’d side with the “nots” on that one.
I remember the incident from the book, and I seem to recall that Dr Prunesquallor is enough of a connoisseur to characterise Steerpike’s playing as ‘brilliant but empty’ - S is all skill and no soul.
Another literary whistler is Lord Peter Wimsey dressed as Harlequin up a tree playing ‘Tom Tom the piper’s son’ - possibly not to the same standard as Steerpike?
I saw that production of Ghormengast…at least I think it was the same one…several years back. Very good movie - I need to read the books, though.
Stone and Flute is absolutely fantastic! One of my favorite fantasy books of all time. It’s available at our local library, but I need to track down a copy to stick in my home library. I’ve not read it in quite some time, and I remember loving it dearly.
Eric
Well, I was thinking of mentioning my own favourite fantasy novels (other than Gormenghast) but decided that that would be off-Peake.
Oh boy, Stone and Flute was the reason i got into whistling twelve years ago (unfortunately i couldn’t obtain a whistle 
).
Anyway it’s a great book, in my opinion totally neglected these days under the flood of instant epic fantasy crappy novels. 
I own the DVD of the BBC production of Gormenghast. In fact, I was telling my wife the other day that we need to sit down this summer and watch the whole thing again. I will have to look out for Steerpike and his whistle scene…
Will report back my findings assuming somebody (MTGuru) doesn’t beat me to it!
Matt
Trivia!
theime music composed by the profoundly awesome John Taverner.
one of my favourate books and one of my favourate composers, yet i still dont own this on DVD.
One or two more of us actually play the things! I’ll have to look up Gormenghast. I’m a sci-fi fan who branches off into fantasy from time to time.
Have at it, Matt. Fantasy fiction is definitely not my thang.
Found the scene on youtube, but don’t know how to post it. It’s under Gormenghast episode 4 part 4 about 34 seconds into it. On seeing it again I don’t believe he is playing the whistle, but could be wrong.
I started playing the whistle after I read Stone and Flute too. I also make every effort to keep from playing like Steerpike or being as foolish as Listerner
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKDk-avqSeM
On closer inspection of both the link and my DVD of the movie, I don’t believe Steerpike is actually playing the whistle. Plus I doubt it can be explained away as “audio/video sync” issues. In a lot of shows (Star Trek: TNG comes to mind) whenever a character is required to play an instrument, they are faking it 99% of the time. Although I grant you Commander Riker of the Enterprise (played by Jonathan Frakes) does actually play the trombone in real life, however Patrick Stewart does not play the whistle as he did in an episode. It was a fake whistle to boot! 
Hope this solves the mystery of Gormenghast!
On a side note, I highly recommend the Gormenghast trilogy of books, as well as the BBC drama. Very cool for the artsy, fantasy genre…
Matt