Basingstoke - Cultural References

Cultural References

In the 1887 Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera Ruddigore, the word "Basingstoke" is used as a code word by Sir Despard Murgatroyd to soothe his new wife, Mad Margaret, when she seems in danger of relapsing into madness. Margaret suggests this course of action herself:

Well, then, when I am lying awake at night, and the pale moonlight streams through the latticed casement, strange fancies crowd upon my poor mad brain, and I sometimes think that if we could hit upon some word for you to use whenever I am about to relapse—some word that teems with hidden meaning—like "Basingstoke"—it might recall me to my saner self.

In 1895, Thomas Hardy referred to Basingstoke as "Stoke Barehills" in Jude the Obscure – Part Fifth, Chapter 5

"There is in Upper Wessex an old town of nine or ten thousand souls; the town may be called Stoke-Barehills. It stands with its gaunt, unattractive, ancient church, and its new red brick suburb".

"The most familiar object in Stoke-Barehills nowadays is its cemetery, standing among some picturesque mediaeval ruins beside the railway; the modern chapels, modern tombs, and modern shrubs having a look of intrusiveness amid the crumbling and ivy-covered decay of the ancient walls."

In Hunter Davies' 1968 biography of The Beatles, Paul McCartney offers John Lennon "some amazing cake from Basingstoke."

In 1974 Basingstoke is mentioned in a skit from Episode 42 of Monty Python's Flying Circus as the site of a World War II battle. When the General (sitting as president of a court martial) asks "Basingstoke, Hampshire?" he is told no, the battle occurred in Basingstoke, Westphalia (which can only be located on a map produced by Cole Porter).

In 1978, Carl Barât, co-founder of The Libertines rock band, was born in Basingstoke and responded to a request for a description of the town with the question: "Have you seen The Office?".

In 1979, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams includes a reference to the town. Just after Ford Prefect has explained to Arthur Dent that they hitched a lift on a spaceship Arthur replies: "Are you trying to tell me that we just stuck out our thumbs and some green bug-eyed monster stuck his head out and said, Hi fellas, hop right in. I can take you as far as the Basingstoke roundabout?".

Also in 1979, A Stone in Heaven, part of Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series, Admiral Flandry uses "Basingstoke" as a password, in an apparent homage to its usage in Ruddigore.

In 1981, in the sitcom Only Fools And Horses, its revealed that the character Rodney Trotter was expelled from Art College in Basingstoke for smoking cannabis.

In the 1984 Robyn Hitchcock's song "I Often Dream Of Trains", Basingstoke is mentioned as in the following lyric snippet:

I often dream of trains when I'm alone
I ride on them into another zone
I dream of them constantly
Heading for paradise
Or Basingstoke
Or Reading

In the 1990 Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde, based on the novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, His Grace Rupert the 14th Bishop of Basingstoke is a character.

Patrick Wilde's 1993 play, What's Wrong With Angry? is set in Basingstoke. It was later adapted into the 1998 film, Get Real.

In the 2005 novel "The Big Over Easy" by Jasper Fforde', Detective Mary Mary from hails from Basingstoke, and is continually claiming to not be ashamed of it, a play on the town's public relations campaign that it's "A Place to Be Proud Of."