hello! I found one of the older posts on this blog from 2021 of good omens setting up filming at Hopetown House! and i was confused, because now that season 2 has come out I can’t figure out when they used this setting. could it maybe have just been a production home base as they filmed in nearby locations?
Wanted to get your expertise about it! love your indispensable cataloguing work!
Hiya! :) Very happy you like the blog! :) <3 The library in the Hopetoun house was used as the place where Aziraphale and Crowley conversed with Mr. Darlymple :)
Mr. Dalrymple, the eminent surgeon in episode 3 of S2 of Good Omens, appears to be inspired by Robert Knox, an Edinburgh surgeon famous because of his connection to the Burke and Hare murders in the 1820s.
He became an anatomist at the Edinburgh College of Surgeons in Newington and quickly developed a reputation as a lecturer that guaranteed him a steady flow of students, but as with Dalrymple in the show, the shortage of available cadavers was a constant and persistent problem in the city.
Since it gets a bit grisly, I'll pop it behind a thingie.
Graverobbing became so common that many of the graveyards in the city installed watchtowers to keep an eye on the graveyards and some of them had mortsafes put in place:
The coffins were locked in these cages to give the bodies time to get to the stage of decay that would render them useless to anatomists, then popped in a grave afterwards.
This is where Burke and Hare enter this story. They lived in the slums of the old town of Edinburgh and learned that the surgeons would provide money in exchange for fresh bodies, so rather than dig up the graves and risk the watchmen, they cut out the middleman and started murdering people for profit.
Robert Knox was their primary customer and he claimed to be oblivious to the crimes that were being committed, even though Burke and Hare were showing up with unsettling regularity with fresh corpses, but since they were killing the poor, no one was really paying much attention.
According to Mr. Knox, he thought the men were picking up corpses from the poor houses, though there is evidence that suggests he was aware of what was happening: one of the victims was a well-known boy with distinctive physical disabilities who would have been well-recognised. According to contemporary accounts, Knox had the young man's head, hands and feet removed, so no one would recognise him.
Since this could never be proven, he wasn't arrested for his part in the whole affair, but he was described as being "deficient in principle and heart" and public opinion spoke loud and clear. He left Edinburgh in disgrace and was eventually also debarred from teaching by the Royal College of Surgeons in England.
Eventually, laws were brought in to prevent grave robbery, but not before dozens of people were killed for profit.
Usually one would think of going through their memories as a learning experience as more of a "rummaging around in the attic" metaphor, since the brain, the keeper of memories, is in the highest part of our bodies. But one of S2's underlying themes is the looming Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead, so its underground that we need to head - to the basement.
Aziraphale does a great deal of "stocktaking in the basement" during his trip to Edinburgh. He recalls the encounter with the body-snatcher Elspeth and her companion wee Morag in 1827 on the way up, has his memory jolted by the statue of Gabriel to something more recent, then thinks about what happened in 1941 on the way back. We are largely going to deal with aspects of the 1827 minisode in this meta, and some possible implications for S3.
Lets have a look at why this year, 1827, was chosen for this minisode. The Anatomy Act of 1832 gave doctors and medical students legal permission to use donated bodies for research and educational purposes, and was made so to stop the distressing trade of body snatching that was occurring at the time. But this minisode isn't necessarily about stopping that activity, rather the reasons for doing it in the first place. Looking at Strong's Concordance, as we must, in the Greek, 1827 gives us "convince" or "prove to be in the wrong." This sounds about right for this minisode, which includes the conversation about poverty inducing more opportunities to be wicked, which somehow leads to holiness, from the book. The minisode shows how Aziraphale has this idea turned around for him - he's convinced otherwise, and shown how his initial beliefs about the practice turn out to be wrong.
Also, around 1827 is the time when the building of private mausoleums was at its peak. A mausoleum was (and still is) a display of wealth, so featuring one here plays into the story in the minisode of the virtues of poverty versus the rich. (It's also a call back to the origin of the Bentley's number plate, which was written on a mausoleum in a Monty Python sketch.)
Digging Up the Past
Shax does her own stocktaking when she receives the above push-back from Crowley, and realizes that Aziraphale is not in the bookshop at all at that moment, and goes looking for him. Later, she digs up his own dirty past to taunt him with, in an effort to make him crack and give up Gabriel.
But why is Aziraphale digging up this particular memory at this time? We know he is fond of Edinburgh and has visited many times, so this particular memory must contain something of importance for us to see.
There is the title of the minisode, some Masonic symbology and the metaphorical act of the snatched bodies as the dead rising from their graves which all point us in the direction of the Second Coming and Judgement Day, which we will cover in Part 4, so we'll put that to the side for the moment.
Changing Sides
Let's have a look at some of the blocking of the scenes in the Resurrectionists minisode. This wont cover everything, so if you do go back to have another look at it yourself, do pay close attention to who stands where.
When we first meet Crowley and Aziraphale in 1827, they are standing on what we think of as their "normal" sides, angel on the right and demon on the left. Elspeth, caught in the act of body snatching, is even further to the left, the real demon on the scene, which actually pushes Crowley back to the middle ground.
Straight afterwards, we see all three of them walking together through the streets of Edinburgh. Crowley is still in the middle, but now Elspeth is in the angel's position and Aziraphale on the far left as a demon, as they all discuss the virtues of poverty. Oh dear, Aziraphale, you're losing the argument here, and losing badly!
Inside Mr Dalrymple's rooms, Aziraphale decides to take matters into his own hands, where he thinks he is doing the right thing, and miracles the first body into soup. Elspeth is caught innocently in the middle of this, and Dalrymple is on the demonic left.
A conversation is had with Dalrymple following this. Crowley is hidden in the right-hand chair, Aziraphale, who needs to be swayed, is in the middle, and Dalrymple is still on the demonic left.
After heading back to the cemetery for another body, Crowley and Aziraphale inspect some of the protective measures set up to guard the graves. Crowley is still on the moral right, questioning if the rich are more worthy of being protected from body snatchers than the poor.
Despite changing his mind about body snatching, Aziraphale still ends up on the wrong side of the argument in the end. As a giant Crowley looks down on the two of them, its Aziraphale standing on the demonic left side as the virtues of poverty lose out once more.
Timely Lessons
Back to the fireside chat with Dalrymple. We have this heartfelt reaction from Aziraphale when he learns the preserved specimen he is holding came from a seven-year-old boy.
AZIRAPHALE: [takes the jar] Well, that's a foot. So it's definitely not a foot. [laughs]
DALRYMPLE: That's my point. If you two smart gentlemen can't identify it, then what are my students to make of it? I removed this tumor from a seven-year-old boy.
AZIRAPHALE: Oh. Oh dear. And… Is he…?
DALRYMPLE: [shakes head] And that is why we need a steady supply of cadavers. We need to cut. If we can't cut, we can't learn. If we can't learn more, a lot more, then how on earth are we going to win the battle against monstrosities like this one? I'm just trying to save lives and teach students. I either end up with a knighthood or condemned as a resurrectionist and hanging from a rope.
This, I feel, is an important lesson for them, and it seems for Aziraphale in particular. Why? This part focuses more on his reaction to the tumor, rather than Crowley's, and when we focus on Aziraphale it has ramifications for the future.*
A physical problem is usually easily identified (such as the foot). But what if the problem is invisible, because its on the inside? How do you see into a body, find a problem and make it visible, if you have not been presented with this problem before? Or perhaps you know something is wrong, but don't know what to call it?
It doesn't even have to be physical, it can be a mental, or a psychological problem. One still has to learn how to "see" the problem, to identify what it is (such as a particular pattern of behaviour) and to know the best course of action to overcome it.
Crowley wishing for more murderers to facilitate Dalrymple's research is one thing, but not being able to save a 7 year-old boy...this is the theme of the death of innocent children we've seen repeated throughout the series (the Flood, Job's children, the aborted attempt on Adam, the Crucifixion, and the implications around Crowley's Fall, to name a few.)
This also plays into the "representation matters" theme from the end - you can't be what you can't see.
This is not a lesson about the fact that they care, because they do, but how they learn to see the real problem in the first place.** I'll be interested to see the matching scenes/parallels to this in S3.
The Two Dalrymples
It has not gone unremarked that there is a Dalrymple mentioned in S1 as well - Witchfinder Colonel Dalrymple, who made the fancy Thundergun that was taken to Tadfield to shoot the antichrist with.
Now we can talk about the connection between the two Dalrymples - they are both about removing "monstrosities" from humanity.
Take the line in the passage above: "If we can't learn more, a lot more, then how on earth are we going to win the battle against monstrosities like this one?"
As I've mentioned before, the root of the word monster is from the Latin for monstrum, "a divine omen (of misfortune)," but also monstrare, which means "to point out," which bring us back to this scene in S1, on the tarmac of the Tadfield Airbase:
Aziraphale took Witchfinder Colonel Dalrymple's Thundergun to remove the monstrosity that was Adam the antichrist to save humanity, and Mr Dalrymple the surgeon is trying to learn how to remove and save humanity from the monstrosity we know as cancer. I'm just making a spot now on my S3 bingo card for a third Dalrymple mention, that will no doubt have some connection to the removal of monsters and/or monstrosities from the world.
Balancing the Books
The final bit of stocktaking might just be the coldest part of the whole recall process.
When Aziraphale calls from the cemetery in Edinburgh, he mentions Dalrymple's fate to Crowley:
AZIRAPHALE: Oh, do you really think so? Um, Crowley… Do you remember Dr. Dalrymple, The one who bought, err…
CROWLEY: Wee Morag's body. Not a doctor… A mister, yes! Yes, whatever happened to him?
AZIRAPHALE: [reading pamphlet] He left Edinburgh in disgrace. And then he killed himself.
CROWLEY: Mmm.
Mmm, indeed. They might have saved Elspeth from Hell to meet up with wee Morag again, but the count of souls was still balanced out in the end, with Dalrymple heading the other way. The last time we see him he is still on the demonic LHS of the screen in blocking as he pays for wee Morag's body. Hell had him marked well in advance of his demise.
Time to move on to Part 4: Judgment Day, where we look at all the signs that the End Times are approaching. Again.
Thanks to @vidavalor for the thematic inspiration for this post.
For further reading:
You Say Potato, I Say Excellent! Or blocking, accents and legacy of morality tales in ‘The Resurrectionists’ minisode PART II by @pommedepersephone
The linked post at the beginning Historical Analysis: class and injustice in 'The Ressurrectionists' minisode by @bowtiepastabitch is here.
An intro to Elspeth and wee Morag being parallel characters to Aziraphale and Crowley by @good-soupmens I'm going to follow up on this in Part 5.
*I explained in Part 2 that I believe we are being shown the future through Aziraphale and his parallel characters, Beelzebub and Maggie. Another reason for this is that in S1 is that Anathema is one of his parallels, and she is also caught up with living in the future through the prophecies of Agnes Nutter. In contrast, Crowley's story, and that of his parallels, such as Gabriel and Newt, are about the past and trying to live the life you want that isn't bound by expectations. Urrgghh, I can see I might have to expand on this somewhere later.
**Crowley, with most of his story in the past, shows us an example of this with his "looking where the furniture isn't" comment.
The other posts in this series can be found here:
Part 1: Detective Aziraphale
Part 2: Aziraphale-Beelzebub Parallels
Part 4: Judgement Day
Part 5: I Know Where I'm Going
I 👏 just 👏 noticed 👏 something 👏 that 👏 destroyed 👏 my 👏 sanity 👏 even 👏 more 👏 and 👏 I'm 👏 taking 👏 you 👏 down 👏 with 👏 me 👏
Now you remember Season 2 Episode 3 when Mr Dalrymple asks Aziraphale and Crowley what's in the jar ?
Well we've all clearly seen how Aziraphale reacts upon learning that the boy is dead : bringing the jar to his chest, looking distraught, all of this emphasized by the music. Exactly what you would expect from an angel, a being of love, who finds it deeply unjust that a poor innocent boy had to die in such a horrible way.
Now after many rewatch of the series (not even counting anymore) I tend to focus less on the middle of the screen and look for other stuff in the background.
And what got me is this :
1 - Aziraphale instinctively looking at Crowley for comfort.
2 - Crowley's freaking hand reaching for more alcohol because he too cannot stand what he's hearing and he also needs a way to find comfort. He's disgusted and sad. No more jokes. Innocent children are dying.
And he can't stand that, we've known this for a long time, since the Ark.
Not. The. Children.
That's why he's not joking when he later says 'Too late.' to Aziraphale when the angel fails to save Wee Morag. If his angel wants to break the rules in order to save a dying child, he's not mocking him. He's supporting him. Not because Aziraphale is breaking the rules but because it's a sacrifice that could have grave consequences and he's willing to do it for what he thinks is a good cause.
That's why when Elspeth wants to kill herself, he drinks the fatal dose of laudanum and orders her to live. He cannot stand the idea of children dying so soon, their future being robbed from them.
Maybe it's because it's unnatural that parents live to bury their children, or maybe it's because Crowley's dreams were crushed so soon in his life and he just doesn't want to see it happening to others, because he knows how it feels to lose everything.
I wish I could draw. I need more art of the Resurrectionist scene where Aziraphale and Crowley are talking with Mr Dalrymple because the moment when Aziraphale realizes the object in the glass is a tumor of a dead child, he pulls it closer to himself, grief-stricken. He just loves humans so much. 😭🥺
I was relistening to the Good Omens audiobook (the David Tennant and Michael Sheen version, of course), and I can't believe I'm just now realizing that Shadwell's Thundergun belonged to a Witchfinder-Colonel Dalrymple. AAAA I will be discovering Easter Eggs in season 2 for years to come. Brilliant.
The way Mr. Dalrymple has the audacity to judge Elspeth for bringing him a body when he's specifically the one asking for them AND the one who will be cutting into it is infuriating.
And a disgustingly wonderful reflection on the way the world works. People who can afford to pay other people to do their dirty work always judge the people doing the very dirty work they're paying them for.
But if there were no demand, there'd be no need for the supply, Mr. Dalrymple.
