“I’m Just Back From Manchuria” – Peter Fleming on Screen

“It is not history, but it is a hoot”, one reviewer wrote – and quite true. Sky Atlantic’s Fleming (which has been around for a while but I only just round to seeing it) was great fun. If there are one or two people from the twentieth century it would be excellent to be then Ian Fleming must be one of them – topped only perhaps (and certainly so for all China Rhymers) by his older brother Peter.

So it would be remiss of me not to note the presence of China sojourner, explorer and commentator Peter Fleming (the older brother, played by Dominic Cooper) in the show. Of course for many years, before the war, Peter was the Fleming everyone knew – a standard pin-up for the girl’s sixth form. His travels in China are legendary and chronicled in One’s Company and News From Tartary. Fleming starts with the two brothers travelling through Europe on a train and Peter being spotted and asked to sign a book – “ho0w are you?” asks his female admirer to which, Peter (played by Rupert Evans) utters the (to China Rhymers anyway) immortal line,”I’m just back from Manchuria.”

It is also true, as mentioned in the programme, that Ian Fleming was about to be offered the post of Shanghai correspondent for Reuters in 1939 after he resigned from the Berlin post. He didn’t take the job. In the programme he gives his reason as being that “the salary wouldn’t have even covered my opium bill.” A good line but I’m not sure it’s got any basis in history.

Peter comes over as a bit of a mummy’s boy and the less eccentric, less anti-authoritarian brother. I’m not sure how accurate that is either, but the show’s about Ian so plays up his playboy creds. Still, Peter traveled through Brazil, Russia and China and had plenty of adventures as well as marrying a movie star (Celia Johnson). However, if you believe the achingly funny portrayal of Peter in Auden & Isherwood’s 1939 Journey to a War then perhaps there’s some truth in it.

BTW: there’s a profile of Peter Fleming here that I wrote for the Audible audiobooks website some time back…..

Dominic Cooper as Ian Fleming

Rupert Evans as Peter Fleming

The real Peter in uniform