Talk:The Hundred and One Dalmatians

Rewrite
The old Wikipedia problem. I look for information on something and just find a stub. I've expanded the article a lot, especially by adding details of the plot. However, it has been a long time since I read the book and I may have got some details wrong. Any corrections would be welcome. mh. 20:57, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

she wrote a sequel too, who name temporarily escapes me ... something like "The twilight barking" ... -- Tarquin 11:03 Feb 6, 2003 (UTC)


 * I've found a reference to The Starlight Barking (1967) - would that be it?
 * --Paul A 01:56 Feb 7, 2003 (UTC)


 * bingo! I read it when I was a kid. Not as good as the first one. -- Tarquin 10:40 Feb 7, 2003 (UTC)

Yes, a lot is wrong
It's Pongo and Missus Pongo. And it's "Twilight Barking."

Nota bene the spelling. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.96.231.142 (talk) 10:20, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Basically the first thing that needs to be done here is a basic round of proofreading. "Would", but I ran into the semi-protection and I'm loath to go through with the bother of creating an account, remembering the login details, and logging on every time I want to fix something on a site that otherwise allows no-log-in editing :p 193.63.174.208 (talk) 10:05, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Location of Hell Hall?
Just out of curiosity I'm trying to work out where Hell Hall was actually set, and the route they took to get there. The book places it in the village of Dympling in Suffolk but Multimap and MS Map Point have no details of anywhere called Dympling, and Google just comes up with recipes for dumplings. However there is a place called Shimpling which seems to fit the bill. Combining details in the book with the route into London in The Starlight Barking suggests this:


 * 1) Regent's Park/Outer Circle
 * 2) Camden Town
 * 3) Outskirts of London
 * 4) Epping Forest (stopped overnight at a village here)
 * 5) cross country (route avoiding roads saves miles travelling into Essex, so it probably misses out the less direct route along the old A11)
 * 6) small hamlet with rundown hall
 * 7) Bridge across the River Stour
 * 8) Sudbury
 * 9) "Dympling"

101 Dalmatians suggests that they planned to follow the main road from London to Suffolk. This was before the M11 was built, so it looks like the route was intended to be A11/A104/B1393/A414/A1184 (all used to be the A11) and then somehow getting from Bishop's Stortford to Sudbury.

As far as the hall goes, there are a few in the area near Shimpling. These include:
 * Kentwell Hall
 * Melford Hall
 * Nether Hall
 * Blacklands Hall

I'm not sure which of these (if any) is most likely. According to the description in the book it was 200 years old (in the 1950s) with a similar hall next door (the farmhouse in "Dympling"). It has a large perimeter wall with a folly, and a large pond in the grounds, and looks rather like a face. Of course it could be that the hall doesn't exist as this is fiction after all.

The return route is:
 * 1) "Dympling"
 * 2) Gypsy camp
 * 3) village with bakery (described as 5 miles out of "Dympling")
 * 4) country church
 * 5) village where bakery burns down (5 miles from first village)
 * 6) picked up by removal van (with Staffordshire Terrier)
 * 7) presumably driven back to London along the old A11
 * 8) St John's Wood
 * 9) Regent's Park/Outer Circle

The distance from Shimpling to Regent's Park is about 55 miles, which is consistent with the sheepdog's plan to travel about 5 miles a day over 10 - 12 days.

This is all speculation, but it would be interesting to flesh out some of the details in the book. It does seem odd that Smith gives detailed descriptions of London but picks a fictitious name for the village in Suffolk.

mh. 21:29, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Not necessarily, a similar case is the film The Maggie, which has real placenames at first, but switches to fictional placenames once they get through the Crinan Canal. PatGallacher (talk) 20:15, 24 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Responding to myself, according to the "smart little house" in Regent's Park is 1 St Andrew's Place and is used by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine. Also, from what I remember, the 1st edition of 101 Dalmatians has a much better map of the route than the 2006 Egremont edition that I have here. mh. 23:53, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

As "Novels by Dodie Smith" is a sub-cat of "English novels" I propose to revert back unless anyone objects. PatGallacher (talk) 20:15, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Pending changes
This article is one of a number selected for the early stage of the trial of the Pending Changes system on the English language Wikipedia. All the articles listed at Pending changes/Queue  are being considered for level 1 pending changes protection.

The following request appears on that page:

Comments on the suitability of theis page for "Pending changes" would be appreciated.

Please update the Queue page as appropriate.

Note that I am not involved in this project any much more than any other editor, just posting these notes since it is quite a big change, potentially

Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 00:20, 17 June 2010 (UTC).

Radio drama
I found on Youtube a radio adaptation of this work. I'm not sure when it was made -- before or after the movie, or what. I don't know anything about it really, but it definitely and I would think it deserves mention here... Bobnorwal (talk) 23:07, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 3 February 2018
ADD: It was published in the United States in serial form in Woman's Day, June through September, 1956, as The Great Dog Robbery. Bonitakale (talk) 13:41, 3 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 18:45, 3 February 2018 (UTC)

Location needed?
"The 1991 reissue was the twentieth highest earning film of the year for domestic earnings."

Where was this? Presumably the US market? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 51.9.7.3 (talk) 12:55, 2 August 2020 (UTC)