A Pride of Heroes

Americans may have Colonial Williamsburg, but for the Brits, there's "Old England," an elaborate theme-park that pays homage to a similarly imaginary glorious past. At Old England, the woods are lush with game-birds, servants know their place, and round every corner is a pink-cheeked, mob-capped maid, bobbing a curtsey and trilling "lawk-a-mussy!" in a rustic brogue. It's no wonder the tourists are happy to buy tickets to a yesterday that never was. Lately, though, there's been a fly in the Old England ointment. The two doddering old war-heroes who own the estate seem to have slipped from charmingly eccentric to disturbingly nuts, and one of the "servants" has committed suicide. Dispatched to investigate the death, Inspector Jimmy Pibble is half-hypnotized by Old England's allure, but when he forces himself to poke beneath the daydream, what he finds is not exactly a green and pleasant land.