Colonel Blimp

Colonel Blimp

An older man who is pompous or irritable and adheres to an outdated ideology. The name comes from a British comic strip character that first appeared in the London Evening Standard newspaper in 1934. Primarily heard in UK. He's such a Colonel Blimp when he starts ranting about his views on welfare and the poor.
See also: blimp
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • set (one's) back up
  • like a bear with a sore head
  • be like a bear with a sore head
  • cross as a bear
  • (as) cross as a bear
  • gritchy
  • (as) cross as a bear with a sore head
  • (one's) back is up
  • put (one's) back up
  • narky
References in periodicals archive
This handling of social change is particularly evoked in Rattigan's analysis of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. The film narrative follows the life of Clive Wynne-Candy, an upper-class professional soldier, through flashback.
***fe & Death of Colonel Blimp (U): Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's classic 1943 film goes back to the Boer War.
Despite being in my forties, I am not a Colonel Blimp, a Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells or a fuddy-duddy, although I'm not sure why the views of the older racegoer are deemed so irrelevant by RFC.
He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going!
You don't have to be a right-wing Colonel Blimp figure to suppress a gag reflex at all of this.
In addition David Low wrote and illustrated articles on cartooning for the magazine, including the opening feature, 'Does Colonel Blimp Exist?', for the third issue (September 1937).
Far more important--film historian Ian Christie says in his erudite but accessible commentary--is this film's spirit, a muffled cri de coeur for a preindustrial England largely gone by the time the filmmakers made this film and its cinematic siblings "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943) and "I Know Where I'm Going!" (1945).
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a bonus well worth seeing but the jewel in the crown is A Matter of Life and Death, a remarkable fantasy starring David Niven as a pilot having to fight for his right to fall in love with Kim Hunter.
"I played George as a gruff, Colonel Blimp type, a typical Victorian father obsessed with the Navy, stamp-collecting and time-keeping" reveals Tom.
"If Colonel Blimp and his mates don't like it, they should all clear off."
The Colonel Blimp Brigade may be bulging with pride that Canada was asked to contribute to this force, but maybe a better question would be why are the other European NATO members staying away in droves?
He said: "It's the place where if you look through film history from the 1940s onwards filmmakers like David Lean (director of Lawrence of Arabia), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (together these made the 49th Parallel and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp) and Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat (together these worked on movies like The Lady Vanishes and The Rake's Progress) were doing their most impressive work at Pinewood Studios.
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were behind some of the most celebrated British films of their era such as The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and A Matter Of Life And Death.
(Sat/Sun, Electric) *** The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (U) Powell and Pressburger's 1947 classic questioning the conflict between traditional military honour and modern warfare.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (BBC2, 12.45pm - 3.20pm) Satirical drama, starring Roger Livesey and Deborah Kerr 1943 ***