PG Wodehouse

[Katharine]

No, it's not something I've read. However I think my parents enjoyed watching Jeeves and Wooster a few years ago, and if it's the programme I think I caught a few snippets of, it looked quite good.

Maybe I'll keep an eye out for a reasonably priced book and give them a try.

[Bertie]

Katharine, I wonder if that's the 90's version of Jeeves & Wooster - in which Stephen Fry (Jeeves) and Hugh Laurie (Wooster) did a great job portraying them? And, also, a special shout out to John Turner in that version, who did a wonderful job playing the character of the angry adversary, Roderick Spode. He was marvellous in it as well.

For anyone thinking of giving a none Jeeves & Wooster a go, I would really recommend the stand alone novel 'Laughing Gas'. I've just finished re-reading it yet again and I always find it one of, if not the, funniest of his books.

It's a bit different to some extent - in that there's a slight Sci-Fi element to the premise for once as an English man goes to the Dentist at the same time as a young American child actor and, while both knocked out under gas, they wake up in each others bodies. That creates plenty of opportunities for humour - not least the young American kid suddenly speaking with the vocabulary of a Bertie Wooster type! It's a very funny book that I always really enjoy.

[Katharine]

Yes, I'm fairly certain it was the Fry and Laurie version my parents enjoy watching.

I'm not sure whether I should try and read the books first, or just borrow the DVDs.

'Laughing Gas' sounds fun - I'm sure there have been a number of films along similar lines.

[Judith Crabb]

Katharine, I found the first series of Laurie and Fry's Jeeves and Wooster as funny as anything I have ever seen on TV (well, maybe not quite as funny as some of the episodes in series one of 'Wodehouse Playhouse'). A few years ago I bought a complete collection of all four series of Jeeves and Wooster and remember feeling that while series two and three had some good moments, the fourth series was almost unwatchable. A case of keeping a series going on too long having run out of ideas. (The only things I remember about the last series were interminable and boring chase scenes.)
I've recently been reading ''Rookery Nook' a novel by Ben Travers (having enjoyed watching some of his farces on stage years ago). Quite entertaining, but quite lacking Wodehouse's style and light touch, though the convolutions of the plot kept me reading to the end. How on earth is the 'hero' with the help of his friends going to escape the devilish plots of his antagonistic sister-in-law?

[Bertie]

Judith Crabb, I agree the fourth season of Jeeves & Wooster really went downhill. For me, the worst part of it was them starting to take so many liberties with the wonderful Wodehouse stories by adding too many unnecessary alterations that just never happened in the books (a real bugbear of mine when watching TV versions of books).

It was also a shame that there was so many changes to the cast each series with some characters - like the Aunts, Madeleine Bassett, Gussie Fink Nottle - being played by various different actors throughout the run of the show.

However, I still regularly re-watch many of the episodes and think Fry & Laurie were great as Jeeves & Wooster - as were John Turner, Robert Daws and Charlotte Attenborough as Spode, Tuppy and Stiffy.

[Judith Crabb]

I agree, Bertie, cast changes (often for the worse) are a pity but worst of all are the writers who think that they can improve on the originals by straying far from plots and being tone deaf to the subtleties of the creators. Wodehouse is not of course the only victim. As though Macbeth or Oliver Twist have not enough horrors the enterprising film makers shovel more in. Wodehouse's sophisticated social comedy speaks for itself until gagged by script-writers who think themselves screamingly funnier.