Adapting Wodehouse

Quite possibly, the only series that got the stories of PG Wodehouse's most famous and most well-loved characters Jeeves and Wooster was the one produced by by Granada Television in the early 1990's starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in the title roles.

Fry and Laurie were not the first team to take on the mantle of the world's most famous all-knowing valet and his less than capable employer. However, despite the fact Stephen Fry was vastly younger than many of the actors who have portrayed Jeeves in the past, he was by far (in my humble opinion) the very best. And Hugh Laurie's rubber-faced portrayal of Bertram Wilberforce Wooster was equally brilliant.

I felt the key to the success of this Wodehouse series over many other that have come before or after it was the fact that it was incredibly silly. The portrayal of the characters and the situations that were presented for them to overcome were equally clownish and over-the-top to the point that it has no believablilty whatsover.

And that, dear readers, is the key to adapting any of PG Wodehouse's work. And the very reason why quite a few of the adaptations of Wodehouse's books, both currently and in the past have fallen flat on their face.

Case in point. I had rented WODEHOUSE PLAYHOUSE a few months back and my wife Syd and I sat down one night to watch it before bed. The series was produced in the 1970's and starred husband and wife team of John Alderton and Pauline Collins.

Since it came out in the 1970's it had many of the BBC Production standards of that might take a bit getting used to for an American audience. All interior scenes were shot on video and all exterior scenes were shot on film. Never understood why. But I suppose I've been watching BBC shows since I was three thanks in part to WGBH Boston, so it doesn't bother me.

Being so used to the production values of Jeeves and Wooster, the thing that really threw me off was the addition of a studio audience. I've never been a huge fan of laugh tracks or studio audiences in general. But most shows on either side of the Atlantic which were deemed comedies were all shot with some sort of either live or canned laughter. It's never stopped me from watching and enjoying certain sitcoms, but it's something I don't particularly care for myself.

However, as Syd and I watched the first episode THE TRUTH ABOUT GEORGE, I found myself chuckling but I didn't find myself thoroughly enjoying myself the way I would with an episode of JEEVES AND WOOSTER. The story revolved arount George Mulliner having a painful stutter and not being able to express his true feelings to this Susan Blake.

Syd turned to me after the episode was done and said "I really didn't find his stutter funny. I just felt bad for him".

And that's a problem. What could have worked as a hystical Wodehouse misadventure just falls flat due to underacting. Not criticizing the acting skills of either Alderton or Collins. But the flat 1970's production values were a real hinderance to Wodehouse's original writing.

Another thing that has hurt many of the portrayals of characters like Bertie Wooster in the past is many of the actors chosen for the role are far too old. The late Ian Carmichael who portrayed him in a 1960's television show was a very capable actor. But far too old to play the character.

Most of Wodehouse characters in the Bertie Wooster mold were all supposed to be between the ages of 21 to 30. The joke being that they were supposed to be these very young and very foolish characters who think themselves the height of maturity and intelligence.

The ongoing joke with many of the books is the characters who are over the age of 26 see themselves as "over the hill".

Not much has changed as far as the Entertainment Industry is concerned.

There was also a couple Jeeves films that came out in the 1930's which actually had a young David Niven as Bertie Wooster. But I have heard the films are painfully boring and bear very little resemblance to the characters Wodehouse created.

Apparently, there's a new series based on Wodehouse's books set at Blandings Castle which stars some really great actors like Timothy Spall who you might remember as Wormtail in the Harry Potter movies and Jennifer Saunders of Ab Fab fame.

Sadly, I've heard from Wodehouse enthusiasts enthusiasts that it is not very good. Which I'm very sad to hear. I've desperately wanted to see another good adaptation of Wodehouse's work the way the Jeeves and Wooster series with Fry and Laurie as. Alas it seems as though the last really good adaptation of Wodehouse's work was JEEVES AND WOOSTER.

If you haven't seen the series, I highly recommend you watch it. It's a definite guide to P.G. Wodehouse done right. And if House MD is the only program which you know Hugh Laurie from, you'll get a chuckle out of a very young Hugh Laurie hamming it up for the camera. And doing it marvelously.

Hopefully one of these days we'll see another really decent adaptation of Wodehouse's masterworks...

...or I'll just have to do it myself ;-)