Wodehouse Playhouse Series 1

I've been a fan of PG Wodehouse since some time in the 1980's. My old girlfriend Karen turned me on to his work. If you haven't read any, and you do read, you should. It's some of the best writing, ever. The stories might not appeal to everyone, they are set in an older England, before the second World War. Light comedies, with bits of romance, lots of odd characters, silly situations and amazingly clever words strung together in delightful patterns that are a joy to read. Wodehouse wrote from the 1890's to 1975 and there are close to 100 books of stories and novels. There's a bit of non-fiction and song related material out there too. His work has been adapted pretty much regularily since he started writing. The BBC has done a lot of it and this 1975 program was one of htem.

John Alderton and Pauline Collins are the two main actors in the first series. They play different characters in each episode. I remember John from Zardoz, where he played Friend, and from the British Sitcom Please Sir! where he played a teacher to a class of misfits. Kind of like Welcome Back Kotter but 7 years earlier and with English accents. John was in plenty of British TV including Upstairs, Downstairs. I didn't watch that when it was new and I still am not interested. I couldn't remember seeing Pauline in anything, she was un Upstairs Downstairs too, but I see from her IMDb page that she was in an episode of The Saint in 1966. I vaguely remember her but it's been a couple of years since I saw that episode. They both do a good job on the acting stuff and they are joined by a fine lot of character actors. The shows were fun for me to watch but I recognized the stories they were taken from. Others might not like them as well. Here's your chance to find out for free. The seven episodes are all available on YouTube as I write this. They look fine. See if you like them. I'm going to go read a book before I hit the hay.

1. "The Truth About George"
2. "Romance at Droitgate"
3. "Portrait of a Disciplinarian"
4. "Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court"
5. "The Rise of Minna Nordstrom"
6. "Rodney Fails to Qualify"
7. "A Voice From the Past"