The BBC made adaptations of 21 of PG Wodehouse's stories under the title of Wodehouse Playhouse. There was a pilot, The Reverent Wooing Of Archibald, that came out July 9 1974 and has been subsequently lost. The first series started airing April 23 1975, the second on March 26 1976 and the last October 31 1978. I recently picked up the second Acorn DVD set for about half price at a local used shop. I had last watched these in 2012 from the library and I'm glad to have my own copy.
PG introduced the first series with a short video of him at his typewriter in his house in Southampton New York. He would die soon after, at age 93, and not be able to do more intros.
John Alderton and his real life wife Pauline Collins were the main actors in the series. John was in all three series and Pauline the first two. They were joined by a rash of guest stars, some of which I knew from other programs. You might recognize some of them on the credit list at the IMDb, like Desmond Llewelyn, Fulton Mackay, Lisa Goddard and Sally Thomsett, but most of them I didn't know. I saw a few familiar faces but could not say where they were from. Fourteen of the stories are about various members of the Mulliner family and there are 3 stories each adapted from the Golf stories and Drones Club stories. I got several laughs and giggles from watching. You can find out if you like them in the link in the title at the top of the post., The whole 20 episodes are on YouTube. Here's another playlist on YouTube of Wodehouse material.
Comments