PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Wodehouse Playhouse Series 1-3

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.

Blandings Series 2

The second series of Blandings showed up at the library so I popped round there and took it home. I bunged it into the DVD player and had gander. The 7 episodes were broadcast in February and March of 2014. The series is written by Guy Andrews and directed by Mandie Fletcher and Geoffrey Sax. The setting is Blandings Castle which is played by Crom Castle, near Newtownbutler, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It's a great pile with of bricks with turrets and crenellated towers. Perfect for Blandings.

 

The main cast members from the first series return. Timothy Spall plays Clarence Threepwood, the 9th Earl of Emsworth, Jennifer Saunders plays his sister Lady Constance Keeble and Jack Farthing is Clarence's son The Hon. Frederick Threepwood. Tim Vine replaces Mark Williams as the only intelligent person in the place, the butler Sebastian Beach. Sadly, Empress, the pig in the show died of a massive heartache just before the last show of the series ended. There is talk of a 3rd series so I'm guessing that there will be a new pig playing the Empress Of Blandings. She's the apple of Clarence's eye.

The stories are silly, the dialog hilarious and the actors are all top notch. I can't think of anything more entertaining. Of course, I'm a die-hard PG Wodehouse fan and think it's all a great hoot. Wodehouse has said that he thinks of his stories as musical comedies without the music. All I think is, I laughed a lot. As the DVD box says, it's "very funny", and for once I can agree. It's one of the better adaptations of Wodehouse and right up there with Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster. I'd also recommend the books, to those that might like them, they're light and breezy. The perfect balm for the weary reader.

Blandings Series 1

Reading PG Wodehouse is a joyous experience. If you haven't read anything by him, you should try some. I've been thinking of digging out some of his books and having a bash at them. He wrote over 100 books and I have most of them. The Blandings stories are only a small part of the whole. 

I've seen a lof of the tv and film adaptations that have appeared over the years and I was curious to see the 2012 BBC production adapted by Guy Andrews. He's mostly worked in TV and I haven't seen much of his work. The series was directed by Peter Seed who's had a more interesting career both as an actor and as a writer.

Watching productions of Wodehouse is never as good as reading the stories. As you might imagine some productions are better at adapting the stories than others. The 1990 Jeeves and Wooster series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie is absolutely Top Notch when it comes to adaptations. This new Blandings series isn't quite rise to that level but it does ok.

Timothy Spall plays Clarence Threepwood the 9th Earl of Emsworth and Jennifer Saunders plays his sister Lady Constance Keeble. Jack Farthing plays the Lord's young son The Hon. Frederick Threepwood and Mark Williams plays the Butler Sebastian Beach. Except for Jack the main actors are all favorites of mine. I enjoy watching them and they do a good job with the characters.

They all live at Castle Blandings which is in Shropshire, England. It's really Crom Castle in Ireland. It's one of those idyllic locations with a castle and large grounds spread out in every direction. Lord Emsworth and Beach are ok characters but Lady Constance is a bit of a stick up the old butt type and Freddy is a bit of a twit. He's always falling in love but like most things he tries he's not very good at it.

Lord Emsworth only has eyes for his prize winning pig, the Empress of Blandings. She's quite the gal and in the first episode Lord Emsworth is getting her ready for the local fair. His rival, Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, puts Lord Emsworth's pig man in the pokey and the pig goes off her feed. Don't worry the Empress will get her appetite back before the end of the story.

In episode 2 David Walliams plays the annoying man that Lady Constance hires to be Lord Emsworth's secretary. No one likes him and later he falls in some manure. In the 3rd installment Freddy tries to help Gertrude with her romantic troubles. David Walliams returns in the 4th episode. He's to tutor Lord Emsworth's grandson. Plenty of bottoms get shot in this one. The 5th episode has trouble with the gardner and visiting children from London. The last of the series has Jessica Hynes playing a broke noble woman trying to catch Lord Emsworth and marry him for his money. He's almost hooked but she wants to get rid of everyone he loves, including the Empress.

I enjoyed them, there's a few laughs though out and occasionally I'd laugh out loud. The locations are nice to look at. I haven't had the urge to add them to my Amazon Wish List but I might pick them up if they are cheap. I did buy the Jeeves and Wooster series when they got cheaper and I've seen them 3 or 4 times now. Might be time to look at them again. I see YouTube has the second series of Blandings posted. I'm going to hit those next.