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Perpetual bachelor Bertie Wooster delicately navigates the world of the British upper-crust, frequently helped out of social pitfalls by his faithful valet, the ‘gentleman’s personal gentleman’, Reginald Jeeves

Set in an indeterminate period during the 20’s and 30’s, Jeeves & Wooster was adapted from P.G. Wodehouse’s series of short stories and novels, dramatized here by Clive Exton (who also brought Agatha Christie’s Poirot series to television in equally acclaimed adaptations) and produced by Granada in the early 90’s. 

The series introduces Bertram “Bertie” Wilberforce Wooster (Hugh Laurie) in a state in which we’ll see him numerous times over the course of the series: a drunken haze, appearing in court and paying a fine for his late night shenanigans, then making his way home.  Reginald Jeeves (Stephen Fry) arrives as Bertie tries to sleep it off, announces himself to have been referred by the agency, and sets about making a hangover concoction that immediately brings his new employer around, invigorating him for the day. 

Jeeves is hired on the spot.

Thus begins a fun and lively series in which we follow the exploits of Wooster as he tries to avoid both marriage and work as a proud member of the Drones Club, a men’s club where the idle rich spend their time playing silly games and whiling away the hours between morning and evening. It’s quite strange to see these well dressed aristocratic types constantly playing games involving pelting one another with dinner rolls and the like, but it’s a recurring theme throughout the series.

The series is populated with Bertie’s chums from the club, most of whom seem to require his assistance in their romantic entanglements at one time or another, and another running gag is the presence of Bertie’s aunts Agatha (Mary Wimbush in the first 3 seasons, Elizabeth Spriggs in the fourth season) and Dahlia (played by Brenda Bruce, Vivian Pickles, Patricia Lawrence, and Jean Heywood in the respective seasons), who are most insistent about making a productive member of society out of young Wooster, be it in the form of a job or within the shackles of marriage.

Jeeves proves to be invaluable in the near constant battle of saving Wooster from himself, as his social engagements all inevitably drag him into some sort of subterfuge or even outright theft in his efforts to help out his friends or family.  Bertie is the go-to guy for any sort of elaborate plan that seems destined to fail, and the perpetual nice guy, he never says no to these rather dodgy plans, leaving Jeeves to step in with a quiet “Excuse me sir, but if I might suggest…” that proposes a plan to extricate his employer from whatever he’s gotten himself into.  It’s also amusing to watch the small battles of wills that occur when Bertie turns up with a clothing item or styling choice (the dreaded mustache) that Jeeves doesn’t approve of; in the case of one episode, the hobby of teaching himself the trombone, which forces Jeeves to leave his service for the duration of the episode because he can’t stand the awful playing.

The series is set for the most part around London or the English countryside, but the 3rd and 4th seasons feature our heroes traveling to America for the first three episodes of each season, where the various problems of Prohibition and cultural differences make for some amusing moments.

I wasn’t familiar with the source material going into these and had no trouble getting up to speed on the characters and situations, though I have to admit that when I requested the series for review I was somewhat expecting more of a mystery series, so the comedic set-ups actually surprised me a little.  It’s also interesting to see House himself, Hugh Laurie in such a comically mugging and animated role, quite a departure from the only character I’ve had to associate him with.

Jeeves & Wooster: The Complete Series does indeed collect the entire series, presented on 8 discs slipcased in slimline packaging.  The release is rather bare bones, the only supplemental material is a bio of creator P.G. Wodehouse, but the real draw here is the show itself, which is very charming and fun to watch.  It’s a clever series that builds on the history it establishes, but I also think that a good number of the episodes would happily stand alone, as the situations aren’t hinged completely on the viewer knowing the people involved.  This is particularly evident when the actors portraying certain characters change from season to season, but the storytelling doesn’t suffer at all.

Well worth a look, it’s a clever series set in some truly gorgeous locations: come see how the other half lives!

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