Thursday, February 23, 2006

What ho!

Have just discovered Jeeves & Wooster on ITV3. It has been so long since I saw them, I started giggling the minute their faces appeared onscreen! Rox, you will love this...

Episode set in New York City.

Scene: Classic Diner
Jeeves, Bertie and Bickie place their lunch orders.
Waitress: Do you wanna shake with that?
Jeeves: No I would prefer to sit here quietly, thank you.




Stephen Fry on PG Wodehouse:

Particular to Wodehouse are the transferred epithets: "I lit a rather pleased cigarette", or, "I pronged a moody forkful of eggs and b". Characteristic, too, are the sublimely hyperbolic similes: "Roderick Spode. Big chap with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster at sixty paces", or, "The stationmaster's whiskers are of a Victorian bushiness and give the impression of having been grown under glass".
[.......]
If you are immune to such writing, you are fit, to use one of Wodehouse's favourite Shakespearean quotations, only for treasons, stratagems and spoils. You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour. Like Jeeves, Wodehouse stands alone, and analysis is useless.
Want to read more? Here is the article: Fry on Wodehouse

Hm. It's time I dusted off my Jeeves Omnibus...

10 comments:

michelle said...

heeeeeehehehe...that sounds funny

Anonymous said...

God I agree with Fry there. They way Wodehous puts things is just too exquisite. As for Jeeves & Wooster on ITV3 yeah I know and even though I have own all of them on DVD I still watch them when they are on tv too. I would have mentioned that they are on but didn't realise you can get that channel. I have Sky so it's part of the package. Btw have you read any of the Blandings stories? I actually originally started with those and some of them are very funny. :o)

Olivia said...

Hehe, yes. When we all lived at home I used to read J&W and some of the others aloud at the table after dinner.

We often sat there sniggering with appreciation halfway through a priceless Wodehouse phrase.

I have Freeview now :) I get that and Poirot!

Blandings - of course! Lord Emsworth. Pig Hhhhhooooeeeeeyyy in moonlight and all that!
Also Adrian Mulliner telling his improbable stories, Stanley Featherstonehaugh (pronounced "fanshaw") Uckridge with his doomed business plans, Uncle Fred the Earl of Ickenham getting up to mischief. I am least familiar with Psmith.

Can never get enough, and just as well. There are so many Plum books in the bookshops I can't deal with the choice!

Anonymous said...

I adore Jeeves & Wooster.
Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie were both brilliant in those roles. I too start to giggle as soon as their faces appear.

Master Enigma said...

I appreciate it and I have no clue about it. *smile* I did want to point out the obvious to you though - you certainly look a lot like the honorable Lady Agnew of Lochnaw.

Thanks for cruising by.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Olivia said...

Anne - thank you for stopping by. They were the best ever and I doubt anyone will attempt to surpass that in future.

Enigma - good to see you on this side of Blogland.
That is the second time someone has pointed out my resemblance to Lady A! *baffled*
But thank you :)

Right back at ya.

Anonymous said...

Blandings Forever! As a lad I always fancied the Hon. Galahad as a sort of role-model. Racy and a bit of a bounder to the ghastly aunts, but a splendid fellow at heart. But I think I turned out more like his nephew, the clueless Freddie Threepwood. Such is life.

Psmith is worth sticking with.

Fry & Laurie are wonderful. I also vaguely remember a 1960's version with Ian Carmichael. Not as good. Do I get brownie-points for that piece of information?

Odd to think the Gov seriously thought of prosecuting Plum for treason after the war. Really!

Olivia said...

You get a point for bringing up the 60s version.

I saw some once and it was just a typical stilted BBC screenplay.
Jeeves was insipid and Bertie was overaged! He was the age his aunts Dahlia or Agatha ought to have been.

This is why I said Fry & Laurie make a Jeeves & Wooster non pareil.

Nabeel said...

at first I mis-read jeeves for jesus

Olivia said...

Nabeel - oh sure, Jesus and Wooster, that would so work...like oil and water.