The Cutprice Guignol

The 1990 adaptation of Jeeves and Wooster is one of the best British comedies of all time, and I’m tired of pretending it isn’t.

I’ve been re-watching this utterly decadent, clotted-cream-filled treat of a comfort show again recently, and I realised I’ve never actually written about it. And it’s my job, as someone who is carnally obsessed with Bertie Wooster as someone who loves the show so dearly, to let you know that it’s exactly the kind of cosy, silly teatime TV you need in your life this season.

For those not in the know, the premise is pretty simple and adapted from the PG Wodehouse book series of the same name: Bertie Wooster (Hugh Laurie and his nose wrinkle) is a slightly useless upper-crust man-about-town who gets pulled into a million different social dilemmas with his similarly ill-prepared group of friends, the Drones club, while his manservant Jeeves (Stephen Fry, supercilious) pulls the strings behind the scenes to ensure everything works out in the end.

Jeeves and Wooster is the kind of show that makes abject silliness into the highest-stakes drama imaginable. I watched the show again with my partner, who’s a newbie to it, this time around, and there was this moment a few episodes in when he turned to me, eyes wide in horror, and declared “Bertie’s taken the wrong golf club!”, and that’s when I knew he really got it. The stakes are low, but it’s played with all the drama of an Al Swearengen stand-off. This little pocket universe of the British class system takes the ridiculous, the pointless, and the daft and finds a way to turn it into a real problem, this constant sense of stupid escalation that takes you to this near-symphonic third act of foolishness.

And a big part of why that works is because of the wider cast. This is one of my favourite ensembles in all of televsion, and there really isn’t a featured character I’m not happy to see turn up. From Tuppy (Roger Daws, also the lead of another brilliant and underrated British class comedy, Outside Edge) and his on-again-off-again engagement, to Gussie Finknottle and his newts, to the soft international power of Bertie’s aunts, the world is so well filled-out with these great actors who totally understand the cartoonish roles they play.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be right to talk about the performances without discussing Jeeves and Wooster themselves. As a British person, it’s a born-in birthright that I love these two together, and this might be their best collaboration. Hugh Laurie is charmingly oblivious as Bertie, and Stephen Fry’s demure and acerbically sarcastic Jeeves is the perfect balance. They shut these roles down here, there’s nobody else who could do it like them – the warm chemistry that underpins the barely-concealed power dynamic at play is the heart of every story, and pulls even the less confident stuff through into brilliance.

Jeeves and Wooster is such a delightful slice of British comedy, unique and well-aware of the oddness of it’s central cast without losing sight of the warmth at it’s heart. And I’m about to make myself a pot of tea and watch another episode.

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(header image via Idler)