Lost in Austen: Episode 4

Lost in Austen: Episode 4
ITV
24 September 2008
Fantasy, Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B-

In the conclusion, Lydia runs off with Bingley, but platonically.  Nonetheless, Mr. Bennet challenges Bingley to a duel and ends up giving himself a concussion.  Amanda is able to return to modern-day London, where she's followed by a confused Darcy.  She brings Lizzy back with her and tries to matchmake Lizzy with Darcy, but eventually realises that she is herself meant to be with Darcy.  Lady Catherine annuls the Collinses' marriage, and Jane and Bingley get married and move to America.  While I found this series entertaining, I don't think it lived up to its potential.  Still better than the recent Mansfield Park TV version of course.

Lost in Austen: Episode 3

Lost in Austen: Episode 3
ITV
17 September 2008
Fantasy, Historical Comedy, Romance,
DVD
B-

This episode introduces Lady Catherine de Bourgh, played by Lindsay Duncan, who was Lady Bellaston in the '97 version of Tom Jones.  It has some meta moments, like when, after Darcy proposes to Amanda, she asks him to reenact Colin Firth's wet shirt scene.  But I find it a bit hard to swallow that Darcy would invite not only Amanda, but Mr. and Mrs. Collins, and Lydia and Mrs. Bennet, to Pemberley.  Note that the romantic entanglements are getting even more entangled, including a pay-off to Amanda in the first episode telling Bingley she's a lesbian in order to speed up the transference of his affections to Jane.  And in case you're worried that Darcy won't end up with Lizzy, he has to dump when Amanda when he finds out she's not a virgin, although he does admire her honesty and bravery in telling him.

Lost in Austen: Episode 2

Lost in Austen: Episode 2
ITV
10 September 2008
Fantasy, Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B-

This episode introduces Tom Riley as Mr. Wickham and Guy Henry (who was John Knightley in the 1996 Emma TV-movie) as Mr. Collins.  Both men produce complications for the Bennets and "Miss Price," but not the ones of the original novel.  Amanda dislikes both men the moment she meets them, and not just because she's read the book.  However, they're both drawn to her, Collins proposing and Wickham propositioning.  She reluctantly accepts Mr. Collins, hoping to get out of it somehow and trying to prevent Jane marrying Mr. C out of duty.  However, after she rejects Wickham, he spreads a rumor that she's the daughter of a fishmonger.  Collins breaks the engagement, which is good, but then he proposes to Jane, who accepts, which is very bad.  Amanda is very angry at Mr. Darcy, who has discouraged Bingley from pursuing Jane, but mostly Amanda is mad at herself for the mess she's made.  (Charlotte despairs of ever marrying and so decides to become a missionary in Africa.)  I went with a slightly lower grade this time, since it felt odd for Amanda to pretty much confess to an indifferent Darcy that she's been a fan of his love story with Elizabeth for the past fourteen years.  Still, I am curious to see how all this is going to be untangled, since the episode ends soon after Collins and Jane's wedding.

Lost in Austen: Episode 1

Beware of strangers you meet in your
bathroom, even if you feel like you know them.

Lost in Austen: Episode 1
ITV
3 September 2008
Fantasy, Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B

Those who would be in at least one more episode:

• Gemma Arteron as Elizabeth Bennet
• Ruby Bentall as Mary Bennet
• Hugh Bonneville as Mr. Bennet
• Morven Christie as Jane Bennet
• Christina Cole as Caroline Bingley
• Elliot Cowan as Mr. Darcy
• Florence Hoath as Kitty Bennet
• Alex Kingston as Mrs. Bennet
• Michelle Duncan as Charlotte Lucas
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Piranha
• Tom Mison as Mr. Bingley
• Daniel Percival as Michael
• Jemima Rooper as Amanda Price
• and Perdita Weeks as Lydia Bennet

Guy Andrews wrote all four episodes of what is so far a funny and charming program.  I'm not technically re-viewing it, although I'd heard of it of course and had intended to watch it after my ex-husband burned it for me.  I will admit that I tend to be wary of things like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, which sound like they don't understand the true spirit of Jane Austen.  This mini-series, however, while it does mock the Austenian world, specifically of P & P, does so lovingly and intelligently.

The premise is that Lizzy Bennet is able to enter a modern London flat through one of the walls near the tub.  The owner of the flat, Austen-superfan Amanda Price, gets curious and goes through the wall, only to find that Lizzy has locked the door behind her, yes, hence the title.  Now it's up to Amanda to not muck things up too much.  (That she knows the story of P & P by heart turns out to not necessarily be an advantage.)  This episode takes us from the set-up, shortly after Mr. Bennet has secretly visited Mr. Bingley, to Jane's visit to Netherfield, on Amanda's urging, partly to get Mr. Bingley off his infatuation on Amanda, who did admittedly kiss him while she was drunk.  It looks as if the rest of the series stays specifically in P & P, although it would've been interesting if this had run six years and Amanda could've gone into all the novels.

Dan Zeff directed all four episodes.

Mansfield Park

Modest and unassuming

Mansfield Park
ITV
27 January 2007
Historical Drama, Romance
DVD
C

Well, this is at least better than the 1999 Patricia Rozema big-screen travesty.  The truth is, no one wants to present Jane Austen's Fanny Price.  (The '83 TV-movie is better but does have the heroine hearing voices in her head.)  Much more than Emma Woodehouse, she's a heroine that (almost) no one but the author likes.  What's peculiar here though is how literal the title is.  Not only don't we see Portsmouth or London (even in flashbacks), but there's no Sotherton or even parsonage.  Every scene, whether it makes sense for it to happen this way or not, takes place in the mansion or grounds of Sir Thomas's estate.

A similar skimpiness means that supporting characters are erased, not just most of Fanny's family but the Grants, Mr. Yates, and anyone not absolutely necessary to the main action.  Even characters we see onscreen we don't necessarily get to know at all, and that includes Maria and Julia.  And then there are the characters who are simply misunderstood: a shrewd Lady Bertram and a slightly annoying but oddly attractive Mrs. Norris being the most obvious.

Which brings us back to Fanny.  Now, I'm not saying there might not be roles where a romping, laughing, bleached-blonde, pouty-lipped, cleavage-baring Billie Piper would be welcome (and not just Dr. Who or, going by her looks, porn), but this isn't one of them.  As always, when the shy, judgmental, but loving Fanny of the book is replaced by an impostor, I have to ask, to what purpose?  If she's perfectly capable of mouthing off to Mrs. Norris, or seeming to welcome Henry Crawford's attentions, then don't have dialogue that contradicts this.

What works here?  The costumes, sets, and music are serviceable.  Much of the dialogue remains intact.  Blake Ritson is quite good, until we get up to the Edmund-gets-twitterpated-with-love-for-Fanny sequence.  Still, I wasn't laughing bitterly like I was at the Jane Eyre adaptation of '97.  Verdict: for completists.

James D'Arcy is almost unrecognizable here as the dissolute but redeemable Tom Bertram, the polar opposite of his villainously priggish Blifil in '97's Tom Jones.  This adaptation is by Maggie Wadey, and the direction is by Iain B. McDonald, neither of whom worked on any other of my shows.

Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's...: Lunch in the Park

Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's...: Lunch in the Park
ITV
21 October 1997
Sketch Comedy
DVD
B

This has a slow start but stay with it, as the two-person show gradually moves from small talk to shared confidences to confessions of love to...treason?  Paul and Josie again work very well together and it's a pity they didn't appear more regularly as a team on television.  (Even on Whose Line is It Anyway? it was never more than a couple times a year.)

Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's...: Sealed with a Loving Kiss

Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's...: Sealed with a Loving Kiss
ITV
16 February 1996
Sketch Comedy
DVD
B

The concept behind this programme was that Paul would act in updated G & S scripts that had been performed more than 30 years earlier.  As I haven't seen the earlier versions, I won't compare them.  On its own terms, this is solid, not only giving Paul/Josie shippers much fodder but being an interesting character study.  The humour is gentle and, yes, a bit old-fashioned.  Note that both characters lie and their lies are never revealed, but at some point she'll presumably see photos of his father and the truth will come out.  And, amusingly (in light of Caroline Quentin's Room 101 items), Paul's character refers to a Teasmade.

This is sort of the 200th British show I've reviewed, although I guess I should've counted the music videos of Paul McCartney, the Spice Girls, etc. as well, but not all of those were shot in Britain, despite the national origins of the performers.  It gets a bit murky sometimes with the tags.

Jane Eyre (1997)

Jane Eyre (1997)
ITV
19 October 1997
Historical Drama, Romance
DVD
D+

At the time I reviewed the 1983 adaptation, I either didn't own this version, or I was unaware that it was packaged with my DVD of Emma.  This version makes that look all the better, because this one is a mess, and not just as an adaptation:

1. Horribly miscast in every role, particularly that of St. John, who (in his less than ten minutes of screen time) comes across as warm and accepting, rather than stiff and distant;
2. Horribly directed by Robert Young (not that Robert Young), who did the 1990 series of Jeeves and Wooster and seemed to then have some sense of period acting, albeit twentieth-century rather than nineteenth;
3. Horribly acted by in particular Ciaran Hinds (who was fine in Jane Austen's Persuasion around then, if not who I picture when reading that book); Hinds spends much of his time ranting and shouting, so that Bertha looks saner than her hubby, and we get none of the other sides of Rochester's personality, making Jane's love look far more masochistic than in the novel;
4. Horribly edited, unlike '97's Emma, which knew where to cut and still keep continuity; to take just one example, we get only a glimpse of the Reed family and servants, so when Bessie shows up and Jane recognizes her, we don't, and then Jane's visit to her Aunt Reed as an adult happens completely offscreen, which has an effect on the St. John plot, as well as Jane being an heiress when she returns to Rochester;
5. Horribly written, not just with Brontë's words being tossed out but with what replaces them, especially Rochester's lines, like "This may sound silly but..." and "You'll never know a love as pure and fine as this," which made me roll with laughter;
6. Samantha Morton isn't bad as Jane but, although her screen persona (seen also as Harriet Smith in Emma and soon to be seen in Tom Jones as Sophia Western) isn't exactly Xena, she can't do self-effacing and this, with Hinds's unhinged performance, throws the "romance" further off balance;
7. The worst onscreen kissing I've ever seen (not counting kisses that are meant to be bad), with sometimes only one or two lips involved rather than four;
8. The scenery and sets and Gemma Jones's performance as a more-in-the-know than in the novel Mrs. Fairfax are fine, if less Gothic than the novel.  (The tree of the proposal scene, pictured above, never gets blasted by symbolic lightning.)

Of the three screenwriters Kay Mellor plays Mrs. Cooper, while Peter Wright gets the larger role of the nameless Clergyman, and Richard Hawley resisted appearing onscreen.  Richenda Carey, who was Lady Wickhammersley in Jeeves and Wooster, here is Lady Ingram.  Amusingly, Laura Harling, who's Young Jane, would be Young Sophia in Tom Jones, so I guess they thought she looked like Samantha Morton.

Emma

Emma
ITV
16 February 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B

Pride & Prejudice screenwriter Davies also penned this Austen adaptation, which is streamlined (just two hours) but satisfying.  It's well cast, particularly the two leads of Kate Beckinsale as Emma and Mark Strong as Mr. Knightley.  Beckinsale captures Emma in a way that Gwyneth Paltrow (in the big-screen release of a few months earlier) couldn't, from her snobbery to her whimsicality.  Strong is a plain-spoken gentleman, not as handsome as Jeremy Northam of course, but with his own more direct charm.  (When he tells Emma that she's made Harriet too tall in the portrait, this is the Knightley of the book.)  Certainly the Frank/Jane romance is treated better here than in the theatrical release.  My review of that version is available for comparison: http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/04/emma.html, but note that I think both versions are inferior to Clueless:  http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/03/clueless.html.  I would've liked to have seen some characters, such as Emma's sister Isabella, developed more, but there are no plot threads left hanging at least.  Things end not with a wedding but with a harvest festival, in recognition of the lower classes we see throughout the movie, a subtle visual comment that is not called attention to in the script.

Peter Howell was a Magistrate in Jeeves and Wooster and is Mr. Perry here.  Neville Phillips, who was a Member on J & W and Fossett the Footman in P & P, is Thomas here.  Lucy Robinson, who was Mrs. Hurst in P & P, plays another unlikable but more memorable character here, Mrs. Elton.  Nineteen-year-old Samantha Morton, who plays Miss Smith with sweetness and not too much dimness, would take on two very different roles later in the year: Jane Eyre and Sophia Western.

Jeeves and Wooster: The Ties That Bind

Jeeves and Wooster: The Ties That Bind
ITV
20 June 1993
Historical Comedy
DVD
B-

Although this ends with Madeline's wedding to Spode being ruined by a plumbing explosion caused by Tuppy but blamed on Bertie, this episode does get us somewhat back on track.  At one point, Bertie has two fiancees, both Madeline and Florence expecting to marry him when their current romances don't work out.  Aunt Agatha (Elizabeth Spriggs again), who in a previous series was incongruously Madeline's godmother, here hopes there's more to Madeline then there seems.  Totleigh Towers would recover from the damage and grow up to be Downton Abbey.  (Highclere Castle in real life.)

Sidney Livingstone and Preston Lockwood return as Oates and Butterfield respectively.  Fred Evans is back as Brinkley and, of all things, gets paired off with Florence.  And kudos to Woodnutt for being in the first and last episodes of J & W.

Jeeves and Wooster in Series Four ranges from C- to B+, averaging out to that same C+/B- border as the previous two series.  So even with all the WTFery, there's still some good stuff, especially in that opening episode in New York.  However, it's probably just as well they ended here.

Jeeves and Wooster: Trouble at Totleigh Towers

Jeeves and Wooster: Trouble at Totleigh Towers
ITV
13 June 1993
Historical Comedy
DVD
C

In this not exactly faithful adaptation of Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (reviewed here http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/07/stiff-upper-lip-jeeves.html),  Gussie elopes with another girl, which worries Bertie until Madeline becomes engaged to Spode.  (Elizabeth Morton is disconcertingly red-haired in this and the next episode.)  The un-Wodehousian touches this time appear in the last ten minutes or so, from Bertie (at Jeeves's urging) pretending to be an African chieftain to the remaining cast singing "Oh, By Jingo," yes, including Jeeves and Spode.

Preston Lockwood makes his first of two appearances as Butterfield, while Sidney Livingstone takes over the role of Oates here and the following episode.  Despite Stiffy being Madeline's cousin, we won't see Charlotte Attenborough or Simon Treves in the finale.

Jeeves and Wooster: The Delayed Arrival

Jeeves and Wooster: The Delayed Arrival
ITV
6 June 1993
Historical Comedy
DVD
C+

More un-Wodehousian touches in this episode, in particular both Jeeves and Wooster in drag.  Aunt Dahlia's plans for her magazine collide with Lady Florence's love life of two possible suitors, not counting default fiance Bertie.  This all leads to the 500th C+ I've given to one of my shows.

Nicholas Palliser and Francesca Folan are back as Stilton and Florence.  Richard Dixon makes his last appearance as Oofy.  Ian Collier, who plays Seppings, would shortly be on Paul Merton, The Series.  Magistrate Peter Howell would be Mr. Perry on the 1996 TV-Movie version of Emma.  Even though we're now on Aunt Dahlia #4 (Jean Heywood), surprisingly Ralph Michael returns, after three years, as Uncle Tom.

Jeeves and Wooster: Bridegroom Wanted!

Jeeves and Wooster: Bridegroom Wanted!
ITV
30 May 1993
Historical Comedy
DVD
B-

For the most part, this is a definite improvement over the previous episode, although it does have a cop-out ending.  Not that it's not sort of amusing to see Jeeves and Wooster after eight months lost at sea in a lifeboat (Bertie was in charge of the compass), but it seems like Jeeves should've been clever enough to find a solution when several angry people confront Bertie on a ship bound for London.  This episode combines two London-set plots and plops them into the Big Apple without too much damage.  Bingo #2 (Pip Torrens) falls in love again, but this time he gets married, unfortunately to the author that Bertie has been masquerading as for about a year, according to Lord Bittlesham (more like two years onscreen).  Meanwhile, Honoria Glossop has a romance with a doctor who works for her father (the young doctor is a novelist in the original), and her father is in love with his nurse.  Bertie hires a brassy actress to pretend to be his fiancee, but of course things go seriously awry.

Philip Locke takes over as a much friendlier-to-Bertie Sir Roderick Glossop.  (And in this version of things, Lady Glossop has run off with another man, rather than died, as I think she did in print, unless I'm misremembering.)  It's nice to see Geoffrey Toone is back as Lord Bittlesham, and for that matter Liz Kettle as Honoria Glossop, among the few who have not been recast over the years.  With the New York adventures at an end, Joseph Mydell makes his last appearance as Coneybear.  And Peter Carlisle returns as the Bookseller.

Jeeves and Wooster: The Once and Future Ex

Jeeves and Wooster: The Once and Future Ex
ITV
23 May 1993
Historical Comedy
DVD
C-

And this is probably the worst episode of Series Four, if not the entire programme.  Lazy, sloppy, and boring, it contains one of the worst performances of J & W: Nigel Whitmey's as the recast Georgie Caffyn.  He appeared on one episode of Josie and would soon be on Paul Merton: The Series, but presumably on neither sketch show was he allowed to suck the energy off the screen like he does here.  It doesn't help that he's involved in the less interesting plot, where two old guys try to meet in secret to close a business deal, while George wants Bertie's help in getting together with the richer old guy's niece, for which George promises to reveal a secret way to break an engagement, and then it turns out that was a bluff.  And sub-Janos-Prohaska gorilla costumes are involved (for both a fake and a supposedly real gorilla).

Francesca Folan, who was the first Madeline Basset, here becomes the second Florence Craye, and this time Bertie's engagement to her is not at all intentional on his part.  She is better cast here, more brisk and much less bitchy than Fiona Gillies (who did, however, have fabulously permed hair).  Nicholas Palliser does fine in his role of uppercrust policeman Stilton Cheesewright, and we'd see more of them and their fractured romance.

As for the laziness and sloppiness, one example is that we see a newspaper dated August 23, 1931, which would be cool, except that it's in a scene set a few days before a Fourth of July costume party.  And we catch glimpses of Georgie's show, but none of the fun production numbers like for Ask Dad!,  instead a listless dance number rehearsed enough times that the chorus girls look as sick of it as we are.  Worst of all though is that, on top of no real pay-off to the deal with George, there's no pay-off to Jeeves secretly attending the costume party and shaping events; there's a close-up of his mask but no indication that Bertie has a clue about it.

Joseph Mydell is back as Coneybear, given a little more to do here, although still less than his predecessor.  In contrast, Sam Douglas returns as Corrigan the cop and is given a lot more to do.  Domini Winter is again a Choreographer, while Kim Barrand, Di Cooke, and Nola Haynes are Chorus Girls like last year.  And Peter Carlisle would return as the Bookseller.

Jeeves and Wooster: Return to New York

Jeeves and Wooster: Return to New York
ITV
16 May 1993
Historical Comedy
DVD
B+

This is probably the best episode of the final series, and indeed one of the very best of the programme as a whole.  It's well cast, directed, and costumed, and there are some lovely musical moments.  These range from a quartet singing a song about soup to a torch singer doing solos and, towards the end, a duet with Bertie, as Jeeves for once contributes unreluctantly.  This episode smoothly combines three short stories, one of them with Tuppy replacing one-timer Freddie.  In a bit of continuity, Aunt Agatha (now played by the grand Elizabeth Spriggs) still co-owns the Gregson-Prysock Gallery in New York, so Bertie hopes she'll take to his latest crush, an artist named Gwladys.  Meanwhile, Agatha wants him to see that his troublesome twin cousins get on the boat to South Africa.  Too many great moments to name them all, so I'll just quote this line, re the thread that only exists onscreen, not in print, about Tuppy trying to sell his nanny's cock-a-leekie recipe, "But does the populace at large want to be transported back to your childhood, Tuppy?"

Joseph Mydell plays the recast Coneybear, the elevator man, and would return twice more.

Jeeves and Wooster: Comrade Bingo

Jeeves and Wooster: Comrade Bingo
ITV
3 May 1992
Historical Comedy
DVD
C+

This blends two short stories-- the title one and the one about the father & son artists-- and for some reason throws Madeline Bassett into the mix.  This means that the ending of the latter story has a couple twists due to the presence of Spode, which is interesting, but the problem with Spode is that there's an increase in unfunny violence, whether him hitting Bertie on the head twice (rather than Jeeves's efficient once in print) or his followers fighting with the Communists.

Geoffrey Toone returns as Lord Bittlesham, but Pip Torrens takes over as his nephew Bingo.  Colin Higgins, who plays Comrade Butt, appeared on Paul Merton, the Series the previous year, while Peter Benson, who's Mr. Rowbotham, would be on PM the Series the next year.

Jeeves and Wooster in its third series ranges from C+ to B, averaging out to the C+/B- border.  There are certainly some good moments, but things overall don't quite jell.  The final series wouldn't exactly be a comeback, but it does contain some other memorable moments.

Jeeves and Wooster: Hot Off the Press

Lady Florence

Jeeves and Wooster: Hot Off the Press
ITV
26 April 1992
Historical Comedy
DVD
C+

This takes one of the earliest J & W stories (with Lady Florence wanting Bertie to steal a manuscript) and mashes it up with a later one from the Stiffy & Stinker cycle.  Along the way, it confuses the Bassett family tree further, with Lady Florence as another niece, and Stiffy referring to "Uncle Roderick," as in Spode.  In any case, it didn't really hold my interest much.  Despite some recasting, including of Stiffy, Simon Treves returns as Stinker.

Jeeves and Wooster: Right Ho, Jeeves

Jeeves and Wooster: Right Ho, Jeeves
ITV
19 April 1992
Historical Comedy
DVD
B

Despite the title, this is actually based on a different novel, The Mating Season, which I'm not sure if I've read.  It's better than I remembered, although the recasting of Gussie and Madeline does take some getting used to.  I still prefer Richard Garnett to Richard Braine (who seemed more suited to Rupert Steggles in the first series), but Braine isn't bad.  As for Madeline #3, Elizabeth Morton is a more cartoony version of the character, but I have to admit that, while Francesca Folan and Diana Blackburn have more attractive personalities, the programme really does need someone as saucer-eyed, lisping, and soupy as Morton's Madeline, especially in the "He did it for love" courtroom scene, where nearly everyone is in happy tears and Bertie looks steamrollered.

The Catsmeat & Gertie romance works well as a subplot, and this is in fact one of the better episodes set at a country house, including the denizens of said house.  I'm also getting used to Fairfax's use of over the top humour, as with the billowing smoke when Bertie drives too quickly.  There's still some genuine wit, some of it direct quotes from Wodehouse, so it's not all a cartoon.  Best of all, we get music not only from Bertie but from Gussie!

Jeeves and Wooster: Introduction on Broadway

Greg Charles and Dena Davis

Jeeves and Wooster: Introduction on Broadway
ITV
12 April 1992
Historical Comedy
DVD
B

I almost went with a B+ on this, since it might be the second-best episode of the programme*, but it is marred by a scene where Aunt Agatha (Mary Wimbush) is treated like Margaret Dumont was in Animal Crackers and At the Circus, and these stuffy dowager types should be humiliated verbally, not physically.  That aside, this episode, which well blends two of the New York short stories (and frankly, uses the gap in the "Corky" chronology better than Wodehouse did), includes the following:

• Dena Davis as Muriel giving a wonderful period performance, with hints of her scheming even before the twist;
• Solid casting all around, including a fish-faced Cyril;
• Also very period-appropriate, the look of the poster for Ask Dad! and the children's bird book;
• And yummy glimpses of Ask Dad!, with its catchy early '30s musical numbers, including a Busby Berkeley tribute;
• Little sight gags, like Jeeves giving the Liftman (Ricco Ross, his last appearance) Bertie's cowboy hat as Bertie talks in the foreground;
• Ominous, horror-like shots for the Worple Mansion;
• Bertie bluffing his way as a jute salesman (from the story, but with Laurie's delivery selling it);
• And of course the modern art satire, with the shot of the cubist baby portrait at the end.

On a programme where recasting is common, it's a nice touch having Billy J. Mitchell and Anatol Yusef back as Mr. Blumenfeld and his son Sidney (or Sydney), even if no mention is made of them having met Bertie before.  Sam Douglas returns as Corrigan the cop.  Domini Winter would also play a Choreographer the next series (and was a choreographer in real life), while Kim Barrand, Di Cooke, and Nola Haynes would again be Chorus Girls.  John Cassady, who's Prysock here, did a Josie episode.


*"Brinkley Manor" is of course the best.

Jeeves and Wooster: The Full House

Jeeves and Wooster: The Full House
ITV
5 April 1992
Historical Comedy
DVD
B-

This blending of two of the New York short stories still isn't quite there, but it's an improvement.  The two threads impact each other in surprising ways, especially towards the end, and there are a couple nice piano duets with J & W (although I'm sure Fry is faking it).  Note that Hoover is President and The Gay Divorce is on Broadway, placing this in 1932.  Also, Bicky's uncle in print has been changed to his father here.

Lou Hirsch appeared as Jim Weaver on Paul Merton, the Series and is preacher Jimmy Mundy (a Billy Sunday parody) here.  Sam Douglas makes his first of three appearances in this series as Corrigan.  John Fitzgerald-Jay returns as Rocky, the subject of one of the two plot threads, while Julian Firth, who's Bicky in the other thread, would be Northerton in an episode of the miniseries The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.  And Ricco Ross is back as the Liftman, with a lot of reaction shots to the hijinks.