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.