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Comment by swalberg | Hacker News Reader

If you have not watched Laurie and Fry's TV Series "Jeeves and Wooster", make it a point to do so. It's really a funny, intelligent series. The use of language is clever and the two have their characters nailed down. My wife and I just finished going through it for the 3rd time.

Wooster is a rich nitwit, Jeeves is his valet. They get into impossible situations usually involving Wooster or one of his inept friends getting into trouble with the law or a woman and have to get bailed out in some equally impractical way.

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Yes but then read the books. Wodehouse was a supreme prose writer. Carve up those words, as must happen in adaptations, and you lose an immense amount of the fun. Just try it if you don't believe me. Joy in the Morning is one of my favourites.

The amazing thing about Wodehouse is that his stories came almost entirely out of his head and secondhand sources. By no means did he lead the kind of life described in his peerless stories.

Agree with everything above; Wodehouse's skillful use of words is most of the fun in Jeeves. A screen adaptation is bound to come out inferior.

But please don't read "Ring for Jeeves" as your first Wodehouse book. I don't know what happened to that one, but it's several notches below the rest, IMO.

I'll vote for 'Psmith in the City', 'Joy in the Morning' and 'The Code of the Woosters'. Also there is the somewhat obscure 'Laughing Gas'.

It's interesting that you say "notches below the rest." That literally may have been true, given that Wodehouse measured how many times he'd revised a page by pasting it higher and higher on his study wall (or some wall somewhere, don't remember exactly what I read). Pages started at the bottom near the floor. A page was ready to release when it had attained a certain height.

I think the main thing about the current Blandings adaptation on UK tv is it might encourage more people to read the books...

The aversion to aunts may have been autobiographical.

Their sketch show "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" is also excellent. Anyone who liked Jeeves and Wooster has to try and watch this show too!

....if only to watch Fry regularly hitting Laurie. No, not acting, several times they cock it up and Fry actually hits him!!!!

And if you must watch any season, watch Season 3 as it's them at their peak. (S2 is good, S1 fun but less clear voice as it uses a few Monty Python tricks, and S4 sadly their patchiest as they had guest stars forced on them.)

I have never watched any of the video series. The books are classics at comedy. I wish 'Pigs have wings' is available on iBooks. Stories involving Bertie Wooster, Jeeves, Hon. Threepod etc.. are hilarious and make up a good lazy Sunday afternoon.

I love the books but I have to say that Fry and Laurie's adaptation is a perfect retelling. They were born for those roles.

Interesting that you called it "Laurie and Fry's TV series". They will always be "Fry and Laurie" to me.

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