Television series
Jeeves & Wooster
Hugh Laurie's genial nitwit Bertie Wooster blunders through 1930s high society — forever engaged, disinherited, or blackmailed — while Stephen Fry's Jeeves fixes everything with a raised eyebrow and quiet genius. Faithfully lifted from Wodehouse, it's farce built on immaculate plotting: silk dressing gowns, terrifying aunts, and disastrous engagements. Gentle, clever, endlessly rewatchable comfort viewing that never once turns cruel.
If you liked this
A Bit of Fry and Laurie1987
Same double act, stripped of costumes and country houses — pure surreal sketch comedy that shows exactly why these two work so well together, all wordplay and impeccable timing.
But No plot, no story, just sketches — if you want more of the Wooster-and-Jeeves world, this won't scratch that itch.
Blackadder1983
Fry again, this time playing status games across five centuries — the same love of language turned savage and quick, especially in the Regency and WWI series.
But Much nastier and more cynical than Jeeves' gentle world — the comedy bites rather than beams.
Fawlty Towers1975
The gold standard of English farce — meticulous plotting and mounting disaster, a man undone by his own dignity. Same DNA of comic escalation, wound tighter and crueller.
But Basil Fawlty has none of Bertie's sweetness; it's funnier because it's meaner, and that discomfort isn't for everyone.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Remains of the Day1993
Same English class machinery, same impeccable servant holding everything together — but Wodehouse's warmth curdles into tragedy the moment the joke is taken seriously.
Anthony Hopkins as a butler so devoted to service he forgets to have a life — the master-servant bond played for heartbreak instead of laughs, and just as precisely observed.
But There is no comedy here at all — a slow, sad film about repression and regret, deliberately and quietly paced.
More like this (7)
Blandings2013no page yet
Straight from the same author's pen — Wodehouse's other great creation, a genially useless aristocrat and his beloved pig, with Timothy Spall on marvellous form.
But Broader and sillier than Jeeves and Wooster, with less of that show's verbal elegance.
Agatha Christie Poirot1989
The same handsome interwar England, the same unhurried pleasure in period detail and impeccable manners — just with murder instead of matrimony as the running problem.
But It's a mystery show at heart, not a comedy; the laughs are incidental rather than the point.
Downton Abbey2010
If it's the world you love — country houses, valets, breakfast rooms — this gives you six more years of it, with soap-opera stakes attached.
But Plays everything straight; comedy is a garnish here, not the main course, and it takes itself far more seriously.
Upstairs, Downstairs1971
The template for every posh-house drama since, and a fascinating flip of Jeeves and Wooster's dynamic — told largely from the servants' side of the green baize door.
But Slower and more earnest, thoroughly of its era — 1970s pacing, not 1990s polish.
To the Manor Born1979
A gentle, very English sitcom about class, manners, and keeping up appearances after losing the family estate — cosy, wry, endlessly rewatchable.
But Its humour is soft rather than sharp; nobody here has Wodehouse's gift for a sentence.
Keeping Up Appearances1990
British social climbing played for pure farce — Hyacinth Bucket's desperate grasp at gentility is the mirror image of Bertie's easy, unbothered privilege.
But Broader, louder and more repetitive — one joke played expertly rather than Wodehouse's constant invention.
Kind Hearts and Coronets1949
Same drawing-room satire and beautifully turned dialogue, but the class comedy that's merely silly in Wodehouse turns lethal here — same engine, murder-mystery costume.
A dazzling, black-comic Ealing classic about a disinherited young man murdering his way through the aristocracy — the same clipped English wit, aimed at the throat instead of the funny bone.
But Genuinely dark under the charm — it's a comedy about serial murder, however light and elegant its touch.
People
Cast
Production
- Al BurgessAssociate Producer
- Sally HeadExecutive Producer
- Brian EastmanProducer