Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (BBC Audio)

Madeline's engagement to that world-class newt lover, Gussie Fink-Nottle, is on the rocks when Madeline insists that the meat-loving Gussie become a vegetarian. That's dangerous because Madeline has always made it clear that she will have no other man than Bertie as her husband if Gussie isn't available. So Bertie volunteers to enter that place where all others abandon hope in order to try to repair the engagement. But he's soon in trouble because Emerald Stoker, daughter of the American millionaire, has taken a temporary job as the cook at Totleigh Towers and is tempting Gussie with steak and kidney pie and ham sandwiches. Soon love is following the growls of Gussie's stomach, and Gussie insults the sunset and Madeline's favorite fictional character.

At the same time, Stiffi Byng's engagement to Stinker Pinker is on the rocks as well because Pop Bassett won't come through with the vicar's job that Stinker needs to be able to afford to marry. A rocky day at the school treat makes progress even more problematical.

Jeeves is the source of the all the solutions as he often is, but relations are strained even there by Bertie's new hat which Jeeves feels is unsuitable.

Stiffi also takes to absconding with Pop Bassett's prize gee-gaw, which Bertie's Uncle Tom covets, and matters develop to make Bertie look like a thief again. Can Bertie escape the goal?

In the best of the Jeeves stories, the plot unfolds in a fairly straightforward fashion that holds Bertie at ransom to fate. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves has such a plot. I highly recommend this book to you.

This book should also remind you to read the Jeeves books in order of their publication. Many of the best are sequels to the finest of the early stories. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is one of those sequels. Enjoy!

Are you ready for something to wet the old tonsils?


Not quite the right cast   March 2, 2004
Paul Donovan (London, UK)
10 out of 14 found this review helpful

To make it clear from the outset - the book is great. There is no point saying the same thing over twice, so if anyone wishes to get my views on the Wodehouse text, there is a review out there somewhere in the system, with five stars.

The danger with a dramatisation of a favourite book - radio or TV - is that it never matches your mental image of the characters. Coming to a dramatisation like this, therefore, one always has to brace ones self for a bit of jarring. This dramatisation jarred me a little too much, however. The actors were fine, the adaptation of the script was very good - if occasionally a little clumsy in communicating some of the scene setting. The problem was that the principle characters of Richard Briers as Bertie Wooster and Michael Hordern as Jeeves.

Hordern comes across as very remote, and more than a little disdainful of the young lord and master. This may have been how the very early Jeeves was written, but it did not last long. Wodehouse wanted to build Jeeves into a sympathetic character, tolerant - even indulgent - of Wooster. Hordern plays Jeeves as if he were on the verge of resigning in irritation with Wooster.

Jeeves is given a fairly limited presence in the dramatisation. This is generally the case in the book, of course, where (with the exception of one short story) Bertie Wooster is the narrator. However, Jeeves always "punches above his weight" because the text always gives Bertie's thoughts on Jeeves, or reactions to him - and that is quite lacking here. The limited role for Jeeves also exposes the second key flaw, which is that Richard Briers (though putting in a commendable performance) can not pull-off the voice of a young man in his mid twenties. Briers sounds like a middle aged person playing a young person, and it grates in a role like that of Bertie Wooster. This far more pronounced than with the TV part played by Hugh Laurie - who was also playing a younger person - perhaps because Briers has chosen to emphasise the "breathless schoolboy" enthusiasm in the part. Unfortunately for Briers this does not create an image of a social butterfly in his twenties, and instead reminds the listener of Briers playing "Tom" in "The Good Life" sitcom. We have the same endearing boyishness, but it is a middle aged man exhibiting this attitude, and that does not come across correctly.

There are, of course, a limited number of these dramatisations available, and as previous critics have noted there are far worse ways of passing a drive. The story is good, and that helps carry the audiobook. The actors are not bad by any means, but the interpretation of the two principle characters makes it very difficult to suspend disbelief and give oneself over to enjoyment of Wodehouse's sparkling prose.