VisionTV premieres Britcom Classic, Jeeves and Wooster


Toronto, February 6, 2008
House’s Hugh Laurie co-stars in British comedy classic Jeeves and Wooster, coming to VisionTV Feb. 27 “And if that doesn’t leave me without a stain on my conscience, then I don’t know what it doesn’t leave me without a stain on.” – Bertie Wooster “Bertie, it is young men like you who make a person with the future of the race at heart despair.” – Aunt Agatha If you’ve only seen actor Hugh Laurie as the Vicodin-popping, invective-spewing medical detective on the hit series House, then prepare to be surprised. In the classic British comedy series Jeeves and Wooster, he plays a character who couldn’t be further from the brilliant but abrasive Dr. House: the addlepated upper-class English gentleman Bertie Wooster. VisionTV presents the complete *Jeeves and Wooster* series on Wednesday nights, starting Feb. 27 at 9 p.m. and midnight ET/6 p.m. and 9 p.m. PT. Stephen Fry (Blackadder, Gosford Park) co-stars as Bertie’s indispensable manservant Jeeves. The BAFTA Award-winning series is adapted from the immortal comic stories and novels of P.G. Wodehouse. The 23 hour-long episodes chronicle the misadventures of the good-hearted but hapless Bertie, who lurches from one social predicament to the next, only to be extricated with subtlety and skill by the masterful Jeeves. Laurie, a native of Oxford, England, discovered the works of P.G. Wodehouse at the age of 12. In a 1999 article for London’s Daily Telegraph, he wrote: “The world of Jeeves is complete and integral, every bit as structured, layered, ordered, complex and self-contained as King Lear, and considerably funnier.” Formerly mates at Cambridge, Fry and Laurie rose to fame on British television in the 1980s with their sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry and Laurie. When they were offered the roles of Jeeves and Wooster, their response, according to Laurie, was: “Wodehouse on television? It’s lunacy.” Fortunately, lunacy would win the day. Four Jeeves and Wooster series were produced for Great Britain’s ITV between 1990 and 1993, to loud critical acclaim. Writer Clive Exton (Rosemary & Thyme, Poirot) won praise for his pitch-perfect screen translation of Wodehouse’s distinctive prose style, and for skillfully adapting the author’s convoluted plots (sometimes cited as a literary antecedent to Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm). Fans of VisionTV’s Doc Martin (that other show about an obnoxious physician) should keep an eye out for star Martin Clunes, who appears in several episodes as Bertie’s friend Cyril “Barmy” Fotheringay Phipps. For more information on VisionTV’s comedy and drama programming, please visit www.visiontv.ca. To learn more about the world of Jeeves and Wooster, check out the fan site www.hatsharpening.com/j&w/index.html.

Toronto, February 6, 2008

House’s Hugh Laurie co-stars in British comedy classic Jeeves and Wooster, coming to VisionTV Feb. 27

“And if that doesn’t leave me without a stain on my conscience, then I don’t know what it doesn’t leave me without a stain on.” – Bertie Wooster

“Bertie, it is young men like you who make a person with the future of the race at heart despair.” – Aunt Agatha

If you’ve only seen actor Hugh Laurie as the Vicodin-popping, invective-spewing medical detective on the hit series House, then prepare to be surprised.

In the classic British comedy series Jeeves and Wooster, he plays a character who couldn’t be further from the brilliant but abrasive Dr. House: the addlepated upper-class English gentleman Bertie Wooster.

VisionTV presents the complete Jeeves and Wooster series on Wednesday nights, starting Feb. 27 at 9 p.m. and midnight ET/6 p.m. and 9 p.m. PT.

Stephen Fry (Blackadder, Gosford Park) co-stars as Bertie’s indispensable manservant Jeeves. The BAFTA Award-winning series is adapted from the immortal comic stories and novels of P.G. Wodehouse.

The 23 hour-long episodes chronicle the misadventures of the good-hearted but hapless Bertie, who lurches from one social predicament to the next, only to be extricated with subtlety and skill by the masterful Jeeves.

Laurie, a native of Oxford, England, discovered the works of P.G. Wodehouse at the age of 12. In a 1999 article for London’s Daily Telegraph, he wrote: “The world of Jeeves is complete and integral, every bit as structured, layered, ordered, complex and self-contained as King Lear, and considerably funnier.”

Formerly mates at Cambridge, Fry and Laurie rose to fame on British television in the 1980s with their sketch comedy series A Bit of Fry and Laurie. When they were offered the roles of Jeeves and Wooster, their response, according to Laurie, was: “Wodehouse on television? It’s lunacy.”

Fortunately, lunacy would win the day. Four Jeeves and Wooster series were produced for Great Britain’s ITV between 1990 and 1993, to loud critical acclaim.

Writer Clive Exton (Rosemary & Thyme, Poirot) won praise for his pitch-perfect screen translation of Wodehouse’s distinctive prose style, and for skillfully adapting the author’s convoluted plots (sometimes cited as a literary antecedent to Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm).

Fans of VisionTV’s Doc Martin (that other show about an obnoxious physician) should keep an eye out for star Martin Clunes, who appears in several episodes as Bertie’s friend Cyril “Barmy” Fotheringay Phipps.

For more information on VisionTV’s comedy and drama programming, please visit www.visiontv.ca.

To learn more about the world of Jeeves and Wooster, check out the fan site www.hatsharpening.com/j&w/index.html.