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By PFRANK BEHRENS
You all know how
hysterically funny the Bertie Wooster/Jeeves
stores are, both on the page and on the screen.
Well, P.G. Wodehouse wrote about many other
characters, notably the Mulliner family, from
which several of the episodes on "Wodehouse
Playhouse" series have been drawn. If you remember
the feisty Sarah the maid and the amorous
ambitious chauffeur Thomas in the "Upstairs,
Downstairs" series, you will recall with what
chemistry Pauline Collins and John Alderton played
those roles. In this series, they play a different
role in each half-hour episode, sometimes with
Alderton as the Mulliner, sometimes Collins, now
and then neither.
Series One holds on its two DVDs seven very funny
tales, six of which are about goofy Englishmen and
women living up to what Americans expect of them.
For example, in "Portrait of a Disciplinarian,"
Reggie Mulliner and his ex-fiancée meet at their
former Nanny's and are treated as before, as
children to be punished. But what else would we
expect of a British nanny? The Hollywood spoof
"The Rise of Minna Nordstrom" does not quite
fulfill its potential, but the "The Truth About
George" certainly does. But even in its weakest
moments (and there are not many of those), this
series is still funnier than anything else visible
on American prime time.
In Series 2 , we have six lunatic tales, with
Alderton outdoing himself playing either a
Mulliner or the victim of one. The highlight of
this series is doubtless "The Nodder," the tale of
a Hollywood Yes-man so low in the pecking order
that he is allowed only to nod in perpetual
agreement with the head of the studio. That is,
until he meets Collins, here playing an expert on
bird calls and the one who demands that the Nodder
show some gumption before she will marry him.
"The Code of the Mulliners" is very like some of
the Jeeves stories in which Bertie Wooster tries
to avoid getting married to an undesirable female.
Here Alderton dearly loves his fiancée but tries
to break it off when he believes insanity runs in
the family. Collins plays an actress willing to
create a scene (based on several plays she had
been in) to effect the breakage. Very funny and
worth the price of the set alone, as they say.
Although ex post facto wishing is a waste of time,
I do regret the use of laugh tracks in this
series. However, most of the guffaws are well
deserved. |
