The Code of the Woosters

Michael Hordern stars as Jeeves with Richard Briers as Bertie in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation.

When Bertie goes to Totleigh Towers to pour oil on the troubled waters of a lover's tiff between Madeline Bassett and Gussie Fink-Nottle, he isn't expecting to see Aunt Dahlia there, especially when she commissions (or rather blackmails) him to steal a silver cow-creamer from Sir Watkyn Bassett - Madeline's father and owner of Totleigh Towers. Unfortunately, Sir Watkyn and his friend Roderick Spode are already convinced that Bertie is one of London's leading kleptomaniacs. Bertie finds himself in a spot of bother that even Jeeves finds hard to undo - until he discovers Roderick's guilty secret. Jeeves has his work cut out for him!

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P.G. Wodehouse's delightful English comedy, The Code Of The Woosters has been beautifully adapted and directed as a stage play Mark Richard and produced in audiobook form with a nine member cast bringing Bertie Wooster, his unflappable butler Jeeves and a host of characters to life. Bertie's beloved Aunt Dahlia pressures him into stealing a cow-shaped silver creamer and that launches another merry mix-up of laughs, gaffs, and frustrated romances in true Wodehouse style. The Code Of The Woosters is a superbly entertaining, 121 minute, two cassette "theatre of the mind" production that is a "must" for all Wodehouse fans. Also very highly recommended is the L.A. Theatre Works production of Wodehouse's Thank You, Jeeves (1-58081-119-1, $19.95).

Comic timing would seem less of the essence in literature until you read the English wit of P. G. Wodehouse, who shows just how a well-placed comment or properly inflected phrase can create a response that is often all too rare during a reading session: A loud, hearty laugh.