For the seasoned Wodehouse fan there's nothing new here, as former radio presenter and all round national nice guy Terry Wogan scratches the surface in a slapdash review of the writer's career. That does not, however, detract from the entertainment value in this hour long one-off docu-chat.
Wogan reels in the great and the good of Wodehouse fans, including Stephen Fry, Hanif Kureishi, Joanna Lumley, and Gryff Rhys Jones, who all give personal and insightful cameos on their relationship with Wodehouse and his work.
The Inimitable Wodehouse
All involved agree wholeheartedly that Wodehouse was unique, both in his outlook and in his writing style. His exquisite sentence structure supersedes his plotting and characterisation but the whole package comes together as a wonderful mass of literary and imaginative nectar. As Stephen Fry says: 'It's impossible to describe the sunniness of the language, the way it lifts you out of yourself like no other writer on earth.'
Like the entire Wodehouse canon, a feeling of happiness supersedes all others in this programme. Wodehouse never failed to sweep any and all emotional matters under the carpet and this tendency is mirrored by Wogan here, as he seems to be constantly strolling through country house gardens or amiably probing stars in mock drawing rooms.
The biographical segments are shallow and the wave of personal opinion is thoroughly affectionate and positive. His time at Dulwich College and his beginnings as a writer are lightly brushed over and sandwiched in between effervescent blasts from the stars. It would seem difficult to find any murkiness in the life of a man who lived and penned nothing but fun, or did he?
Dark Days at Blandings
The one fix in the entire hour comes when addressing his radio broadcasts from Germany during World War Two. Naivety rather than wilful treachery was his only fault there, and sadly it was that which kept him from returning to England for the rest of his days.
A Rosy Complexion on Things
There may be pathos in the few clips of Wodehouse showing remorse for his wartime misdemeanor, but he did not dwell on it for too long, and neither does Wogan. We return for the denouement basking in sweetness and light.
In what is essentially a collection of sound bites from 'like-minded coves' and the great man himself peppered with selected facts, Wogan and the BBC have produced a mild and amusing diversion for Wodehouse boffins and a sound course of instruction for the virgins.
The conclusion is warmly tragic for the former and, like Wodehouse himself, wonderfully optimistic for the latter, as summed up by Fry: 'The people I most envy on earth are those that have never read any Wodehouse, who pick up their first book, because they now have ninety books to get through, and people have such sheer pleasure ahead of them. There's no pleasure I know like it.'
Ralph Connolly - Ralph Connolly is a graduate in English and former milkman. He spends much of his time reading all kinds of detective fiction for it's a ...
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