[SJFerrol]

Enough said to be honest.

[Verence]

It's a opinion

[stud u like]

Originally Posted by SJFerrol

Enough said to be honest.

2 minutes of it was enough to deter me from watching it again. Thank goodness for Iplayer.

[wuffles]

It wouldn't be so bad if the guy playing Freddie didn't insist on acting like a human Mr Toad. Freddie's supposed to be a bit dim, but not THAT dim!

[Granny McSmith]

I think it's good. One of the few supposed comedy programmes that actually make me laugh.

So, you see, I don't agree with the OP's statement.

[Aerrow]

Wodehouse managed to make silly asses quite funny back in the 20s and 30s, but it just seems bizarre now, especially with a bunch of actors who don't know their way around the period. Painful.

[nick202]

I know - they've gone for 'names' rather actors suited to the parts

[Chris1964]

Originally Posted by nick202

I know - they've gone for 'names' rather actors suited to the parts

I dont know the characters so thats quite an advantage it seems.
That world of the spiffing aristocracy seems almost surreal but it does make me laugh in places. ITV's Jeeves and Wooster was one of their finest productions imo, this is lesser to that but I will keep watching.
The curious thing for me is that no-one ever seems to do any work, in fact work is an alien concept. Another plus

[Sal*UK]

I started to lose interest in it last week - tonights just finished me off to be honest.

I wanted to give it a chance - hated Jeeves and Wooster, but really wanted to like this given the actors/actress's in it.

[SapphicGrrl]

I love and adore P G Wodehouse, but this series is a travesty. In the books, Lord Emsworth is supposed to be a tall, thin, vague man - Timothy Spall is hopeless in the part. Rolling around being fat & jolly is SO not how the part should be played! He just looks and sounds totally wrong.

As for Freddie Threepwood, he looks like a caricature from Viz magazine (and that stupid hair!). It should be remembered that Freddie is a friend of Bertie Wooster (the Blandings books are a kind of spin-off), so although he's meant to be a dork, he's meant to be a funny dork, not a complete retard.

Jennifer Saunders and David Walliams know how to play these kinds of parts, but not everyone does. Martin Clunes would have made a decent Lord Emsworth - he cut his teeth on Wodehouse long ago.

PS. Shoot the screenwriter - their patronising take on this makes me feel quite queasy.

Originally Posted by Chris1964

The curious thing for me is that no-one ever seems to do any work, in fact work is an alien concept. Another plus

They're meant to be the landed gentry, living on their inherited millions! (A lost world.....)

[Sallysally]

Originally Posted by SapphicGrrl

They're meant to be the landed gentry, living on their inherited millions! (A lost world.....)

Not quite. Still a fair number about and still a fair number of Emsworths too.

But I agree that the books have been sorely thrashed by this rubbish.

[harrypalmer]

Well, just as a poke in the eye to supposed literary pretensions, I never found the Blandings books all that great either.They read like cheap magazine stories written purely for money (which is probably all they were written for).

The series is childish in a way. It's like panto season on TV with better sets. It's only half an hourand since I'm only eating Sunday dinner, it doesn't bother me to leaver it on for mild amusement. It will be forgotton as piece of television though.

[BinCat]

I started watching the first episode a week or so ago and lost interest after 10 minutes.

I'm guessing it hasn't improved?

[dsimiller]

Originally Posted by BinCat

I started watching the first episode a week or so ago and lost interest after 10 minutes.

I'm guessing it hasn't improved?

No,it hasn't BinCat,The Royal Bodyguard was funnier.

[BellaRosa]

Originally Posted by BinCat

I started watching the first episode a week or so ago and lost interest after 10 minutes.

I'm guessing it hasn't improved?

Nope. I watched the 1st episode .. just. and thought I would try again yesterday and it is dreadful ... Such a shame as I was looking forward to watching Timmy Spall

[BinCat]

Originally Posted by dsimiller

No,it hasn't BinCat,The Royal Bodyguard was funnier.

That bad eh?

[mancunianway]

Its awful. I love Wodehouse but there's so much wrong with this lot - where to begin?

Timothy Spall is wrong as others have said. He's also unintelligible; can hardly hear him as he just mutters. Each week has a new crop of younger cast members who seem to be just 'doing posh' in the most unsubtle, unskilled and cartoonish way. Mark Williams is wrong as the butler too - far too shabby.

Why all the silly sound effects - bonks, boings, squeaks etc? And the background music is pretty much constant and intrusive. Its like they realised they've got a dud and have tried to cover it up. They also don't seem to have shot many 'reaction shots' and so seem to have over-dubbed a lot of aah's, hurrumph's and sighs where you might expect a cutaway.

The script is awful - there's hardly any Wodehouse in there at all. The first episode involved the pig man reciting a limerick with rhymed the word f*** - hardly the stuff of Blandings. The new characters each week just appear out of nowhere and all seem the same and the episodes lack real structure.

Running gags are in there but botched - like Freddie crashing the car. In week two I genuinely thought they must have been short of footage by about 2 minutes and just re-run the crash from the previous week; its just so lame and poorly done; its only after ep3 that you realise its supposed to be a recurring thing. Why didn't they have a line of dialogue in the first episode along the lines of "Which tree was it today Freddie?" "Oh, the usual..." - then it would have fitted better and the viewer would know where they're going.

This latest one was awful - Emsworth is working on a jigsaw so it was obvious it was to be knocked over. The character knocking over the ornaments and furniture - it was so contrived, he was just walking in a certain direction specifically to demolish things. They introduced the dance teacher and then ignore him for the rest of the episode. Just confusing, unstructured drivel.

Its just so bad. And its such a wasted opportunity and a travesty. Jeeves & Wooster were hour-long episodes and thats the right length for a Wodehouse plot. His characters are all very similar and his plots very convoluted - why not re-use the same characters each week instead of setting up new ones and wasting time?

A dreadful, dreadful misfire.

[mancunianway]

And - while I'm off on one - David Walliams - aaargh!

He only has about 4 comedy voices. And he does them over and over and over... Last week's was the one he did in Dr Who, complete with a bit of sticky-out tooth for added 'comedy'. Oh the mirth...

[pinkyponk34]

Originally Posted by Aerrow

Wodehouse managed to make silly asses quite funny back in the 20s and 30s, but it just seems bizarre now, especially with a bunch of actors who don't know their way around the period. Painful.

True, Wodehouse is loved by the English literatti [?] , some rank his inane witterings as the height of comedic genius and rank him alongside Wullie Shakespeare as a scribe.

I just don't get it, it's throwaway bum fluff, toff silly arses being toff silly arses.

[Ed R.Marley]

The trailer for it put me off - all they showed were people pulling stupid faces

[wizzywick]

Fact! Blandings is a TV programme. Some consider it not to be very good. Bollocks is a slang term used to describe male genatalia.

However, an opinion that Blandings is bollocks is fine because in this instance the term bollocks is being used to describe something not good. i.e. slang! But an opinion is not fact!

[SapphicGrrl]

Originally Posted by pinkyponk34

True, Wodehouse is loved by the English literatti [?] , some rank his inane witterings as the height of comedic genius and rank him alongside Wullie Shakespeare as a scribe.

I just don't get it, it's throwaway bum fluff, toff silly arses being toff silly arses.

Literati..... Wodehouse IS a comedy genius - best experienced by reading the Jeeves & Wooster series, which are much better than the Blandings books. I wouldn't rank him alongside Shakespeare, but he is in a class of his own. His insight into the human psyche is a great deal sharper than people might think.

[hooter]

Originally Posted by mancunianway

Its awful. I love Wodehouse but there's so much wrong with this lot - where to begin?

Timothy Spall is wrong as others have said. He's also unintelligible; can hardly hear him as he just mutters. Each week has a new crop of younger cast members who seem to be just 'doing posh' in the most unsubtle, unskilled and cartoonish way. Mark Williams is wrong as the butler too - far too shabby.

Why all the silly sound effects - bonks, boings, squeaks etc? And the background music is pretty much constant and intrusive. Its like they realised they've got a dud and have tried to cover it up. They also don't seem to have shot many 'reaction shots' and so seem to have over-dubbed a lot of aah's, hurrumph's and sighs where you might expect a cutaway.

The script is awful - there's hardly any Wodehouse in there at all. The first episode involved the pig man reciting a limerick with rhymed the word f*** - hardly the stuff of Blandings. The new characters each week just appear out of nowhere and all seem the same and the episodes lack real structure.

Running gags are in there but botched - like Freddie crashing the car. In week two I genuinely thought they must have been short of footage by about 2 minutes and just re-run the crash from the previous week; its just so lame and poorly done; its only after ep3 that you realise its supposed to be a recurring thing. Why didn't they have a line of dialogue in the first episode along the lines of "Which tree was it today Freddie?" "Oh, the usual..." - then it would have fitted better and the viewer would know where they're going.

This latest one was awful - Emsworth is working on a jigsaw so it was obvious it was to be knocked over. The character knocking over the ornaments and furniture - it was so contrived, he was just walking in a certain direction specifically to demolish things. They introduced the dance teacher and then ignore him for the rest of the episode. Just confusing, unstructured drivel.

Its just so bad. And its such a wasted opportunity and a travesty. Jeeves & Wooster were hour-long episodes and thats the right length for a Wodehouse plot. His characters are all very similar and his plots very convoluted - why not re-use the same characters each week instead of setting up new ones and wasting time?

A dreadful, dreadful misfire.

The fact that the script bears only the merest passing resemblance to any of Wodehouse`s writings , is by far the most offensive thing about the whole charade! Bah Humbug....

[ramraideruk]

Thank God, I thought it was just me. I can't believe they wasted money on this tat.

[SapphicGrrl]

Originally Posted by hooter

The fact that the script bears only the merest passing resemblance to any of Wodehouse`s writings , is by far the most offensive thing about the whole charade! Bah Humbug....

Hear hear - as can be seen from this thread, it's unfairly colouring people's judgement of Wodehouse!