Wodehouse’s Bad Man To Screen On CHTV3

Press, Issue 32333, 26 June 1970, Page 3

Wodehouse’s Bad Man To Screen On CHTV3

Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, who will be met on CHTV3 on Sunday evening, lias been variously described by his creator and literary pundits. Among the expressions are: "a recognised blot on society,” “foe of the human race,” “an antisocial menace.” For all that, Ukridge remains appealing and charm-

ing. Who would not feel pangs for a man resourceful enough, when driven by poverty, to mend his glasses with the thin wire that once upon a time was found on ginger-beer bottles? By the way. in the engaging way the English have of, so to speak, taking a pin and pricking the balloon of pretentious names, “Featherstonehaugh” is prouounced “Fanshawe.”

P. G. Wodehouse, his writ-1 ings world-famed in print,! theatre and cinema, had tol wait until 1965 before his! immortality was extended to! the television screen. Perhaps he himself did not wait as eagerly as his readers, for Bertie Wooster and Jeeves found an immediate and enthusiastic public for their 20 odd adventures presented under the title of “The World; of Wooster.” Their co-! adaptors. Michael Mills andi

Richard Waring, won awards from both the Screenwriters’ Corky, with whom he was at school. Like Bertie Wooster. Ukridge has a forbidding Guild and the Guild of Television Producers for these shows. Wodehouse’s “Blanding’s Castle” and the bumbling Lord Emsworth were next to reach the small screen, “Uncle Fred" was featured in

last year’s Comedy Playhouse series, and now it is the turn of a lesser-known but equally i brilliant Wodehouse creation, (Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge. Ukridge, who first saw the (light of print in 1906, has 'been described as the only arrant rogue among Wodehouse’s pleasant immoralists. Ukridge is forever enthusiastically launching get-rich-I quick schemes, from al! of

• which he ends up the poorer. ,(Loath to work and quick tol i!borrow, he plagues the life; 11 out of old chums, notably i AunL in this case. Aunt Julia,; ■ with whom our hero goes to( : stay at Wimbledon when aIL • potential lenders have( i become creditors. I Anton Rodgers stars in thisj ■ series of seven adventures of! I(Ukridge. He won his Wode-i II house spurs in a Bertie; •|Wooster episode last year.: liJulian Holloway plays the,

much put-upon Corky, who introduces each episode with a brief observation on his old school friend. Julian’s father, Stanley Holloway, was, of course, the Butler Beach in the “Blanding’s Castle" series. Other regulars during the series include Marian Spencer as Aunt Julia, Hugh Latimer as the Butler Barter and Dickie Owen as the famous Battling Blllson. “Ukridge is a very welldrawn character" says Anton (Rodgers. It is a tribute to (Wodehouse that he can make (such a chap charming and appealing. The plots are completely watertight and have !the usual splendidly funny Wodehousian characters. I am (a great believer in the idea (that the best comedy comes from funny characters rather than funny situations.” P. G. Wodehouse himself lives in seclusion in Long I Island in the United States. (His American home was the scene when Wodehouse was ( brilliantly interviewed by j Malcolm Muggeridge for television some time ago. Wode- ■ house feels that his own brand of humour has died ; out. “There's only vicious I humour these days,” he says. ; All the more reason many (will feel, we are sure, grateful for the new Wodehouse Iseries.