Absolutely. You have to be very talented to pretend to get this wrong. I have learnt this piece but it took 3 hours of practice to get the piano part right.
@@Saucyakld Sweetie, you missed my point. Hugh Laurie already knows how to play the piece of music, and probably very well (He's a very accomplished pianist in real life). His character cannot play the piece very well, to Mr Laurie is incorporating very fine acting technique into making his character's "first attempt" at it seem very liken to what a less experienced musician would likely do.
When Bertie finally gets it right, Laurie does an amazing job of actually making it sound like he's struggling through it for the first time ever, not just defaulting to the recognizable song as we all know it. Talent.
@@scattygirl1 only compared to us talent-starved individuals, haha I've been told of a concept called '40,000 hours;' (i'm sure it was called that, shall I get my calculator out?) to be good (or more accurately, talented) at something, the time frame you can expect to invest is around 40,000 hours. Well, what are you doing sitting at that computer? Start something NOW, and we'll check back on you in 40,000 hours. ;-)
@@danielstone9404 10,000 hours is the old idea of time needed to get something perfect, some say it's nonsense but of course with that much practice you must be good at whatever it is. 40,000 is a bit much, it means you'd have to practice 3 hours every day for almost 40 years.
"seems to have come a bit of a cropper" - _To come a cropper_ is an idiom. You can often add a diminutive part (e.g. a bit of) or an intensifier (e.g. bloody, flaming, etc.) to an idiom in English. Example: _He's kicked the flaming bucket_ (he died + intensifier).
...and the retort "If you'll pardon me for saying so, sir, it seems to be a reasonably straight-forward syncopated 5/4 time signature" is a very Jeeves-ish thing to say as well.
Something I really like about their dynamic is that Wooster never gets defensive about Jeeves correcting something or suggesting how to do it. Wooster's a very talented pianist but he doesn't resent Jeeves explaining how to sing the song properly. They're just very nice together
Bertie likes Jeeves, and even idolizes him for his brainpower. One correction: Bertie is only a barely adequate musician, good enough to bang out a few songs in private, but no better, unlike Hugh Laurie
Unlike a lot of unintelligent characters (and unintelligent people in real life), Bertie is well aware of the fact that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Even more unusually, he doesn’t have much insecurity about it. Bertie has a lot of great qualities - he’s charming, engaging, he can turn a phrase like a poet, and he’s always willing to help out a friend, even to the point of seriously inconveniencing himself - but intelligence is not one of them, and he knows this, is pretty much ok with it. Not only that, but he also recognises how smart Jeeves is, and deeply and openly admires and respects him for it.
In the Jeeves book, where yet again Bertie's friends seek out Jeeves for help with their problems , and Bertie does get annoyed. The back and forth when Bertie is being incredibly stupid is funny. Jeeves says, "Indeed sir" ...then Bertie says something dumb and Jeeves replies in one of his typical polite thing similar to this, but one could take it either way. Finally Bertie says in his typical fashion "I don't like your "Indeed sir" thing, (you are insulting me) so Jeeves says "Very good sir, will that be all?"
Yes, Wodehouse’s writing is so clever and entertaining. This is my first glimpse of a filmed portrayal, and thinking I prefer the characters who exist in my imagination!
That song became a hit in the 80s, in a cover by Taco, which made Irving Berlin the oldest composer in the #1 ever, over 90 years old (still alive at the time).
@@winders128 Not IMO. I watched re-runs and Carmichael so I was told didn't want to appear as stupid as Wooster in the books. I think Fry & Lawrie will be the Gold Standard for a long time.
In the books and the accompanying artwork, Wodehouse implied Jeeves was a much older man, but in the TV series, Steven Fry fits perfectly with Hugh Laurie's Wooster.
I am nearly incapable of viewing these two as actors. As far as I'm concerned Jeeves and Wooster are the real people who have been pretending to be Fry and Laurie for the past thirty or so years
Jeeves: The spelling will be Earl *Grey* sir, so named for the noble Northern statesman who preferred a touch of bergamot in his afternoon refreshment. Bertie: Really, Jeeves, what does it matter? Jeeves: There is no time sir, at which a correctly-spelled title does not matter.
@@hoodatdondar2664 Bravo! If I could like your comment 1000 times, I would do it! I'm one of those who still believes that good spelling is important. It's sad to see the huge number of ill-spelled and poorly-punctuated comments on RUclips.
I don't know why but I had this lovely image of some chap walking down a sunny street singing that ridiculous song to himself, happily oblivious to the puzzled stares all around him and it really put a smile on my face. Thanks!
When it comes to performing, those two can do anything, especially Laurie with his musical talent added. In acting, they can both break hearts, be creepy, make an audience belly-laugh, and everything in-between. They’re both intelligent, well-educated, insightful, can write, and possess talent for multiple artistic mediums. Laurie is especially quick-witted off the cuff with his wonderfully droll sense of humor the English are known for and do so well. Two gems those two are.
Hugh Laurie is one of the very best! The range of his acting ability is quite stunning - check out his interpretation of "Richard Onslow Roper" in "The Night Manager" - it will send chills down your spine!
But Bertie plays in most of the earlier episodes, so they would have known by then. They actually put those scenes in because Laurie wanted it. Bertie playing piano is not even in the books.
@@L4cH4nC3 It's not 5/4, but emphasis goes on 'If' 'know' and 'why' which are 5 beats apart. I think we're so used to syncopation now that we're used to the heavy beat not being the first in the bar
@@vibraphonics That's a very good point. Incidentally, I thought about that 5/4 line just the other day (because the song was stuck in my head again) and I came to the same conclusion. It's funny how these things happen sometimes. Coincidence? Yes. Coincidence. But still kind of cool.
"If you were to accent the words IF, WERE and FASHION, I think you´ll find that the correct rhythmic pattern would emerge." Well, if you put it that way... Sounds like magic :)
They are both such talented actors and Hugh Laurie is obviously a very competent pianist. What a pity Irving Berlin died just before this series was released. He would have loved this!
My wife and I are both devotees of House, M.D. Hugh Laurie's American accent is so perfect, so authentic, and so unforced, that my wife could not believe her ears when I played this clip for her.
In the late 90s, maybe very early 2000s, in my first exposure to file sharing services, I was looking for a copy of Taco's version of this song. In the process I stumbled across a mislabeled MP3 file with the audio of this sketch and loved it, not knowing what it was or where it came from. With the success of House years later I learned of Hugh Laurie, and at some point remembered this bit and realized it sounded like him, but never looked too deeply into the details. I then proceeded to forget all about it until a few minutes ago when this video popped up. RUclips recommendations coming through for me again!
I've seen the whole series over 50 times overall and would give everything to someone who could erase my memory so I could see it again for the 1st time.
"If you erase all the Agatha Christie novels from my memory bank, I can read 'em again tonight!" ruclips.net/video/lVIhDhN7Nxw/видео.htmlsi=8qkg7XH0Bd9hu0ZY&t=97
I discovered Jeeves and Wooster in the summer of 1966 while spending a week with my friend and her family at the beach. I bought several paperbacks at a local drugstore. Awesome.
I can't help but feel that this is the motivation of 'Archer' (Animated TV Show) and his butler, also as a nod to the author, they named the butler 'Woodhouse' after the author PG Wodhouse
Yes. Archers butler is absolutely a nod to P.G. Wodehouse. ...after Jeeves grows old and becomes a heroin addict. "Archer" is a masterclass of blending highbrow with lowbrow.
One of YT's gravest omissions is Fred Astaire's unbelievable dance to this tune in 'Blue Skies' (1946). He meant it to be his swansong and spent six weeks on it.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I am a lover of older (oldish) films with music and dancing, love me a Tap routine and top notch is a Fred Astaire/ Ginger Rogers movie dance clip, hence my ending up here. I was searching for my favourite Fred Astaire, Putting on the Ritz clip to show my Granddaughter's, who both love long flowing dresses that twirl. Loved it.
so talented. actor, writer, composer, musician, singer, sportsman....when heaven was giving out talent, it heaped it on him...hes so so talented..could do anything
@@kittycatmeowmeow963 Class Honours degree in archaeology & anthropology. Like his father, Laurie was an oarsman at school and university; in 1977, he was half of the junior cox-ed pair that won the English national title before representing England's Youth Team at the 1977 World Championships. Later, he also achieved a Blue taking part in the 1980 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Cambridge lost that year by five feet (1.5 m). Laurie is a member of the Leander Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world. One of the boats at Selwyn, his old college at Cambridge, is named "Laurie" in his honour.
Yeah, only a few other musical pieces have that complex, not matching but somehow still matching thing happening. I think anyway. Ride of the Valkyries, Anvil of Crom, the opening of the Matrix version of "Dragula", and something else that slips my mind
100%. And by this time they had a nearly 10-year working partnership, so it's not as though they could have been chosen independently. To have found a performing pair that were so perfectly cast... was astonishing. Loved this series since I first saw it back at the start of the 90s.
I so need to get this series on DVD! I remember enjoying this pair immensely when the show was on PBS, well before US companies snapped up Laurie for "House." Buuut, I can see myself binge-watching instead of working on my creative projects. And even I can imagine Fry as Jeeves giving me a gentle reminder to not have "quite so much screen time." He'd be right, too. 😅
I thought this tv series was actually better than the books - a rare phenomenon! Fry and Laurie are perfect. Of course, now they're old enough to play Lord Emsworth & Beech........
Depends what you mean by highbrow. If you mean comedy among the upper classes, you may be correct. If you mean comedy where every second word is not "fuck", I would disagree.
@@sidarthur8706 if you mean it’s social satire on a past that no longer exists then yes I suppose so. That said Woodhouse was a social observer who’s humour I hope can always be enjoyed: -)
Ted Warden no i just mean that it's not high brow at all, it's very broad comedy. it just seems high brow to us looking from a century later. the way you'll see film adaptations of old erotic novels on bbc four where they apparently belong now
@@ferguscullen8451 Well, he says "sycopated 5/4", what he means is that the song contains 2 different rhythms. The whole song is 4/4, but the melody in this part is 5/4 overlaid on top of the rest which is still in 4/4.
If Bertie had sung and played like that, Jeeves would have handed in his notice, just like he did when Bertie took up the banjo. Fortunately, the banjo playing didn't last and the two got together again after some hilarious misadventures suffered by Bertie.
Bertie took up the trumbone and Jeeves handed in his notice. They were asked to leave their apartments if he didn’t stop playing. In the same episode Barmy" Fotheringay-Phipps and the gang had a banjo orchestra
Here's a fun fact, much like many songs written by showmen of post civil war, pre WWII era, like Old Man River, this song too, is essentially rewritten to avoid discomfort to White America these days, and WAS by this time. The opening line of the song that he actually sings, which runs "Have you seen the well to do, up on Lenox Avenue"... is almost universally replaced by 'Have you seen the well to do, up along park avenue"... Lenox Avenue, later named Malcom X Boulevard, is the central arterial road through the New York City suburb of Harlem. Unlike much of the surrounding areas of Harlem, which have been fermented as somewhat notorious in Pop Culture, and were, and are, home to large 'Projects' and low income highrise housing, Lenox Avenue is a much more outwardly affluent area, and was even in the 1920s and 30s. With large neo-classical inspired apartment buildings, more boutique stores, and brownstone terrace houses, it was often considered the location to find Black people putting on airs above their station in the eyes of White America. The song is Berlin calling out the kind of racism that was common, and casual, as well as often voiced, by Middle to Upper class W.A.S.P. America at the time. Something he even saw in the generally much more tolerant showbiz scene in the already much more tolerant than the South, North of NYC. Thus, like many other songs of that era that did the same thing, for White America to feel comfortable about it, they cited it as racist, and pushed it through changes. Berlin himself was not expressing inherent Racism, but rather was expressing the racist contempt for 'flashy niggers' pretending they had money and pizazz and glamour, when they were just faking. Nevertheless, the song was sanitised, and racist slang removed, and the location changed to Park Avenue. All references to Lulu-Belle's, which aside from the famous Country act of the 30s, was slang for a dollied up black woman, who was seen to be acting like she had class..... the default understanding being that it was obviously and act because people of colour had no class, and High Browns from down the levy.... ergo, mixed raced people of colour, from low class black communities putting on a show of being like high class Whites, were removed, as was all implication of poverty, the words fifteen dollars became 'lots of dollars'... to avoid any connection between the song and poor black suburbs in NYC. It is VERY telling, and marvelous decision, by this show, that they do NOT shy away from that, they do not come right out and sing the whole thing, but they made a conscious effort to remind WASP American, that still runs America today, as it did at this time, of that nasty piece of history, and that reality of the song they later so sanitized. KUDOS to them for that.
@@brianthomas2434 Revised lyrics could easily have been used, since almost everyone at the time the series was actually MADE would have known THOSE lyrics and been none the wiser. It was, I bet you London to a brick, a very conscious decision not to use the established lyrics, but original ones.
@@Apis4 There was no need to change the lyrics. This show was produced in the UK in the nineties, not the present day US. Viewers would have been puzzled by the anachronism, seeing no reason for it, because there is none.
Originally, the first verse was talking about Lenox Avenue, referring to a street in Harlem. But even in the mid-1940s, they had enough awareness to change those lyrics, when it offended black people, and that is why it now speaks of Park Avenue. That one-word change altered the perception of the entire song. Originally, it was poking fun at poor black men trying to "dress rich", but now it is a song about people who dress fancy for all occasions. The power of a single word. Of course, there would be a setback 40 years later, when Taco covered the song and, for some bizarre reason, decided to have white men in blackface in the music video, stirring up exactly the type of racial tension Berlin was trying to avoid.
What I love so much about Wodehouse’s writing of the character - and Laurie’s portrayal of it - which is never directly pointed out and must be read between the lines; not only is Wooster not very smart, but because he comes from money, makes the all too common assumption that he IS smart. His default position is that his view of the world must be correct (because, well, he thought of it) and that everyone else must be wrong. The subtle phrasing of his comment, implying that Irving Berlin - the most legendary songwriter and musician of the era - must surely have gotten things wrong with this song because Wooster can’t figure it out: “this Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come a bit of a cropper here [meaning he’s found himself with an abysmal failure]...too many words and not enough notes...” This default attitude of Bertie Wooster is, sadly, so prevalent among the aristocracy. In America the phrase is “he was born on third base and assumes he hit a triple”, meaning he was born into privilege and, because he doesn’t know what it is to work or earn anything, assumes he’s gotten there on his own accord. And therefore assumes he’s smarter than everyone else as well. It’s so subtly put in all of Wodehouse’s writing. Simply genius.
I can't think of another popular song that has such a variety of lyrical variations. Every time I hear someone sing it, there seems to be different lyrics.
Развлечения
![ian - Fit Check (Feat. VonOff1700) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sDGWDBg45Dw/mqdefault.jpg)
The fact that he can play it incorrectly in so many ways is actually a testament to how brilliant a musician he is.
Absolutely. You have to be very talented to pretend to get this wrong. I have learnt this piece but it took 3 hours of practice to get the piano part right.
yup
He is trying to play it for the first time! Wonder if you can play a new song faultless
@@Saucyakld Sweetie, you missed my point. Hugh Laurie already knows how to play the piece of music, and probably very well (He's a very accomplished pianist in real life). His character cannot play the piece very well, to Mr Laurie is incorporating very fine acting technique into making his character's "first attempt" at it seem very liken to what a less experienced musician would likely do.
@@rviolinfiddle55 Agree, took me years to play faultless, even professionals get it wrong sometimes. But he is a genius, love him
When Bertie finally gets it right, Laurie does an amazing job of actually making it sound like he's struggling through it for the first time ever, not just defaulting to the recognizable song as we all know it. Talent.
He really is an unfairly talented individual.
@@scattygirl1 only compared to us talent-starved individuals, haha
I've been told of a concept called '40,000 hours;' (i'm sure it was called that, shall I get my calculator out?) to be good (or more accurately, talented) at something, the time frame you can expect to invest is around 40,000 hours.
Well, what are you doing sitting at that computer? Start something NOW, and we'll check back on you in 40,000 hours. ;-)
@@danielstone9404
10,000 hours is the old idea of time needed to get something perfect, some say it's nonsense but of course with that much practice you must be good at whatever it is.
40,000 is a bit much, it means you'd have to practice 3 hours every day for almost 40 years.
He is a very good jazz pianist.
@@brontologos
Is he? I thought more Classic but I was sure he played the piano, thanks!
"Oh dear. This Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come up with a bit of a cropper here."
Arguably the most Woosterish thing ever said.
"seems to have come a bit of a cropper" - _To come a cropper_ is an idiom. You can often add a diminutive part (e.g. a bit of) or an intensifier (e.g. bloody, flaming, etc.) to an idiom in English. Example: _He's kicked the flaming bucket_ (he died + intensifier).
...and the retort "If you'll pardon me for saying so, sir, it seems to be a reasonably straight-forward syncopated 5/4 time signature" is a very Jeeves-ish thing to say as well.
Something I really like about their dynamic is that Wooster never gets defensive about Jeeves correcting something or suggesting how to do it. Wooster's a very talented pianist but he doesn't resent Jeeves explaining how to sing the song properly. They're just very nice together
Bertie is very good natured, which is why he manages to be fairly likeable despite so often being an idiot.
Bertie likes Jeeves, and even idolizes him for his brainpower.
One correction: Bertie is only a barely adequate musician, good enough to bang out a few songs in private, but no better, unlike Hugh Laurie
Unlike a lot of unintelligent characters (and unintelligent people in real life), Bertie is well aware of the fact that he is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Even more unusually, he doesn’t have much insecurity about it. Bertie has a lot of great qualities - he’s charming, engaging, he can turn a phrase like a poet, and he’s always willing to help out a friend, even to the point of seriously inconveniencing himself - but intelligence is not one of them, and he knows this, is pretty much ok with it. Not only that, but he also recognises how smart Jeeves is, and deeply and openly admires and respects him for it.
In the Jeeves book, where yet again Bertie's friends seek out Jeeves for help with their problems , and Bertie does get annoyed. The back and forth when Bertie is being incredibly stupid is funny. Jeeves says, "Indeed sir" ...then Bertie says something dumb and Jeeves replies in one of his typical polite thing similar to this, but one could take it either way. Finally Bertie says in his typical fashion "I don't like your "Indeed sir" thing, (you are insulting me) so Jeeves says "Very good sir, will that be all?"
Yes, Wodehouse’s writing is so clever and entertaining. This is my first glimpse of a filmed portrayal, and thinking I prefer the characters who exist in my imagination!
That song became a hit in the 80s, in a cover by Taco, which made Irving Berlin the oldest composer in the #1 ever, over 90 years old (still alive at the time).
Yes!! I heard this song for the first time and ever since fell in love with it from Taco's version.
Ludwig van Beethoven was 205 years old (not still alive) when "A Fifth of Beethoven" (co-written with Walter Murphy) hit #1 in 1976.
@@markaustin5359 you missed the still alive part.
I'm here from their video.
@@Mark.Taylor. Yes, he wasn't quite into de-composing just yet.
J&W has one of the best theme tunes ever for any program on British TV for me.
Yes, I agree! I think it’s superb!
One of the best theme tunes, period.
I always liked the one from 'Agatha Christie's Poirot'.
But this is great as well!
@Louise Collet yes! 😊
On any TV from any land (IMHO).
I can’t imagine any other people who were better suited for the roles than Fry and Laurie.
Agreed but the 1960s version with Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price was very good.
And the more you read the books, the more right these two become!
@@winders128 Not IMO. I watched re-runs and Carmichael so I was told didn't want to appear as stupid as Wooster in the books. I think Fry & Lawrie will be the Gold Standard for a long time.
I'd have paid good money to see Rik and Ade have a go, though.
In the books and the accompanying artwork, Wodehouse implied Jeeves was a much older man, but in the TV series, Steven Fry fits perfectly with Hugh Laurie's Wooster.
I am nearly incapable of viewing these two as actors. As far as I'm concerned Jeeves and Wooster are the real people who have been pretending to be Fry and Laurie for the past thirty or so years
Here here!
@@blacksquirrel4008 Where where?
@@Charlienmeg There! There!
@@blacksquirrel4008 What? Hear hear?
@@Charlienmeg :) :) :)
I am fortunate enough to own the entire series on DVD. Every now and again I pop it in, brew a pot of Earl Gray tea and enjoy my little heart out.
That sounds like a fine idea.
Jeeves: The spelling will be Earl *Grey* sir, so named for the noble Northern statesman who preferred a touch of bergamot in his afternoon refreshment.
Bertie: Really, Jeeves, what does it matter?
Jeeves: There is no time sir, at which a correctly-spelled title does not matter.
@@hoodatdondar2664 Bravo! If I could like your comment 1000 times, I would do it! I'm one of those who still believes that good spelling is important. It's sad to see the huge number of ill-spelled and poorly-punctuated comments on RUclips.
Is it Twinings?
@@agahpashtollah4753 Actually, Bigelow. I've tried Twinning. It's very good. 👍🇬🇧 I prefer going to tea shops where I live to get loose leaf Earl Grey.
🎵 With due expediency.... Puttin' on the Regency 🎵
I still find myself singing Bertie's wrong version from time to time. "If-you're-blue and... youdon'tknowwheretogoto"
I don't know why but I had this lovely image of some chap walking down a sunny street singing that ridiculous song to himself, happily oblivious to the puzzled stares all around him and it really put a smile on my face. Thanks!
🤪😂😂😂
Yes!
i found myself humming "with due expediency, puttin on the regency" the other day and had to come back to this
Superb. Jeeves and Wooster do have that effect on one.
Madeleine Morris
80s puttin on the ritz
Lol, thought I was the only one.
Best part is he plays it in a minor key to disparage it. Bertie Wooster was a musical genius, make no mistake.
“A reasonably straightforward syncopated 5/4” what an insane collection of words hehe
When it comes to performing, those two can do anything, especially Laurie with his musical talent added. In acting, they can both break hearts, be creepy, make an audience belly-laugh, and everything in-between. They’re both intelligent, well-educated, insightful, can write, and possess talent for multiple artistic mediums. Laurie is especially quick-witted off the cuff with his wonderfully droll sense of humor the English are known for and do so well. Two gems those two are.
Hugh Laurie is one of the very best! The range of his acting ability is quite stunning - check out his interpretation of "Richard Onslow Roper" in "The Night Manager" - it will send chills down your spine!
80s & 90s title sequences are works of art
I remember Stephen Fry saying they just wanted the scene so you could not see Laurie playing and insert the music and Fry said "but he CAN play"
But Bertie plays in most of the earlier episodes, so they would have known by then. They actually put those scenes in because Laurie wanted it. Bertie playing piano is not even in the books.
Laurie's playing of Bertie's attachment to cheesy musical numbers is an homage to PGW's time as a lyricist for Broadway and London musical comedies
"This Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come a bit of a cropper here, Jeeves!"
Easily one of the best television series of all time.
"Seems to be a reasonably straightforward syncopated 5/4 time signature" XD
Haha, almost...
What has always bothered me is that it's not, it's just a simple 4/4 :)
... but it’s not
@@L4cH4nC3 It's not 5/4, but emphasis goes on 'If' 'know' and 'why' which are 5 beats apart. I think we're so used to syncopation now that we're used to the heavy beat not being the first in the bar
@@vibraphonics That's a very good point. Incidentally, I thought about that 5/4 line just the other day (because the song was stuck in my head again) and I came to the same conclusion. It's funny how these things happen sometimes. Coincidence?
Yes. Coincidence. But still kind of cool.
"If you were to accent the words IF, WERE and FASHION, I think you´ll find that the correct rhythmic pattern would emerge."
Well, if you put it that way... Sounds like magic :)
Massive kudos to Laurie for a skilled bit of piano work. The song is indeed a fiend.
I bought the music the other day. It is terribly difficult to play. Very complex chords. Hugh Laurie is an awesome pianist and actor!
@@lindamanas6735 Very simple piano work.
Laurie is actually quite the accomplished musician. I just discovered this show and love hearing him sing/play these old classics!
He would, occasionally, show his talent on House.
They are both such talented actors and Hugh Laurie is obviously a very competent pianist. What a pity Irving Berlin died just before this series was released. He would have loved this!
Those facial acting by Fry were amazing!
My wife and I are both devotees of House, M.D. Hugh Laurie's American accent is so perfect, so authentic, and so unforced, that my wife could not believe her ears when I played this clip for her.
A collaboration made in heaven 🤗💕...note to self..watch the programmes again 😁
In the late 90s, maybe very early 2000s, in my first exposure to file sharing services, I was looking for a copy of Taco's version of this song. In the process I stumbled across a mislabeled MP3 file with the audio of this sketch and loved it, not knowing what it was or where it came from. With the success of House years later I learned of Hugh Laurie, and at some point remembered this bit and realized it sounded like him, but never looked too deeply into the details. I then proceeded to forget all about it until a few minutes ago when this video popped up. RUclips recommendations coming through for me again!
I've seen the whole series over 50 times overall and would give everything to someone who could erase my memory so I could see it again for the 1st time.
🙂 wait until you get to be my age. My memory is so bad I can see a show from a year ago and it's like it's brand new.
The onset of Alzgeimets might help you out. Honestlt what rot
How, pray?
You bring the money, I'll bring the hammer.
"If you erase all the Agatha Christie novels from my memory bank, I can read 'em again tonight!"
ruclips.net/video/lVIhDhN7Nxw/видео.htmlsi=8qkg7XH0Bd9hu0ZY&t=97
Thanks for adding the intro. It's a total classic
"With due expediency...putting on the regency!" 🎶 Oh my goodness, this show is GOLDEN. 🤣
This Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come a bit of a cropper here jeeves 🤣
When the clip ended I moaned, *nooo* . Too damn short.
Despite this, thank you for sharing!
I discovered Jeeves and Wooster in the summer of 1966 while spending a week with my friend and her family at the beach. I bought several paperbacks at a local drugstore. Awesome.
Funniest series, missed it first time around but was introduced to it a few years ago! To me as an American Hugh was Dr House!
I can't help but feel that this is the motivation of 'Archer' (Animated TV Show) and his butler, also as a nod to the author, they named the butler 'Woodhouse' after the author PG Wodhouse
Good lord.. I never made the connection. That actually makes sense, bit of a hidden joke.
@@CaptApril123 but, then, House was Holmes and Wilson was Watson
@@doctorpatient519 House being Sherlock was pretty much the whole plot of the series.
Yes. Archers butler is absolutely a nod to P.G. Wodehouse. ...after Jeeves grows old and becomes a heroin addict.
"Archer" is a masterclass of blending highbrow with lowbrow.
They are so wonderful together!
I always loved this show and the great music was a bonus.
One of YT's gravest omissions is Fred Astaire's unbelievable dance to this tune in 'Blue Skies' (1946). He meant it to be his swansong and spent six weeks on it.
It’s on YT. Several versions with more or less before and after.
I used to love watching Jeeves and Bertie ,my uncle called Bertie.
This really brilliantly demonstrates the genius of Irving Berlin.
This scene feels like something that would pop up in a schools programme for music class! I had fun _and_ I learned things!
If you had fun and you learned things, then that's totally NOT like school
@@ZekromReshiramVolt
Marjorie, why’d you have to ruin everything - DAMN IT!
The way he says puttin on the ritz is so satisfying
Well this unlocked a memory i forgot even exsisted
Thank you so much for sharing this. I am a lover of older (oldish) films with music and dancing, love me a Tap routine and top notch is a Fred Astaire/ Ginger Rogers movie dance clip, hence my ending up here. I was searching for my favourite Fred Astaire, Putting on the Ritz clip to show my Granddaughter's, who both love long flowing dresses that twirl. Loved it.
Brilliant! I remember following the series on PBS here in New York! Great show!
Hugh i will always love you and your amazing talent
Always makes me smile and leaves me happy.
I totally love Jeeves and Wooster!
so talented. actor, writer, composer, musician, singer, sportsman....when heaven was giving out talent, it heaped it on him...hes so so talented..could do anything
heard he suffers from that.all his life...
Which sport?
@@kittycatmeowmeow963 he was a rower in cambridge
@@kittycatmeowmeow963 Class Honours degree in archaeology & anthropology.
Like his father, Laurie was an oarsman at school and university; in 1977, he was half of the junior cox-ed pair that won the English national title before representing England's Youth Team at the 1977 World Championships. Later, he also achieved a Blue taking part in the 1980 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Cambridge lost that year by five feet (1.5 m). Laurie is a member of the Leander Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world. One of the boats at Selwyn, his old college at Cambridge, is named "Laurie" in his honour.
Jeeves' face in the background 1:27
Wooster is right, the song has a tricky rhythm
Yeah, only a few other musical pieces have that complex, not matching but somehow still matching thing happening. I think anyway. Ride of the Valkyries, Anvil of Crom, the opening of the Matrix version of "Dragula", and something else that slips my mind
"If you'll pardon me for saying so siiir, it seems to be a reasonably straightforward, syncopated 5:4 time signature!"
@@michaelrawson6261 is there anything you don’t know Jeeves?
@@melissamarsh2219:... "... I really don't know Miss!..." 😂
@@IrishCarney Its called syncopation, check out some Scott Joplin if you want to hear more :)
He is a fantastic musician! And I love Woodhouse too!
This is truly one of the most adorable scenes!
It's amazing how fit they both are for their roles. It's as if Wodehouse had them particularly in mind. Fry _is_ Jeeves and Laurie _is_ Wooster. 😄
100%. And by this time they had a nearly 10-year working partnership, so it's not as though they could have been chosen independently. To have found a performing pair that were so perfectly cast... was astonishing.
Loved this series since I first saw it back at the start of the 90s.
Помню по «Культуре» в далеком детстве крутили этот сериал, и заставка вместе с этим эпизодом осталась в памяти.
I so need to get this series on DVD! I remember enjoying this pair immensely when the show was on PBS, well before US companies snapped up Laurie for "House." Buuut, I can see myself binge-watching instead of working on my creative projects. And even I can imagine Fry as Jeeves giving me a gentle reminder to not have "quite so much screen time." He'd be right, too. 😅
One of the best shows of all time.
I love Jeeves and Wooster
Fry's INDEX FINGER..!!! If, We're and Fashion... I'm deadded...!!!!!! Even his gestures are genius!)))
I loved this series, wish they’d show it again.
I think it's here on youtube, if you search for it
@@monicasmalley3336 It is. Full episodes for free. 🙂
Omg didnt know this is existed! I just bought the book and loving it since the first page.
I thought this tv series was actually better than the books - a rare phenomenon! Fry and Laurie are perfect. Of course, now they're old enough to play Lord Emsworth & Beech........
You don't see highbrow comedy like this anymore.
Depends what you mean by highbrow. If you mean comedy among the upper classes, you may be correct. If you mean comedy where every second word is not "fuck", I would disagree.
@@mctavish199 Oh fuck this fucking same fuckall criticism.
it's not high brow haha it's just old
@@sidarthur8706 if you mean it’s social satire on a past that no longer exists then yes I suppose so.
That said Woodhouse was a social observer who’s humour I hope can always be enjoyed: -)
Ted Warden no i just mean that it's not high brow at all, it's very broad comedy. it just seems high brow to us looking from a century later. the way you'll see film adaptations of old erotic novels on bbc four where they apparently belong now
Those two were a fantastic together !
Fry and Laurie were an amazing comedy combination!
i can still rember watching this on pbs from st louis mo back in the day it was hialious!
I love Stephen fry and Hugh Laurie, but that theme music is what makes me wanna start watching this😂 absolute banger🎷🎺🥁
Such wonderful charactors.
Suddenly sprung a thought of Young Frankenstein in that song to go with it. 😂
Stephen narrates the Jeeves collection on audible. It’s wonderful!
Knowing Stephen, he endeavoured to give satisfaction.
Thank you!
An Irving Berlin song . An American classic
I never realized it was in 5/4 time - which is actually what gives its signature hook.
It isn't. I'm not sure why they say it is. Strange mistake.
@@ferguscullen8451 Well, he says "sycopated 5/4", what he means is that the song contains 2 different rhythms. The whole song is 4/4, but the melody in this part is 5/4 overlaid on top of the rest which is still in 4/4.
@@keepinmahprivacy9754 That is not correct.
loved this always watched with my dad.
Great series. Wish it were longer! 🎹🎹🎹
How can a person be so good with music that he sight reads that and even sings at the same time?
The introductory music is brilliant!
If Bertie had sung and played like that, Jeeves would have handed in his notice, just like he did when Bertie took up the banjo. Fortunately, the banjo playing didn't last and the two got together again after some hilarious misadventures suffered by Bertie.
Bertie took up the trumbone and Jeeves handed in his notice. They were asked to leave their apartments if he didn’t stop playing. In the same episode Barmy" Fotheringay-Phipps and the gang had a banjo orchestra
It was banjo in the books, but a trombone in the TV series. And why would Jeeves hand in his notice?? Bertie plays piano and sings well!
A gentleman is someone who can play the trombone, but declines to.
Here's a fun fact, much like many songs written by showmen of post civil war, pre WWII era, like Old Man River, this song too, is essentially rewritten to avoid discomfort to White America these days, and WAS by this time.
The opening line of the song that he actually sings, which runs "Have you seen the well to do, up on Lenox Avenue"... is almost universally replaced by 'Have you seen the well to do, up along park avenue"...
Lenox Avenue, later named Malcom X Boulevard, is the central arterial road through the New York City suburb of Harlem. Unlike much of the surrounding areas of Harlem, which have been fermented as somewhat notorious in Pop Culture, and were, and are, home to large 'Projects' and low income highrise housing, Lenox Avenue is a much more outwardly affluent area, and was even in the 1920s and 30s.
With large neo-classical inspired apartment buildings, more boutique stores, and brownstone terrace houses, it was often considered the location to find Black people putting on airs above their station in the eyes of White America.
The song is Berlin calling out the kind of racism that was common, and casual, as well as often voiced, by Middle to Upper class W.A.S.P. America at the time. Something he even saw in the generally much more tolerant showbiz scene in the already much more tolerant than the South, North of NYC.
Thus, like many other songs of that era that did the same thing, for White America to feel comfortable about it, they cited it as racist, and pushed it through changes. Berlin himself was not expressing inherent Racism, but rather was expressing the racist contempt for 'flashy niggers' pretending they had money and pizazz and glamour, when they were just faking.
Nevertheless, the song was sanitised, and racist slang removed, and the location changed to Park Avenue.
All references to Lulu-Belle's, which aside from the famous Country act of the 30s, was slang for a dollied up black woman, who was seen to be acting like she had class..... the default understanding being that it was obviously and act because people of colour had no class, and High Browns from down the levy.... ergo, mixed raced people of colour, from low class black communities putting on a show of being like high class Whites, were removed, as was all implication of poverty, the words fifteen dollars became 'lots of dollars'... to avoid any connection between the song and poor black suburbs in NYC.
It is VERY telling, and marvelous decision, by this show, that they do NOT shy away from that, they do not come right out and sing the whole thing, but they made a conscious effort to remind WASP American, that still runs America today, as it did at this time, of that nasty piece of history, and that reality of the song they later so sanitized.
KUDOS to them for that.
Thank you for this insightful and interesting commentary!
Also since the series was set when the song was NEW revised lyrics were not a realistic option.
@@brianthomas2434 Revised lyrics could easily have been used, since almost everyone at the time the series was actually MADE would have known THOSE lyrics and been none the wiser.
It was, I bet you London to a brick, a very conscious decision not to use the established lyrics, but original ones.
@@Apis4 There was no need to change the lyrics. This show was produced in the UK in the nineties, not the present day US. Viewers would have been puzzled by the anachronism, seeing no reason for it, because there is none.
@@brianthomas2434 Nonsense, globally, not just in the US, most people know the revised song far better than the original.
Любимый комедийный сериал, можно смотреть всегда и всегда смешно
These stories seem to capture the spirit of the era. Certainly, the opening credits do.
Originally, the first verse was talking about Lenox Avenue, referring to a street in Harlem.
But even in the mid-1940s, they had enough awareness to change those lyrics, when it offended black people, and that is why it now speaks of Park Avenue.
That one-word change altered the perception of the entire song. Originally, it was poking fun at poor black men trying to "dress rich", but now it is a song about people who dress fancy for all occasions.
The power of a single word.
Of course, there would be a setback 40 years later, when Taco covered the song and, for some bizarre reason, decided to have white men in blackface in the music video, stirring up exactly the type of racial tension Berlin was trying to avoid.
Very interesting.
Actually it had nothing to do with awareness but Berlin revised the lyrics to make them fit into the story line of the movie Blue Skies (1946).
Classic classic stuff ☺️
This is a great series
What I love so much about Wodehouse’s writing of the character - and Laurie’s portrayal of it - which is never directly pointed out and must be read between the lines; not only is Wooster not very smart, but because he comes from money, makes the all too common assumption that he IS smart. His default position is that his view of the world must be correct (because, well, he thought of it) and that everyone else must be wrong. The subtle phrasing of his comment, implying that Irving Berlin - the most legendary songwriter and musician of the era - must surely have gotten things wrong with this song because Wooster can’t figure it out: “this Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come a bit of a cropper here [meaning he’s found himself with an abysmal failure]...too many words and not enough notes...”
This default attitude of Bertie Wooster is, sadly, so prevalent among the aristocracy. In America the phrase is “he was born on third base and assumes he hit a triple”, meaning he was born into privilege and, because he doesn’t know what it is to work or earn anything, assumes he’s gotten there on his own accord. And therefore assumes he’s smarter than everyone else as well.
It’s so subtly put in all of Wodehouse’s writing. Simply genius.
Something in that, but Plum had people of all classes getting it wrong.
Well, no, that isn’t Bertie as Wodehouse wrote him.
Compared to the rest of the idiots at the Drones Club, Bertie is smart. Compared to anybody else, though ...
@@HooDatDonDar Who is Plum?
@@solelsoleil3869 ...Wodehouse.
great set design and lighting!
Killer Fact! Irving Berlin, who wrote "Puttin on the Ritz", lived long enough to listen to New Kids On The Block.
So he died after listening to New Kids On The Block? What a cruel way to go.
How unfortunate for him, poor chap!
Poor chap..!
It was also possible to catch a tube train to go and watch a public hanging
If you're blue and you don't know what to listen to, why don't you rock, to new kids on the block!
I can't think of another popular song that has such a variety of lyrical variations. Every time I hear someone sing it, there seems to be different lyrics.
I love the music.
The best intro of this funny show..! 😃
absolutely bloody brilliant ! ta rah ! and all that ! I suppose...
I wish I could get this! Fry and Laurie are nearly perfect as Jeeves and Wooster.
Jolly good show.
He is so awesome
This show is so good, Laurie and Fry are brilliant together.
"MYSS-TREEE!" -Dr. House
Great theme song!
Would have liked to watch all of it.
Reminds me time to binge watch J&W again!
Still their best work to date.
The best version of this song is from Young Frankenstein.
Moist definitely!
That's how I got to know the song! 😀
"PUTTINONTHERIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITZ!"
Try the Fred Astaire version from the film Blue Skies
Oh my god yes! Ladies and gentleman, I bring you, the creature!
fantastic