Wodehouse Playhouse

1974 - 1978

The Truth About George

23rd April 1975

Episode 1

""If anyone here tonight is afflicted with a stammer you will be interested to learn how George Mulliner got rid of his... The method is shown in our opening story, 'The Truth About George'. It entailed a certain amount of unpleasantness, but it was very effective ..."" P.G. Wodehouse Introduction Though a whiz at crosswords, poor George Mulliner stammers so badly he sounds like a soda-water syphon and is unable to declare his love for Susan. Searching for a cure, he sings (carols, chants, vocalizes) his way into a bit of a mess (botch, muddle, mix-up).

Romance at Droitgate Spa

30th April 1975

Episode 2

""There is a terrible lot of snobbery, I am sorry to say, in all English health resorts. Visitors with merely a touch of arthritis are terribly snubbed by the swells with ailments which get written up in special numbers of 'The Lancet'. Tonight's story, Romance at Droitgate Spa, shows this."" P.G. Wodehouse Introduction Freddie Fitch-Fitch falls head-over-white-tie-and-tails in love with a bewitching but lowly conjurer's assistant. The only obstacles to their bliss are Freddie's snobbish uncle, a health spa devotee who holds sway over his nephew's finances, and the Great Boloney himself who thinks he has an unbeatable ace up his sleeve.

Portrait of a Disciplinarian

Episode 3

Reggie Mulliner is invited to Bingley On Sea by his brother, Dr. Joe Mulliner, to visit their old Nannie, Nurse Wilks who lives on in Reggie's memory as being 7 feet tall, with stevedore shoulders, beetling brows and steel teeth. Noblesse Oblige requires Reggie to visit Nurse Wilks for afternoon tea with boiled eggs and fruit-cake. Upon arriving at 'Wee Holme' in Marazine Road, Nannie's address, he finds that she is also entertaining Jane Oliphant, Reggie's ex-fiancee, a girl with a heart of stone whom Reggie has reason to believe visited some people by the name of Ponderby and became engaged to a man named Dillingwater, all in the space of a week. It is up to Nurse Wilks to bring the two star-crossed lovers together. Reggie is locked in a cupboard because he refuses to kiss Miss Jane, and Jane follows Reggie into the cupboard when she forgets where she is and lights up a cigarette. There can be no person on earth more likely to strike terror into the human heart and mind than the En

The Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court

Episode 4

""In our story tonight - 'The Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court' - we see how the malevolent influence of a house nearly wrecked the romance of two poets - they had the dickens of a time - but fortunately everything came right in the end."" (P.G. Wodehouse) Introduction Kindred spirits and fellow poets, Charlotte Mulliner (author of 'Vignettes in Verse') and Aubrey Trefusis (author of 'Pastels In Prose') meet at 'The Crushed Pansy' a club for the literati. It emerges that Charlotte Mulliner has been invited to stay at the home of Aubrey Trefusis' parents, Sir Alexander and Lady Bassinger. Bludleigh Court is a strange house - it exercises a ghastly spell that saps even the most humanitarian principles and turns the gentlest nature-lover into a monster of ravening bloodlust. At first Charlotte is inclined to scoff at Aubrey's warnings but upon arriving at the house, both young people soon fall under its spell. They find themselves pursuing Aubrey's Uncle Francis, whose sole to

The Rise of Minna Nordstrom

Episode 5

The making of a Hollywood Film Star. In Prohibition era Hollywood, a producer's life is one bad audition after another. But a star is born when a successful movie producer encounters a housemaid who really has the goods - on him and his buddies...

Rodney Fails to Qualify

Episode 6

This is the story of love among golfers. It shows how true love, even if it slides into troubled waters, can always get back on the fairway, though it may get rather wet. Young William Bates is a torpid wooer who will not pop the question to Jill Packard, who is becoming dreamy and absent-minded, ever since reading 'The Love That Scorches' a romantic epic about the desert and people on camels and an Arab Chief with stern but tender eyes, and oases and mirages and things like that... The Oldest Member advises William to be quick about it and ask Jill to marry him before she becomes too entangled with romantic poet Rodney Spelvin. His advice to William is to engage Jill in a passionate exchange at the 6th hole in the large bunker there - a vast sandy waste where Jill may prove more susceptible to his wooing, and recommmends that before he even speaks to her, William is to clasp her in his arms and let his hot breath sear her face. But will William be in time? Even now Jill is walking

A Voice From the Past

Episode 7

""Tonight's story is called 'A Voice from the Past'. It tells of a young man who by means of tuition from a correspondence school developed an iron will. Eventually he decided he would be better without it."" P.G. Wodehouse Narrator Encountering an old school chum, sturdy Muriel Mulliner recalls her eventful courtship. Her beloved goes to great lengths to fit into the rough-and-ready Mulliner mold until a chance encounter with an old nemesis causes him to revert to being the milquetoast Muriel adores.

Top Cast

Pauline Collins•John Alderton•P.G. Wodehouse

Wodehouse Playhouse is a British television comedy series based on the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse. From 1974 to 1978, three series and a pilot were made, with 21 half-hour episodes altogether in the entire series.

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