Stephen Fry and Mark Rylance are wonderfully entertaining. Two master performers
929866
A first-rate theater experience. Stephen Fry and Mark Rylance are wonderfully entertaining.  Two master performers.  Unless you have read the play recently or are familiar with it, it is hard to follow the lines spoken by Aguecheek, Belch and Feste.  The wit in Shakespeare is always hard to follow.
3559917
All you need to enjoy this is a love of wordplay and a taste for involuted plots stitched around the dull opulence of Britain's idle rich.

Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry are perfectly cast. Laurie's Bertie Wooster is dim but vigorous and good-hearted, while Fry's real-life erudition reflects well in the knowing and subtle mastermind valet. Writer Clive Exton's adaptations of Wodehouse make a winning formula out of Bertie's inadvertent betrothals, scheming amongst family and colleagues, and endlessly plumbable nonsense from the upper-class twits filling Bertie's beloved Drones Club bachelor's retreat in London. High points include a banjo orchestra run afoul of a local holiday, England's would-be Duce, and a surprisingly moving pastoral homage to Ralph Vaughan Williams.

As these things go, Jeeves & Wooster suffers a gradual loss of focus on repartee and narrative in the third season, then a sharp dropoff from the start of its fourth and last. In spite of the same writer and actors, and carryover director from Season 3, it's as if they simply ran out of Wodehouse.

Snapping that end off still leaves us with a terrific series.
1079420
This is superb comedy, amidst the dross that generally passes for comedy on TV. I wouldn't put The Thick of It anywhere near the same level as this, the laughs and whimsy are noticeable more by their absence with that show. The best comparison is to those evergreen gems, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. Like the Minister series, this show was topical, but much of it is also timeless. After recently watching it again, it's still marvelous. For an Australian, the references to B grade English celebrities usually go right past me, and it can help to have the subtitles on as the cracking dialogue can sometimes be difficult to follow. Stephen Fry gets to play the most cynical media player ever, although there is a younger bloke with the firm who runs him a very close second. If I had to single out a particular episode, it would be the one where one of the firm's clients, a soccer player, is caught in public assaulting his partner. Damage control to the maximum is essential. The firm's response is to invent a disease for their client, and turn him into a victim. It gets out of control when the new syndrome's website becomes inundated with people grateful that someone has finally put a name to their own condition.
1853158
It's old, on a small screen, the technical values are just okay. It's the plot and the novelty of the surroundings that's so different, yet enticing and entirely lovable.
Richard Griffiths is outstanding (he died recently-he's morbidly obese) as the about to retire Chief Inspector kept on the force by a bit of judicious blackmail by his boss, Asst. Commissioner Fisher.
The stories are so out of the ordinary tying up crime with gourmet cooking. The interplay between the kitchen staff at Pie in the Sky is delightful without being artificial. I am not going to name different episodes, but most of them are extraordinary.
Bonus: Bella Enahora's Constable/Sgt. Cambridge. Beyond delightful.
Enjoy this.
227557
It's fitting that this audio edition contains guests and narrators like Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Terry Gilliam, et. al. In addition to helping bring this wonderful collection of Adam's work to life, they bring an additional sense of connection to the man behind (within?) the words.
Some fans of Adams fiction may not like the extensive nonfiction pieces included, but those people will miss out on some of the best gems of Adams' wit and wisdom. Most others, though, will realize that there is a vast archive of columns and articles, letters and speeches, (many published outside the U.S.) that we have missed.
In all of the pieces, nonfiction and fiction, Adams' crisp humor and prodding logic will make you giggle, laugh, and most of all, wonder at this gloriously silly thing we call life.
Listen to this many times... and don't forget your towel.
1267898
These two trustworthy actors perform very well together in this sensational and lovable synthesis of wit and humour. Doris Day plays an almost stuffy teacher whose romantic bloom takes place when she is thrown  together with a man who pretends to be her student(Clark Gable). The  romantic culmination is a whole lot of fun. If you love a good romantic  comedy you'll definitely love this.
4011466
Those who have come to Hugh Laurie only through his curmudgeonly incarnation as House need to see his goofier side as Bertie Wooster, the upper class British bumbler who gets into dire strait after dire strait if not for the machinations of his valet, Jeeves. Stephen Fry is hilarious as the understated and intelligent Jeeves and Laurie is brilliant as the self-assured but obtuse and feckless bumbler. Those who love British humor and British TV and film, particularly period film, will find these very entertaining, I think.
2633398
One of the most popular and most absurd plays written by William Shakespeare is Much Ado About Nothing. The story is whimsical and the characters do quite ridiculous things. Audiences love it because it is full of joy, almost exploding with joy. It's easy to forgive the contrivances of the plot because the humor and the romance is so wonderful. The story follows a troop of men who return from battle to the home of Leonato where love is in the air. Claudio wants to marry Leonato's daughter Hero while Benedick and Beatrice have a "merry war of words" inspires their friends to make them fall in love too. Madcap hilarity ensues with occasional moment of dramatic intensity.

Joss Whedon made this film during a two-week break in the middle of making The Avengers. The actors are his friends, mostly from his previous TV shows. The set is his house and backyard. He'd been having friends over for Shakespeare readings for years and years, so it is not such a surprise that they could put something together quickly and still do a good job.

The actors are good if not always outstanding. Alexis Denisof (Benedict here; Wesley from Buffy and Angel) might be a little too buffonish at points but nails it in others; Amy Acker (Beatrice; Fred from Angel) does a great job and has natural chemist with Denisof; Nathan Fillion (Dogberry; Mal from Firefly) steals the show. As a fan of Whedon's previous work, it was a little distracting seeing all the different actors popping up. But I got used to it after a while, just like people get used to the Shakespearean language.

The black and white photography works well, giving it a style appropriate to the timelessness of the story. The story is ultimately relevant to generation after generation because it touches on truths and experiences that happen all the time because people are, in fact, people. We've all experienced unrequited loves, the joy of discovered love, the hope of a happy ending in even the craziest circumstances. Hopefully not this crazy.

Parental Advisory: All the characters drink quite a bit; a little bit of smoking (probably some weed); some frisky sex scenes without nudity; that difficult Shakespeare language.
728781
We absolutely love watching this series - and have seen it multiple times.  Laurie and Fry are perfect in these roles, and it's hard to beat Wodehouse.
2522733
Honestly, it seems that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were born just to portray Jeeves and Wooster. Not only were their casting as the title characters spot-on, the crew is amazing in capturing the look and feel of Wodehouse's 1920s and -30s. Clive Exton's adaptation from the novels are incredibly well-done, Anne Dudley's music further sets the tone perfectly, and whoever chose the music for Wooster to play deserves an award. Costuming is excellent as well, and to a point, so is casting.

The most irritating thing about the programme is that actors frequently change. Sometimes scheduling cannot be helped, but it's all right. Once you figure out who is who, the farce continues. The only steady roles are Stephen Fry as Jeeves, Hugh Laurie as Wooster, and Robert Daws as Tuppy Glossop.

Unfortunately, because television networks can be fickle, it seems that Clive Exton used up the best bits in series one and two, and took many liberties in three and four. It wasn't so bad in three, but I cringed many times in four. Still, with a few selective omissions, the overall rating exceeds five stars.

On to my title: if you can, get the UK release. The first thing you should know, is that the UK is region 2, PAL format. Even if your player is region-free, if it does not recognise PAL, you will be extremely disappointed. Luckily, it's easier and cheaper than ever to find a machine that meets these requirements, and you can set a computer's DVD drive to UK (many drives allow you a set number of times you can change a region, so be very, very careful).

I was fortunate to find the first three series of A&E's version at the local library, and was disappointed in the bland menu, lack of a play-all button, and absence of subtitles. This is not the first A&E release that irritated me (Monty Python seems to be the only programme they did right), and when the opportunity to purchase the UK Granada Ventures release popped up, I pounced on it, figuring, "There's no way it can be worse."

I was not disappointed. Aside from the beautiful fold-out display, there is a very stylish interactive menu, a play-all button, and subtitles. Believe me, those subtitles rescued me more than once.

However, I'm not going to pretend the UK release did not have any shortcomings. The fold-out display is akin to that of "Scrubs" and the like, in that for each section there are two discs, one partly overlaid atop another. There is also an annoying anti-piracy message at the beginning of each disc (eight total), that cannot be skipped (this has been the standard with Granada Ventures, unfortunately). It's best to pop in the disc and wander off while the thing loads. Lastly, the only thing A&E did right was to name the episodes so you have some idea of what each episode is about. There are no synopses, and each episode is headed "Series One, Episode One", etc. You leap into each storyline cold, but if you write a little note or download the information and slip it into the case, it's not so bad.

Still, the Granada Ventures version is the one to have, and if the opportunity ever arises for you, I suggest you snap at it.
2711044
THE VICAR OF DIBLEY is a good British television experience.  Dawn French and the other eccentric cast members make for a memorable, funny, and touching experience.  Despite its irreverence it can be preachy at times and the writers never developed nor grew the townsfolk as they should.  It would have made a good show great and a bit less cartoonish.  However you still laugh and cry with the vicar and her parish.  It is very, very funny.  The whole collection is here so don't duplicate.  Go on and buy it now! you won't be disappointed.
2223312
Stephen Fry is an artist who plays lovingly with sexuality, his and others, with the English language and with non-stop, laugh-out-loud humor.
3733482
Five stars for pure entertainment.  I am just discovering the wonderful, wacky world of Christopher Moore and am so glad that I have.  Better late than never, cliche, but true.  Funny, intelligent and outrageous fun.  A wonderful protagonist, thoroughly evil love nun and husband, and some very interesting natives to the island all are inhabiting. Dive right in, you will not regret it.
4345303
Carl Hiaasen's screwball comedies are rightly praised for their wacky humor. Yet his writing has so much more to it than laughter alone. Hiaasen is a master of the English language.

Almost no other living writer has such a wide-ranging vocabulary. Further, Hiaasen places his richly enticing lexical feast within sentences of neat syntax and finely tuned grammar. Every fresh word is as inspiringly understandable as it is pleasantly surprising.

Those startlingly enjoyable books - such as 'Skinny Dip' and 'Nature Girl' - remind us of an ancient law of classical literature. That is, Comedy can be much more accomplished than writing that sets out to be serious but fails. What Hiaasen gives us - in his accessible and democratic way -  is high art for today.

Jon Lee Junior - author of -&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/A-Coward-in-Modern-China-the-first-Professor-Runworth-adventure/dp/B009Z59Y8A/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">A Coward in Modern China (the first Professor Runworth adventure)</a>
3318541
I recently purchased this set as a fan of Fry and Laurie as well as Wodehouse and could not be more delighted. The acting and dialog are crisp and subtly hilarious. Transcendence occurred once my daughters, ages 10 and 4, became fans as well due to the fact that they cannot describe exactly why they like the show but want to watch episode after episode. This and every other intelligent show released in the UK make television here in the States look like.....well, "American Idol" and "Jersey Shore."
2463713
In the golden age of the brittish comedy through the last forties and the middle fifties , this little jewel was one of the best proofs to exposse .
Imagine this incredible cast the legendary Alec Guiness with his funny teeth , Herbert Loom and a young raising promise named Peter Sellers .
This death quintet will rent the house of an harmless old lady who will be the crucial axis for a lot of laughable gags but told in the english way and spiced with that black humor dosis  all along the film .
This unforgettable work , together with Whisky Gallore , Hobson 's choice, The man in the white suit , Kind hearts and cornets ,  and The lavender hill mob  (notice the presence of Alec Guiness in the last three works) may be well considered the set of the cream of the black humor and fine irony in this unique and creative decade .
517644
I was a rabid Wodehouse fan before I saw any of the Jeeves and Wooster episodes, and feared disappointment. I needn't have worried. It's obvious that true love and affection for the great Plum went into these gems. If you like your British humor on the subtle side, with some absurdity bunged in without warning, you must own this set. Stephen Fry is perfect as Jeeves, and Hugh Laurie is lovable and believable as the hapless but well-intentioned Bertie, who spends his time attempting to avoid hellish aunts and horsy, corn-fed females determined to lead him to the altar. You'll love it!