Jeeves & Wooster, Series One
adapted by Clive Exton, dir. Robert Young (ITV, 1990)
A frivolous bit of fun, and well-cast (in the over-the-top support roles as well as Fry & Laurie, who are about as Jeeves-ish & Wooster-like as one could imagine). Ultimately, however, there’s only so much that can be done without Wodehouse’s prose.
Jeeves and the King of Clubs
by Ben Schott (Hutchinson, 2018); audiobook read by James Lance (Bolinda, 2018)
Schott faithfully dovetails his plot threads and recaptures much of Wodehouse’s loquacity, albeit without quite the same vim of expression or uproarious knack for aperçus. The world is right but the reading seems off. It really needed Hugh Laurie and/or Stephen Fry.
The Night Manager
by David Farr (BBC, 2016)
A murky but well-paced six-episode adaptation of the John le Carré novel. Tom Hiddleston is perhaps a tad too Bondlike, but the support cast brims over with quality (and nuance) and co-star Hugh Laurie is chillingly convincing as arms dealer Richard Roper.
Saturday Live, Volume One
by Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie (Redbush, 2015)
A patchy collection of highlights (so-called) from the 1986 TV variety show. Fry and Laurie are first-billed but don’t actually feature that much. Instead, there’s Ben Elton’s high-octane social and political stand-up, protest poems by Craig Charles, and several remarkably unfunny also-rans.
The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs
by Alexander McCall Smith (Polygon, 2004); audiobook read by Hugh Laurie (W. F. Howes, 2004)
The somewhat unlikeable Professor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, German scholar and philologist, is drawn by way of his own pride and jealousy into several awkward (and at times very funny) situations. Hugh Laurie’s narration carries just enough facetiousness to keep the reader’s sympathy.
The Gun Seller
by Hugh Laurie (Heinemann, 1996)
Hugh Laurie is a funny man, and his only novel to date — a cynical, conversational, fourth-wall-breaking take on the conspiracy/thriller genre, submitted pseudonymously to the publisher — is very witty, very British, and a very accomplished romp, boldly self-deprecating where Bourne only bores.
Finn Family Moomintroll
by Tove Jansson, trans. Elizabeth Portch (BBC Audiobooks, 2002/2008) [first published by Hugo Gebers Förlag as “Trollkarlens hatt”, 1949]
Where England has The Wind in the Willows, Finland has the Moomins: anthropomorphised animals whose bucolic, lazy afternoon adventures offer the reader a contentedness beyond mere plot arcs and perils. Hugh Laurie is the perfect voice artist for bringing them to life.