Adaptations
Wodehouse has been filmed since 1915, broadcast since the war, and sung on Broadway since the Princess Theatre years. The prose is the thing; a few versions come close.
For Jeeves, the ITV series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (1990–93) is the household name. For Blandings, Peter O’Toole in Heavy Weather (1995) is the richest single film; the BBC sitcom with Timothy Spall (2013–14) is the easiest to find. For the voice, Richard Briers and Michael Hordern on Radio 4, and Jonathan Cecil’s audiobook readings.
1915Film
Silent film, the first screen Wodehouse. A second silent version followed in 1923. The novel itself had already been a Broadway play.
1919Film
Silent version of the 1917 novel. Sound remakes followed in 1936 (Robert Montgomery) and 2006 (Sam Rockwell, Julian Fellowes screenplay).
1924Film
A British series of six silent shorts from the golf stories, among the few golf adaptations Wodehouse himself liked.
1936Film
20th Century-Fox, with Arthur Treacher as Jeeves and David Niven as Bertie. Almost unrelated to the novel; Wodehouse disliked the unhelpful, pompous Jeeves. A sequel, Step Lively, Jeeves! (1937), dropped Bertie altogether.
1937Film
RKO, starring Fred Astaire, Joan Fontaine, George Burns, and Gracie Allen, with songs by George and Ira Gershwin (“A Foggy Day”, “Nice Work If You Can Get It”). The most distinguished Hollywood Wodehouse.
1961Film
British comedy with Richard Briers, Norman Wisdom, and Millicent Martin, from the 1922 novel.
1965–67Television
BBC One, 20 half-hour episodes. Ian Carmichael as Bertie, Dennis Price as Jeeves, Derek Nimmo as Bingo Little. The first sustained television Jeeves, now largely missing from the archives.
1967Television
BBC, six Blandings episodes with Ralph Richardson as Lord Emsworth, Meriel Forbes as Lady Constance, Stanley Holloway as Beach, and Derek Nimmo as Freddie. Almost entirely lost.
1973–81Radio
BBC Radio 4, 54 episodes. Richard Briers as Bertie and Michael Hordern as Jeeves, adapted by Chris Miller and later Richard Usborne. Still the radio gold standard; later issued as Jeeves & Wooster: The Collected Radio Dramas.
1975–78Television
BBC Two, 21 episodes. John Alderton and Pauline Collins in Mulliner, Drones, and golf stories. The first seven carry filmed introductions by Wodehouse himself, recorded at Remsenburg — his only substantial appearance as a television host.
1975 / 1996Stage
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn’s musical, after The Code of the Woosters. The 1975 original (David Hemmings, Michael Aldridge) flopped; the stripped-down 1996 rewrite, By Jeeves, fared better in London and on Broadway, with a filmed performance in 2001.
1985–92Radio
BBC Radio 4. Richard Vernon as Lord Emsworth and Ian Carmichael as Galahad, with Lockwood West as Beach. Later serials include Full Moon (1999) and Galahad at Blandings.
1990–93Television
ITV, 23 hour-long episodes. Stephen Fry as Jeeves, Hugh Laurie as Bertie, scripts by Clive Exton. The defining screen Jeeves: faithful in spirit, with Laurie’s piano as a bonus Wodehouse never wrote. Four series, endlessly repeated.
1995Television
BBC / WGBH film. Peter O’Toole as Lord Emsworth, Richard Briers as Galahad, Judy Parfitt as Lady Constance, Samuel West as Monty Bodkin. The most lavish single Blandings adaptation.
2006Film
Julian Fellowes’ modern-dress version with Sam Rockwell, Frances O’Connor, Tom Wilkinson, and Brenda Blethyn. Handsome, busy, and not to every Plum-lover’s taste.
2006Radio
BBC Radio 4, two parts. Marcus Brigstocke as Bertie, Andrew Sachs as Jeeves. A later complement to Briers and Hordern. L.A. Theatre Works also recorded a stage-radio Code with Martin Jarvis as Jeeves.
2013–14Television
BBC One, two series (13 episodes). Timothy Spall as Lord Emsworth, Jennifer Saunders as Lady Constance, Mark Williams as Beach, Jack Farthing as Freddie. Broad, sunny, and a useful way into the castle for new viewers.
ongoingAudio
Jonathan Cecil’s complete Jeeves readings for Chivers/AudioGO remain the most loved solo performances. Martin Jarvis, Simon Callow, Dinsdale Landen, and later narrators on Audible and BBC Audio cover Blandings, Mulliner, golf, and the standalones. Look for BBC Radio 4 Extra repeats of What Ho! Jeeves.
With Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, Wodehouse helped invent the modern American musical: intimate scores, integrated lyrics, and plots that were not merely excuses for songs. Oh, Boy! (1917), Leave It to Jane (1917), and Oh, Lady! Lady!! (1918) are the core.
He was one of several lyricists on Cole Porter’s Anything Goes (1934) and contributed “Bill” (with Kern) to Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Show Boat (1927) — a lyric originally written for Oh, Lady! Lady!!.
The Play’s the Thing (from Molnár, 1926), Good Morning, Bill (1927), and Come On, Jeeves (with Guy Bolton, 1956) kept him in the theatre long after the novels had made him famous.