Ian is joined by former teenage Wodehouse obsessive Gavin Bradbury to look at Plum's first country house novel, A Gentleman of Leisure AKA The Intrusion of Jimmy from 1910. The book is at once a light romantic story, an exposé of the corruption in the New York police force, a satire of "gentleman criminal" style stories, and a precurser to the Blandings novels. Ian is unable to be impartial about one of the first Wodehouse novels he ever read, whereas Gavin is more critical.

We discuss the differences between the novel and the related novella "The Gem Collector", why this book was such a hit on stage and screen, changing mores in acceptable morality in early twentieth century entertainment, how Jimmy Pitt differs from our ideal Wodehouse leading man, and what's still missing from the later classic formula.

Other Wodehouse books mentioned:

The World of Mr Mulliner

The Coming of Bill

Something Fresh

The Man Upstairs

The Heart of a Goof

Psmith in the City

Psmith, Journalist

The Luck of the Bodkins

Also mentioned:

Fawlty Towers

The Young Ones

The Kenny Everett Show

Coronation Street

A Sharp Intake of Breath

The Lennie and Jerry Show

Tony Hancock

James Cagney

Philadelphia Story

Bringing Up Baby

Cary Grant

Wodehouse TV adaptations

John Stapleton

Douglas Fairbanks

John Barrymore

Tim Key

E.W. Hornung, Raffles

(The real) Spike Mullins

Trading Places

Alan Bennett

Steve Coogan

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers

Sir Walter Scott, "Marmion"

The Seven Inches, "Stop Pestering Me"

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.