CARRY ON, JEEVES

The fashionable young airhead Bertie Wooster delighted Jazz-Age readers with his reminiscences of his imperturbable gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves. In this collection Wooster gives us eight hilarious tales in which the stoic butler gets Bertie and pals out of one scrape or another. Oh--I'm sorry!--it's Martin Jarvis, PRETENDING to be Bertie Wooster! I keep forgetting, so remarkably does the actor inhabit the flighty, inconsequential and risible character. In lesser hands, the Wodehouse shorts could become tedious, lined up as they are. A high-energy performance such as Jarvis's might soon reach the law of diminishing returns. But so inventive, so utterly charming, is actor-director Jarvis that he transcends the limitation of his material. (And it ain't bad material to begin with!) Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 00]