PG Wodehouse

PG Wodehouse's rollicking Summer Lightning arrived with a cast to die for, including Matt Lucas' turn as a portentous PI and Charles Dance as a wayward aristo, mouth stuffed as full of cake as his lordship's prize-winning pigs.

Lord Emsworth (Martin Jarvis) is getting Empress of Blandings, his prize pig, ready for the Shropshire Agricultural Show. He's worried about possible nobbling by rival breeder Sir Gregory Parsloe (Michael Jayston). Meanwhile scandal looms if Emsworth's brother Galahad (Charles Dance) publishes his memoirs so Parsloe hires private detective Percy Pilbeam (Matt Lucas) to nick the manuscript. And love, as ever in a PG Wodehouse comedy, is making life very complicated for the younger set. Dramatised in two star-studded episodes by Archie Scottney, made by glamorous independents Jarvis and Ayres Productions.

Marcus Brigstocke - Radio 4's adenoidal prince of light comedy - returns for a third series of this half-decent celebrity chat show, in which each guest is compelled to try five things they've never done before. (Actually it's the fourth series if you count last year's BBC Four TV version, but it seems the BBC has chosen to forget this ever happened.) This week's guest is Sanjeev Baskar, whose experiences include watching Sex and the City, reading PG Wodehouse and visiting a Pentecostal church on men-only night which, he says, was "like a really bad audition".

Welcome to Blandings Castle, home of the Earl of Emsworth and the sublimely eccentric setting for some of PG Wodehouse's best-loved comic novels. Something Fresh is the first Blandings tale and has been recreated for the radio at the request of the Wodehouse estate by Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres.

The absent-minded Earl has accidently pocketed a priceless gem from a wealthy American, who happens to be the father of the girl this hapless son is set to marry. This is but one of the many coincidences that turn this comic-thriller-cum-romance into a joyous, laugh-out-loud romp through upstairs and downstairs life.

The cast list is as starry as they get: Ioan Gruffudd, Helen McCrory and Jared Harris are just some of the names. But special mention must go to director Martin Jarvis who turns in a delightfully batty performance as Emsworth. An absolute pleasure.

In Something Fresh The Classic Serial makes a welcome return to the world of PG Wodehouse. We're at Blandings Castle where Lord Emsworth (Martin Jarvis) has in his possession a valuable scarab which two rogues, played by Ioan Gruffudd and Helen McCrory, are after. Wonderful cast altogether, with Morgan Sheppard as Beach the butler and Ian Ogilvy as the voice of Wodehouse.

PG Wodehouse's suave Psmith (Nick Caldecott) comes to the rescue of his old school friend, the solid Mike (Inam Mirza) when poor Mike's suddenly impoverished and so forced to leave university to take a humble post in the City. It's a good job, Psmith is working there too, for if ever a cove knew how to get round the Head of Post, even subdue the very bossy boss, it's Psmith. Simon Williams narrates. Marcy Kahan, an award-winning playwright clever enough to turn Noël Coward into a credible detective, has done the natty four-part adaptation.

This series is the last bottle in the cellar, something to be savoured. I just wish the audience didn't laugh so loudly over the lines. As Wodehouse once said, and I hope you're not accusing him of being a grump, "I could have endured televison with more fortitude if they had not laughed so much all the time."

Yes, Prime Minister (BBC2) is a slight variation of the Bertie Wooster and Jeeves format. The servant rules the roost, and the rooster and the Wooster. Bertie will never wear that gaudy tie, amaze his friends on the banjo, never grow a moustache or marry Bobbie or Stiffie or Nobby or Corky. A shadow no bigger than a butler hangs over all these small attempts to brighten Mayfair life. They would not suit Jeeves.

After Pilkington by Simon Gray, beautifully directed by Christopher Morahan, was a murderously funny mix of Wodehouse and Hitchcock, a sort of What Ho! Psycho.

Nothing will quite satisfy the real, nitpicking Wodehouse aficionados, but this came as near as possible the flavour of the original and made a merry small play in its own right. The casting of the main character was especially apt, Richard Vernon plays Lord Ensworth with meticulous control; a lesser actor and producer would have turned this elderly eccentric aristocrat into a comic blusterer.