I was thinking about picking up some PG Wodehouse. But then when I went looking for the first book in the series, I discovered that Fry and Laurie did a television show based on this. Does anybody have any advice on whether I should jump into the books or the TV first? Because on the one hand, books, and on the other hand, Fry and Laurie.
Honestly, they are both delightful, and don’t do each other any harm. Spoilers are not a thing you need to be concerned about with Jeeves and Wooster. I watched the TV series first, (probably about a dozen times…) and I feel like it only added to my reading experience. Which my followers can tell you has been one of obsessive glee.
I also watched first and then read, and I think for the most part it doesn’t matter.
The one thing that surprised me the most when I switched from the show to the books was that a bunch of the short stories were so simple compared to the televisions show’s plots, which often combined and wove together elements of two or three of the short stories into one episode. Some of them fit so seamlessly I was baffled to find their parts separate.
Honestly, now that I’m thinking about it, I think I would sort of steer people to watch it first, as blasphemous as I’m sure that sounds, because I think that the few changes that were made with regard to Bingo and Tuppy and a few others might make some people a little grumpy to see after watching them in the books. You can’t be upset by how something was interpreted or changed with the show if you watch it first, and then when you read the stories, you get a feeling of enjoying both slightly different versions of the world, or even mentally blend them.