Blake Ritson reads a classic Jeeves and Wooster story from P G Wodehouse, one of the masters of comic fiction.

'Mr Wooster,' he said, 'you are a typical young man about town.'
'Oh thanks,' I responded, for it sounded like a compliment, and one always likes to say the civil thing.

Bertie Wooster has been overdoing the metropolitan life a little, so on doctor's orders, finds himself retiring to the quiet hamlet of Maiden Eggesford to 'sleep the sleep of the just and lead the quiet Martini-less life'. Only the presence of his irrepressible Aunt Dahlia shatters the rustic peace as an imbroglio develops - destined to be famous down the long years as the 'Maiden Eggesford Horror' or 'The Case Of The Cat Which Kept Popping Up When Least Expected' - which involves a stolen cat, an over-sensitive racehorse, and some star-crossed lovers. Wooster's quick-thinking butler Jeeves, as always, comes to the rescue.

In the first episode: 'A typical man about town' - on discovering some alarming spots, Bertie Wooster heads off to his quack, but on the way bumps into a former fiancee turned firebrand, her jealous paramour, and a very unwelcome adversary from the past.

The author of almost a hundred books and the creator of Jeeves, Blandings Castle, Psmith, Ukridge, Uncle Fred and Mr Mulliner, P G Wodehouse was born in 1881 in Guildford, Surrey. He was created a Knight of the British Empire in 1975 and died on St. Valentine's Day in the same year at the age of ninety-three. Jeeves and Wooster were perhaps his best-known creations; 'Aunts Aren't Gentlemen' was published in 1974, and was the last novel to feature the literary duo.

Reader: Blake Ritson is an acclaimed stage an screen actor, who first gained recognition for his role in Tom Stoppards 'Arcadia', and more recently for his TV roles in 'Emma', 'Upstairs Downstairs' and 'Mansfield Park'.

Abridger: Richard Hamilton
Producer: Justine Willett. Show less