The fact that he can play it incorrectly in so many ways is actually a testament to how brilliant a musician he is.

When Bertie finally gets it right, Laurie does an amazing job of actually making it sound like he's struggling through it for the first time ever, not just defaulting to the recognizable song as we all know it. Talent.

"Oh dear. This Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come up with a bit of a cropper here." Arguably the most Woosterish thing ever said.

"This Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come a bit of a cropper here, Jeeves!"

Something I really like about their dynamic is that Wooster never gets defensive about Jeeves correcting something or suggesting how to do it. Wooster's a very talented pianist but he doesn't resent Jeeves explaining how to sing the song properly. They're just very nice together

J&W has one of the best theme tunes ever for any program on British TV for me.

That song became a hit in the 80s, in a cover by Taco, which made Irving Berlin the oldest composer in the #1 ever, over 90 years old (still alive at the time).

I can’t imagine any other people who were better suited for the roles than Fry and Laurie.

I am nearly incapable of viewing these two as actors. As far as I'm concerned Jeeves and Wooster are the real people who have been pretending to be Fry and Laurie for the past thirty or so years

I am fortunate enough to own the entire series on DVD. Every now and again I pop it in, brew a pot of Earl Gray tea and enjoy my little heart out.

I still find myself singing Bertie's wrong version from time to time. "If-you're-blue and... youdon'tknowwheretogoto"

When it comes to performing, those two can do anything, especially Laurie with his musical talent added. In acting, they can both break hearts, be creepy, make an audience belly-laugh, and everything in-between. They’re both intelligent, well-educated, insightful, can write, and possess talent for multiple artistic mediums. Laurie is especially quick-witted off the cuff with his wonderfully droll sense of humor the English are known for and do so well. Two gems those two are.

80s & 90s title sequences are works of art

I remember Stephen Fry saying they just wanted the scene so you could not see Laurie playing and insert the music and Fry said "but he CAN play"

i found myself humming "with due expediency, puttin on the regency" the other day and had to come back to this

“A reasonably straightforward syncopated 5/4” what an insane collection of words hehe

Easily one of the best television series of all time.

"If you were to accent the words IF, WERE and FASHION, I think you´ll find that the correct rhythmic pattern would emerge." Well, if you put it that way... Sounds like magic :)

🎵 With due expediency.... Puttin' on the Regency 🎵

Massive kudos to Laurie for a skilled bit of piano work. The song is indeed a fiend.

My wife and I are both devotees of House, M.D. Hugh Laurie's American accent is so perfect, so authentic, and so unforced, that my wife could not believe her ears when I played this clip for her.

Laurie is actually quite the accomplished musician. I just discovered this show and love hearing him sing/play these old classics!

I've seen the whole series over 50 times overall and would give everything to someone who could erase my memory so I could see it again for the 1st time.

They are both such talented actors and Hugh Laurie is obviously a very competent pianist. What a pity Irving Berlin died just before this series was released. He would have loved this!

Those facial acting by Fry were amazing!

In the late 90s, maybe very early 2000s, in my first exposure to file sharing services, I was looking for a copy of Taco's version of this song. In the process I stumbled across a mislabeled MP3 file with the audio of this sketch and loved it, not knowing what it was or where it came from. With the success of House years later I learned of Hugh Laurie, and at some point remembered this bit and realized it sounded like him, but never looked too deeply into the details. I then proceeded to forget all about it until a few minutes ago when this video popped up. KZfaq recommendations coming through for me again!

"Seems to be a reasonably straightforward syncopated 5/4 time signature" XD

Помню по «Культуре» в далеком детстве крутили этот сериал, и заставка вместе с этим эпизодом осталась в памяти.

The best intro of this funny show..! 😃

Thanks for adding the intro. It's a total classic

When the clip ended I moaned, *nooo* . Too damn short. Despite this, thank you for sharing!

The way he says puttin on the ritz is so satisfying

I discovered Jeeves and Wooster in the summer of 1966 while spending a week with my friend and her family at the beach. I bought several paperbacks at a local drugstore. Awesome.

This Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come a bit of a cropper here jeeves 🤣

A collaboration made in heaven 🤗💕...note to self..watch the programmes again 😁

Hugh i will always love you and your amazing talent

I can't help but feel that this is the motivation of 'Archer' (Animated TV Show) and his butler, also as a nod to the author, they named the butler 'Woodhouse' after the author PG Wodhouse

One of YT's gravest omissions is Fred Astaire's unbelievable dance to this tune in 'Blue Skies' (1946). He meant it to be his swansong and spent six weeks on it.

"With due expediency...putting on the regency!" 🎶 Oh my goodness, this show is GOLDEN. 🤣

This really brilliantly demonstrates the genius of Irving Berlin.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I am a lover of older (oldish) films with music and dancing, love me a Tap routine and top notch is a Fred Astaire/ Ginger Rogers movie dance clip, hence my ending up here. I was searching for my favourite Fred Astaire, Putting on the Ritz clip to show my Granddaughter's, who both love long flowing dresses that twirl. Loved it.

Well this unlocked a memory i forgot even exsisted

I used to love watching Jeeves and Bertie ,my uncle called Bertie.

It's amazing how fit they both are for their roles. It's as if Wodehouse had them particularly in mind. Fry _is_ Jeeves and Laurie _is_ Wooster. 😄

Stephen narrates the Jeeves collection on audible. It’s wonderful!

This scene feels like something that would pop up in a schools programme for music class! I had fun _and_ I learned things!

Funniest series, missed it first time around but was introduced to it a few years ago! To me as an American Hugh was Dr House!

Wooster is right, the song has a tricky rhythm

I totally love Jeeves and Wooster!

I love Jeeves and Wooster

If Bertie had sung and played like that, Jeeves would have handed in his notice, just like he did when Bertie took up the banjo. Fortunately, the banjo playing didn't last and the two got together again after some hilarious misadventures suffered by Bertie.

I always loved this show and the great music was a bonus.

They are so wonderful together!

How can a person be so good with music that he sight reads that and even sings at the same time?

He is a fantastic musician! And I love Woodhouse too!

Jeeves' face in the background 1:27

I love Stephen fry and Hugh Laurie, but that theme music is what makes me wanna start watching this😂 absolute banger🎷🎺🥁

Omg didnt know this is existed! I just bought the book and loving it since the first page.

Always makes me smile and leaves me happy.

I never realized it was in 5/4 time - which is actually what gives its signature hook.

Suddenly sprung a thought of Young Frankenstein in that song to go with it. 😂

I loved this series, wish they’d show it again.

I so need to get this series on DVD! I remember enjoying this pair immensely when the show was on PBS, well before US companies snapped up Laurie for "House." Buuut, I can see myself binge-watching instead of working on my creative projects. And even I can imagine Fry as Jeeves giving me a gentle reminder to not have "quite so much screen time." He'd be right, too. 😅

loved this always watched with my dad.

One of the best shows of all time.

so talented. actor, writer, composer, musician, singer, sportsman....when heaven was giving out talent, it heaped it on him...hes so so talented..could do anything

He is so awesome

Such wonderful charactors.

Любимый комедийный сериал, можно смотреть всегда и всегда смешно

Reminds me time to binge watch J&W again!

Here's a fun fact, much like many songs written by showmen of post civil war, pre WWII era, like Old Man River, this song too, is essentially rewritten to avoid discomfort to White America these days, and WAS by this time. The opening line of the song that he actually sings, which runs "Have you seen the well to do, up on Lenox Avenue"... is almost universally replaced by 'Have you seen the well to do, up along park avenue"... Lenox Avenue, later named Malcom X Boulevard, is the central arterial road through the New York City suburb of Harlem. Unlike much of the surrounding areas of Harlem, which have been fermented as somewhat notorious in Pop Culture, and were, and are, home to large 'Projects' and low income highrise housing, Lenox Avenue is a much more outwardly affluent area, and was even in the 1920s and 30s. With large neo-classical inspired apartment buildings, more boutique stores, and brownstone terrace houses, it was often considered the location to find Black people putting on airs above their station in the eyes of White America. The song is Berlin calling out the kind of racism that was common, and casual, as well as often voiced, by Middle to Upper class W.A.S.P. America at the time. Something he even saw in the generally much more tolerant showbiz scene in the already much more tolerant than the South, North of NYC. Thus, like many other songs of that era that did the same thing, for White America to feel comfortable about it, they cited it as racist, and pushed it through changes. Berlin himself was not expressing inherent Racism, but rather was expressing the racist contempt for 'flashy niggers' pretending they had money and pizazz and glamour, when they were just faking. Nevertheless, the song was sanitised, and racist slang removed, and the location changed to Park Avenue. All references to Lulu-Belle's, which aside from the famous Country act of the 30s, was slang for a dollied up black woman, who was seen to be acting like she had class..... the default understanding being that it was obviously and act because people of colour had no class, and High Browns from down the levy.... ergo, mixed raced people of colour, from low class black communities putting on a show of being like high class Whites, were removed, as was all implication of poverty, the words fifteen dollars became 'lots of dollars'... to avoid any connection between the song and poor black suburbs in NYC. It is VERY telling, and marvelous decision, by this show, that they do NOT shy away from that, they do not come right out and sing the whole thing, but they made a conscious effort to remind WASP American, that still runs America today, as it did at this time, of that nasty piece of history, and that reality of the song they later so sanitized. KUDOS to them for that.

Those two were a fantastic together !

Fry and Laurie were an amazing comedy combination!

Fry's INDEX FINGER..!!! If, We're and Fashion... I'm deadded...!!!!!! Even his gestures are genius!)))

great set design and lighting!

Brilliant! I remember following the series on PBS here in New York! Great show!

An Irving Berlin song . An American classic

Great series. Wish it were longer! 🎹🎹🎹

i can still rember watching this on pbs from st louis mo back in the day it was hialious!

You don't see highbrow comedy like this anymore.

"MYSS-TREEE!" -Dr. House

The introductory music is brilliant!

Classic classic stuff ☺️

These stories seem to capture the spirit of the era. Certainly, the opening credits do.

I can't think of another popular song that has such a variety of lyrical variations. Every time I hear someone sing it, there seems to be different lyrics.

Jolly good show.

Would have liked to watch all of it.

Literally what happened to a group I was in when we were presented with this to sing and had never heard it before.

Killer Fact! Irving Berlin, who wrote "Puttin on the Ritz", lived long enough to listen to New Kids On The Block.

I wish I could get this! Fry and Laurie are nearly perfect as Jeeves and Wooster.

"A syncopated five-by-two time signature is a type of time signature used in music. It is a compound meter that consists of five beats grouped in sets of two, with an emphasis on the off-beat or syncopated rhythms. In other words, instead of a regular 2/4 or 4/4 time signature where the beats are evenly spaced, a syncopated five-by-two time signature places emphasis on the weaker beats in a measure, creating a more complex and often more interesting rhythmic feel. Examples of music that use syncopated five-by-two time signatures include certain types of jazz, funk, and Latin music." (ChatGPT)

The best version of this song is from Young Frankenstein.

This is truly one of the most adorable scenes!

This show is so good, Laurie and Fry are brilliant together.

This is a great series

Originally, the first verse was talking about Lenox Avenue, referring to a street in Harlem. But even in the mid-1940s, they had enough awareness to change those lyrics, when it offended black people, and that is why it now speaks of Park Avenue. That one-word change altered the perception of the entire song. Originally, it was poking fun at poor black men trying to "dress rich", but now it is a song about people who dress fancy for all occasions. The power of a single word. Of course, there would be a setback 40 years later, when Taco covered the song and, for some bizarre reason, decided to have white men in blackface in the music video, stirring up exactly the type of racial tension Berlin was trying to avoid.

Wow,the first time I heard part of this song is in Young Frankenstein, Blind Mown,no that's not right,Mind Blown.

I marvel at Jeeves’ patience

What I love so much about Wodehouse’s writing of the character - and Laurie’s portrayal of it - which is never directly pointed out and must be read between the lines; not only is Wooster not very smart, but because he comes from money, makes the all too common assumption that he IS smart. His default position is that his view of the world must be correct (because, well, he thought of it) and that everyone else must be wrong. The subtle phrasing of his comment, implying that Irving Berlin - the most legendary songwriter and musician of the era - must surely have gotten things wrong with this song because Wooster can’t figure it out: “this Irving Berlin fellow seems to have come a bit of a cropper here [meaning he’s found himself with an abysmal failure]...too many words and not enough notes...” This default attitude of Bertie Wooster is, sadly, so prevalent among the aristocracy. In America the phrase is “he was born on third base and assumes he hit a triple”, meaning he was born into privilege and, because he doesn’t know what it is to work or earn anything, assumes he’s gotten there on his own accord. And therefore assumes he’s smarter than everyone else as well. It’s so subtly put in all of Wodehouse’s writing. Simply genius.

Still their best work to date.