"Class" Act?

[Day_late]

I've been watching both "Jeeves & Wooster" and "Foyle's War" DVDs lately, and the difference in the hats in the two series is striking. Both Jeeves and Wooster wear really elegant hats, Jeeves usually a bowler and Wooster a variety of caps, fedoras and top hats. The characters in "Foyle's War" wear fedoras, but the hats are rather inelegant, with strange-looking brims. Is the difference attributable to class, with the contrast between the English middle class and the "noblesse", as Bertie might put it?

Regards,
Warren

 

[dr greg]

Obviously

It would be a matter of affordability and commonsense, if you were a copper, or say a smalltown truckdriver, would you wear your finest Borsalino, (assuming you could afford one) to work?
The upper class twit on the other hand, is mostly poncing round in drawing rooms in Mayfair or at hunt breakfasts or whatever, and wears the VERY BEST doncha know?

 

[Spellflower]

I've only seen one episode of Foyle's War, but I remember being struck by the gorgeous fedora one of the detectives was wearing. The plot involved the detective getting framed for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. He had to stand in a line up, and did so with a this wonderful hat at a terrific slant. I don't know if the hat was vintage, or new, but I loved the style either way.

 

[fatwoul]

I've been watching both "Jeeves & Wooster" and "Foyle's War" DVDs lately, and the difference in the hats in the two series is striking. Both Jeeves and Wooster wear really elegant hats, Jeeves usually a bowler and Wooster a variety of caps, fedoras and top hats. The characters in "Foyle's War" wear fedoras, but the hats are rather inelegant, with strange-looking brims. Is the difference attributable to class, with the contrast between the English middle class and the "noblesse", as Bertie might put it?

Regards,
Warren

Well, it might also be a utilitarian effect of wartime. Jeeves & Wooster was set in the years between the Great War and the Second World War (the characters were originally written around 1915, I think, but continued into the 70s), whereas Foyle's War is set during WWII, when felt for civilian hats might have been considered to be something of a luxury, and may have taken a lower priority than other war-effort-related products.

Incidentally, although it wasn't based on an original PG Wodehouse story, one of the later Jeeves & Wooster TV adaptations has Bertie wearing a hat that offends every fibre of Jeeves' being. It was one of the episodes during Jeeves & Wooster's trip to America. If I recall correctly, Bertie finally gives the hat to the hotel bellhop, much to Jeeves' satisfaction.

FL members Kishtu and Bertie Wooster might be able to tell me if I remember correctly.

By the way, Warren, if you haven't read any of the PG Wodehouse originals, you're missing a treat. If you're haven't read them, you're...a dollar short! Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

[Day_late]

Thanks, fatwoul; your comment about the time frames of the two series is probably right on.

I'm a Wodehouse fan from way back, and the Jeeves & Wooster series was a visual treat -- so that's one area in which I'm not a dollar short.

 

[fatwoul]

Thanks, fatwoul; your comment about the time frames of the two series is probably right on...

I suspect that it's a combination of both the different time frames and the different class of people in each programme, together with a lot of other things. I haven't seen many Foyle's War episodes, but those that I have seen have involved a lot of detectives and army types. I guess that, together with jobs that didn't pay so well, they probably prohibited a lot of fancier apparel through practicality. No point being a police inspector who has a nice hat covered in filth from the last dingey, bombed-out crime scene he visited, for example.

I'm a Wodehouse fan from way back, and the Jeeves & Wooster series was a visual treat -- so that's one area in which I'm not a dollar short.

Visual treat indeed. It's also a beautiful example of the sort of television we (as a nation) used to make. Have you seen the TV adaptations of "Poirot" with David Suchet in the title role? That's another great bit of 1920s/30s eye candy, made around the same time, and using a lot of the same buildings as backdrops.

 

[Colby Jack]

Fats...isn't "Poirot" a Canadian production?...Though I believe filmed in your beautiful country...

 

[fatwoul]

Fats...isn't "Poirot" a Canadian production?...Though I believe filmed in your beautiful country...

It is? According to the BFI website, "Agatha Christie's Poirot" is primarily produced by Granada Television, Agatha Christie Ltd (both British, as far as I know - Granada has produced programmes mostly for ITV for a long, long time) and Arts & Entertainment Network, which is owned by ABC, NBC and Hearst, all of which I understood to be American, although according to the wording on a couple of websites it sounds like A&E Network are mostly responsible for funding rather than creative input. The BFI list the production countries to be "Great Britain" or "Great Britain and USA" depending which episode I look at. None of the companies I found are Canadian. Am I missing something?

 

[Colby Jack]

Fats...I thought I read it somewhere...but you are right about the production value...you don't see that kind of wonderful attention to detail in other programs.:eusa_clap