Wednesday 7 March 2007

All Hail the Mighty House

There are a few actors I love in the world, and not just because they're all very easy on the eyes - mostly it's their talent. Hank Azaria, Christian Bale, Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman and my newest rekindled love for this wonderful man:



That's right - the magnificent Hugh Laurie. More famously now known (in America mostly) as the cynical Dr House, yet I grew up with Hugh Laurie on our TV screens at home (thanks to my mum) as the bumbling socialite idiot Bertie Wooster in Jeeves and Wooster (with Stephan Fry playing his more intelligence butler Jeeves ) and in Blackadder (The Third) as the Prince Regent, one of his best roles I believe, and Lt. George (in Blackadder Goes Forth). Also it must be noted he had a great guest appearance on The Young Ones in the University Challenge episode, famously saying 'Rah-rah-rah, we're going to smash the oinks!' with Emma Thomspon, Ben Elton and Stephan Fry. If you don't know any of the above listed shows, I pity you and demand you to go out and get your hands on copies of these GREATEST of the great in British humour.


Hugh Laurie as the Prince Regent in Blackadder the Third

Mr Laurie is a highly talented man, not just actor. Originally starting out as a champion rower for Cambridge University (following the footsteps of his gold-medal winning rowing father), he then branched off into comedy with, most notably, Stephan Fry. Many stage shows, TV shows, and works with other famous comedians, he rose to stardom within the UK. From there he branched out into films and the rest is, well... what we know today. But did you know he was also a highly talented musician? I didn't until a couple of hours ago. Hugh can play a mean guitar, killer piano and sings wonderful satirical songs. He even plays in two bands - one is Lenny Henry's band, with Henry and Ben Elton's wife Sophie among many others, and the other is called Band From TV with other actors from American TV (they mostly do covers I believe). I cruised around on YouTube before and found some wonderful clips of Hugh Laurie's musical talents, which I thought was worthy of sharing.

'Mystery', written and performed by Hugh Laurie
'The Sophisticated Song', performed on A Bit of Fry and Laurie
'Too Long Johnny', performed by Laurie on A Bit of Fry and Laurie
'There Ain't The One Way', performed on A Bit of Fry and Laurie


Here are some other clips worth watching:
Shakespeare Sketch with Rowan Atkinson
Laurie's appearance on The Young Ones as part of University Challenge.
A scene from Jeeves and Wooster
Spoon Bending sketch, with Stephan Fry
As the Prince Regent in Blackadder


You should love Hugh Laurie by now :)


<3

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello, I am French, I am called Meg and I must say that we have exactly the same tastes concerning the actors! All! They all are perfect! And I don't miss only one episode by House to look at and listen to marvellous Hugh Laurie! ;)
Perfect casting…

Drisana said...

I LOVE Blackadder...I didn't realize how handome Hugh Laurie was until I saw him as Prince George. =)