mmmmm …Hugh Laurie
mmmmmmmm …Hugh Laurie
by Theresa Bane
© Buzzy Multimedia
He drives a motorcycle. He plays both the piano and the guitar. And sings. His eyes are a clear and sharp blue. He’s British with an amazing accent. He’s a published author of two books. A tall guy, around 6’2″. An athlete. An award winning actor and comedian. What’s not to love about James Hugh Calum Laurie, better known to the rest of us as Hugh Laurie.
Laurie is a married man, father of three, and from all outward appearances a great guy. I even love that he’s working that whole “scruffy nerf-herder” look and really making it happen. He’s one of the few actors out there that I genuinely like; he’s good in everything else I see him in, including “Stuart Little” and Disney’s live-action flick “101 Dalmatians.” I loved him the moment I heard his snort and speak out in rancor and disgust at his most annoying wife in the 1995 film of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility.” There he was the stoic, candid, and if not devoted, committed Mr. Palmer. It’s a film I watch at least twice a year.
If you’re not a fan of the BBC’s “Blackadder” then let me school you on it real quick. It ran for four seasons and each season was set in a different historical time period, however, for the most part, all the actors played the same character. Laurie was in seasons three and four as “George.” In season three which takes place in the early 1800s, he played His Royal Highness the Prince George Augustus Frederick, a rather dim-witted twit who spends amazing amounts of money on buying socks. In season four he played The Honorable Lieutenant George Colthurst St. Barleigh, an upper-class sap who went straight on to being a commissioned officer upon enlisting to fight in WW1. This George is also a rather dim-witted twit who in spite of being in a trench for three years remains ever-so naiveté and optimistic about all the death and horror that is happening all around him.
What I love most about Hugh Laurie is his portrayal of Dr. Greg House in the TV show, “House, MD.” I didn’t watch the show when it first came on the air, and I am sure I had good reason why, like it was on opposite something else I watched. Maybe the commercials were never so compelling that I felt a need to give it a try. Then, one night, the husband and I were at a con. We were both so tired and exhausted after a day of meeting fans that I wimped out and went back to the room to shower and call it an early night. After turning on the TV and collapsing on the bed I found that I was unwilling to move and the remote control was all the way on the other side of the room. Too pooped to care I decided I would just fall asleep to whatever came on next. As fate would have it, it was “House.” I remember watching the opening scene of the show and thinking to myself, “this may be pretty good.” By the time House and his team had decided it wasn’t Lupus or some sort of cancer I was hooked. I don’t know if it was the character’s devious mind, his sheer brilliance, the indifference and blatant disregard to the rules of social behavior as well as to his boss and hospital policy, or that he was an addict AND doctor, I just knew I loved Greg House. As the show ended my husband came back into the room and I immediately began to tell him about this wonderful oasis in TV land that I had discovered. He listened politely and agreed to watch an episode with me. Again, as fate would have it, it was back to back episodes. Now, WE were hooked.
When we left the con Sunday we swung into a Wal-Mart on the way home and picked up all of the available seasons. We began watching them as soon as we got home. Ever since, no matter what day of the week or what time slot its’ in, “House” is family time in the Bane household. There was one episode I’ll never forget-not because it was the one where House had to help a scientist drill a hole in her own head over the internet, but because I figured out what the medical problem was an entire commercial break before the mighty and infallible Greg House did. I felt so smart and clever, it was like figuring out the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story before Holmes reveals all to a dumbstruck Watson. It made me want to raise a glass of bubbly and toast to the good doctor, “soupy twist.” (if you don’t get the “soupy twist” reference, Google it, that’s what the internet is for.)
QtR – Theresa Bane, Vampirologist and gaga for Hugh Laurie
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