Jeeves / By Jeeves: Interviews

This section contains various interviews with Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber about the development and history of the musicals Jeeves & By Jeeves.
A short description of each interview can be found with links below. Alternatively, click on the links above or in the box below for more interviews.

Interviews

Jeeves / By Jeeves Interviews

○ Genesis Of Jeeves (Yorkshire Post)
○ Wooster Source (The Guardian)
○ Conversations with Ayckbourn
○ Best Of Times (The Independent)
○ Launching By Jeeves (Scarborough News)
○ The Odd Couple (The Guardian)
○ The Butler Did It (Sunday Times)
○ Royal Society of Literature talk

○ The Genesis Of Jeeves, Superstar by Geoffrey Winter
Publication: Yorkshire Post, 6 April 1974
This was the first major published interview with Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber concerning the musical Jeeves. It offers a unique perspective on the project as the interview took place during the first meeting of director, composer and book writer prior to work on the musical beginning.

○ Wooster Source by Tom Sutcliffe
Publication: The Guardian, 22 April 1975
This significant article was published on the day Jeeves opened in the West End and offers Ayckbourn and Lloyd Webber's thoughts on the troubled process which led to Jeeves opening in the West End.

○ Conversations With Ayckbourn by Ian Watson
Publication: Conversations With Ayckbourn (Faber & Faber), 1981
Conversations With Ayckbourn is regarded the first major work published on Alan Ayckbourn's career. It contains interview between Ian Watson and Alan Ayckbourn including his thoughts on Jeeves. The interview reprinted here is the unexpurgated version originally intended for the book but sections of which were later cut.

○ Best Of Times, Worst Of Times by Danny Danziger
Publication: The Independent, July 1996
This regular column in The Independent invited interviewees to discuss the best and worst moments of their careers. Here Andrew Lloyd Webber discusses the failure of Jeeves and the success of By Jeeves.

○ Launching By Jeeves by Simon Murgatroyd
Publication: The Scarborough Evening News, March 1996
This interview with Simon Murgatroyd (then a journalist for the Scarborough Evening News, later Alan's Archivist) was derived from the press launch for By Jeeves at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in April 1996 with Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber discussing the musicals.

○ The Odd Couple
Publication: The Guardian, 24 June 1996
This interview in The Guardian looks at the experiences of Jeeves and why Ayckbourn and Lloyd Webber decided to revisit the musical for By Jeeves.

○ The Butler Did It by Bill Hagerty
Publication: The Sunday Times, 7 July 1996
These are extracts from and interview published in the Sunday Times tying in with the transfer of By Jeeves into the West End following its premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

○ Royal Society Of Literature by Alan Ayckbourn
Talk: 22 May 2017, British Library
In May 2017, Alan Ayckbourn was in conversation at the British Library in A Royal Society of Literature event. During the expansive talk, he touched upon the events of Jeeves in 1975.

All research for this section by Simon Murgatroyd. Please credit if reproduced in any format.