Laurie Shines in pre-House 'Fortysomething'

new Dvd set from Acorn Media displays comic actor's talents

reviewed by Robin Rowe

RATING: HHH

SANTA MONICA: Before he was House M.D., before he was Captain Biggs in Street Kings, but after he was in Blackadder, Hugh Laurie starred in the hit British series comedy Fortysomething. Laurie also wrote the series, based on the novel by Nigel Williams. Series guest stars include his former Cambridge Footlights collabator Stephen Fry.

     Fortysomething has a delightful cast and zany situations. In some ways it’s the ‘grown up and moved away to have kids’ version of Coupling, the hit British comedy series that defined twentysomething sexual mores. Like Coupling, sometimes the lead character is sometimes a bit too clueless and bumbling to bear.

     Laurie stars as Paul Slippery, an anxiety-ridden British doctor nervous that his wife is embarking on a new career and perhaps an extramarital affair.  Laurie’s foibles torment his put-together wife, (played by Anna Chancellor) returning to the workforce after a life as a stay-at-home mom. Laurie often hears the unspoken thoughts inside other people’s heads, which is a fun premise. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really go anywhere in the series.

     Adding extra laughs are Laurie’s three oversexed sons, who mock him relentlessly while their beautiful girlfriends are constantly at the house. At the office, Laurie is tormented by a jealous colleague, a doctor with questionable ethics.

     Co-star Chancellor memorably portrayed Hugh Grant’s jilted-at-the-altar “Duckface” in Four Weddings and a Funeral. She’s also well known as the snobbish Bingley sister in the hit mini-series Pride & Prejudice. Chancellor was also in Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe and on 15 episodes of MI-5 in 2005.

     Laurie has complained that since becoming famous in America he can’t find work in Britain. “The door slammed behind me,” says Laurie. “And that's it. There's a notion that I've sold out. There's a peculiar British attitude that I took an oath I wouldn't be successful, and reneged on it.” Laurie says his family, still in London, may move to the US.

     Although already famous in Britain, Laurie was virtually unknown in America until he won two Golden Globes for House M.D. Laurie’s father was a medical doctor and Olympic gold medal winner. Like his father, Laurie was an oarsman. He took part in the 1980 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race where Cambridge lost by five feet. Laurie joined the Cambridge Footlights, a starting point for many British comedians.

     Laurie become president of the Footlights with Emma Thompson as vice-president. Thompson introduced him to his future comedy partner, Stephen Fry. The group took The Cellar Tapes, written mainly by Laurie and Fry, and a cast including Thompson, to win the first Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Laurie later appeared in Sense and Sensibility, adapted by and starring Emma Thompson, and Peter’s Friends, written and directed by Thompson’s former husband Kenneth Branagh.

     Laurie has starred in many British television comedy series, including four seasons of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, which he co-wrote for the BBC with Stephen Fry, three seasons of Blackadder, and three seasons of Saturday Live. He did four seasons of Jeeves and Wooster for PBS and has hosted Saturday Night Live. In 1996, Laurie's first novel, The Gun Seller, a spoof of the thriller genre, became a bestseller. His second novel, The Paper Soldier, is expected in 2009.

     Laurie is currently working on Monsters vs. Aliens, with Seth Rogen and Reese Witherspoon. Laurie is again a doctor, this time the voice of Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. The DreamWorks Animation feature is about a girl struck by a meteorite who turns into a giant monster, and the secret government compound where she discovers a ragtag group of monsters also rounded up over the years. In theaters in 2009.

Fortysomething: Release: April 8, 2008

DVD 2-Vol. Boxed Set 16:9 widescreen

6 episodes - approx. 293 min.$39.99 . Acorn Media

www.acornmedia.com