First look at Sam Harrison in Olivier-winning Jeeves Takes Charge

The first production images have arrived of Jeeves Takes Charge, the Olivier Award-winning one-man Wodehouse adaptation, which has returned to London for a strictly limited season at Charing Cross Theatre. The run began on Thursday 13 August and continues until Wednesday 16 September 2026, with a national press night tonight, Tuesday 18 August.

After the London dates the production plays Mayflower Studios in Southampton from Tuesday 29 September to Saturday 3 October, ahead of a UK tour in 2027.

Sam Harrison — a familiar face in the West End, at Chichester and with the RSC — takes on all twenty-two roles, among them Jeeves himself, Bertie Wooster, Florence Craye, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Bingo Little, Uncle Willoughby and Aunt Dahlia. The adaptation is by James Duke, Edward Duke and Hugh Wooldridge, and follows the hapless Bertie Wooster as his resourceful valet steers him clear of disaster, and of matrimony, through a world of country houses, formidable aunts and engagements gone wrong.

"P.G. Wodehouse created one of the great comic worlds, and stepping into it each night is pure joy," said Sam Harrison. "The challenge of playing twenty-two wildly different characters is exhilarating, but what audiences really respond to is the warmth, silliness and sheer brilliance of the writing. People leave grinning."

The piece has history at this scale. It first opened in London in 1980 and became an unlikely phenomenon, reaching the West End at the Fortune Theatre under producers Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh, Barbara Dickson and Bernard Theobald, with Edward Duke winning the Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his original performance.

Director and co-adaptor Hugh Wooldridge said: "Having first directed the Olivier Award-winning Edward Duke in Jeeves Takes Charge in 1980, it is wonderful to find another totally brilliant actor to take on the roles of all of PG Wodehouse's 22 characters. Sam Harrison is a marvel and brings the house down with his energetic and charismatic portrayals of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. And all the others..."

Hal Cazalet, step great grandson of the author, added: "My step great grandfather, PG Wodehouse, would be thrilled to see his characters brought so vivaciously to life by Sam Harrison in this brilliantly original production by Hugh Wooldridge."

Sam Harrison's theatre credits include The Magician's Elephant for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre, Eastward Ho! at Shakespeare's Globe, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Crazy For You at the London Palladium and, in 2014, By Jeeves, in which he also played Bertie Wooster.

The production is directed by Hugh Wooldridge, with scenic design by Caite Hevner, lighting design by Tim Mitchell and sound design by Paul Groothuis.