Bingo Little

Richard P. "Bingo" Little, Lord of Bittlesham, is a recurring fictional character from the Drones and the Jeeves stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a member of the Drones Club.

Overview

Bingo Little is a longtime friend of Bertie Wooster. They were born in the same village a few days apart, and went together to preparatory school (under Rev. Upjohn), secondary school at Eton College, then to the University of Oxford. Unlike most other members of the Drones Club, Bingo gained a degree "of some sort" as Bertie puts it. Like Bertie, he is a member of the idle rich, as his uncle made a fortune on "Little's Liniment (It Limbers Up the Legs)," and he exists on an allowance; however, due to occasional scrapes with his uncle he is forced to supplement this income by teaching or betting on horse races.

Bingo's most noteworthy character trait is his overwhelming romantic nature, where he is inclined to fall in love at first sight on a regular basis and become highly emotional about his affections. Bertie compares him in The Inimitable Jeeves to "the hero of a musical comedy who takes the centre of the stage, gathers the boys round him in a circle, and tells them all about his love at the top of his voice." He regularly drags Bertie (and his valet Jeeves by extension) into his pursuits, regularly swaying a reluctant Bertie with the fact that they were at school together.

Objects of his affection have included a waitress named Mabel; Honoria Glossop, the formidable daughter of Sir Roderick Glossop; Daphne Braythwayt, a friend of Honoria; Charlotte Corday Rowbotham, a revolutionary; Lady Cynthia Wickhammersley, a family friend of Bertie's; and Mary Burgess, niece of the Rev. Francis Heppenstall. Each of these affairs tends to end with the girl becoming engaged to someone else (frequently after not even noticing Bingo), breaking Bingo's heart for a brief spell before the next girl catches his eye.

After many failed affairs, Bingo eventually married the romance novelist Rosie M. Banks, an author whose outlook on life happened to work well with his. The union was then blessed with a son, Algernon Aubrey Little. Bingo continued to appear in short stories, both alongside and independently of Bertie Wooster, and usually involving some financial scrape.

Stories

Bingo is featured in the following short stories:

• in The Inimitable Jeeves (1923)
  • "Jeeves in the Springtime" (1921)
  • "Scoring Off Jeeves" (1922)
  • "Comrade Bingo" (1922)
  • "The Great Sermon Handicap" (1922)
  • "The Purity of the Turf" (1922)
  • "The Metropolitan Touch" (1922)
  • "Bingo and the Little Woman" (1922)
• in Carry on, Jeeves (1925)
  • "Clustering Round Young Bingo" (1925)
• in Very Good, Jeeves (1930)
  • "Jeeves and the Impending Doom" (1926)
  • "Jeeves and the Old School Chum" (1930)
• in Eggs, Beans and Crumpets (1940)
  • "All's Well with Bingo" (1937)
  • "Bingo and the Peke Crisis" (1937)
  • "The Editor Regrets" (1939)
  • "Sonny Boy" (1939)
• in A Few Quick Ones (1959)
  • "The Word in Season" (1940)
  • "Leave It to Algy" (1954, rewrite of "The Ordeal of Bingo Little")
• in Nothing Serious (1950)
  • "The Shadow Passes" (1950)
• in Plum Pie (1966)
  • "Bingo Bans the Bomb" (1965)
  • "Stylish Stouts" (1965, also recycled as "The Great Fat Uncle Contest")

Bingo is mentioned in:

• "Bramley Is So Bracing" (1939) – Widgeon short story, collected in Nothing Serious (1950)
• Joy in the Morning (1946) – Jeeves novel (chap. XVI)
• The Mating Season (1949) – Jeeves novel

Actors

By chronological order on the first item of each sub-section:

Film and television actors

• John Alderton in the 1975–1978 BBC TV series Wodehouse Playhouse, season 3, episode 5 (1978)
• Derek Nimmo in the 1965–1967 BBC One series The World of Wooster
• In the 1990–1993 ITV series Jeeves and Wooster:
  • Michael Siberry, series 1, episode 1 and 3, series 2, episode 6
  • Pip Torrens, series 3, episode 6, series 4, episode 3
• Don Stephenson in the 2001 film/TV recording of the musical By Jeeves

Radio actors

Audiobook actors

See also

• Drones Club

References

Sources consulted

Endnotes

External links

• (last updated 11 May 2006)