You Played Ukulele, M'Lord?

Who has not heard of theYou Rang, M'Lord? television series, which is both wonderfully charming and very funny. (If by chance you have never seen it, catch up — you will not regret it!) There is a reason I am writing a few lines about it here: in episode 11, one of the scenes shared by Mr Twelvetrees and Miss Poppy involves a ukulele. If you do not remember it, look it up on YouTube .

There you have it, gentlemen: it pays to know your way around this little instrument — you never know when or where it might come in handy! And of course ladies can always ask someone to explain a few chords to them as well .

There is also an excellent blog post about the series itself (in Hungarian): blog post.

On a whim, I wrote to Jeffrey Hollandwho played Mr Twelvetrees. As well as expressing my sincere admiration for the series, I asked him to write a few words about whether he had already played the ukulele before, or learned it only for the show, and what it had been like filming that particular scene. His reply arrived less than half an hour later!!!

For those who would like the substance of his reply in English:

“Hello Tamás!

Thank you for your email and your very kind words. I actually learned to play the ukulele only for that scene with Miss Poppy, although I had been playing guitar for some time. I found the ukulele chords quite different from guitar chords. Filming the scene was great fun and we got it in one take. Thanks to YouTube, people all over the world can now know this scene, and I am pleased that the series is such a success in Hungary as well.

Barbara New, who played Mabel the cleaner, learned Hungarian because, as far as I know, she had friends in Hungary.

Thank you again for writing.

All the best and kind regards,

Jeffrey Holland”

(In a few places I expanded his concise English slightly to make the meaning clearer.)

It was an exceptionally kind and friendly reply, and I was genuinely touched; I really did not expect his message to arrive so quickly. Incidentally, the song heard and seen in the video was written in 1927, while the series itself is set around exactly that period, at the very end of the 1920s. In other words, the characters are playing a very “current” hit. I think it is a real musical gem — you can never hear it too many times. It has been covered by countless performers, including the Beatles.