The Drones Club, as depicted in 'Jeeves & Wooster' (1990-3)

This isn’t a post about the Drones Club in the books of P. G. Wodehouse. I’ve already written about that in my last book. It’s no secret that the Drones Club of the books was a composite, which blended elements of different London clubs: the bar of Buck’s on Clifford Street, the swimming pool of the Bath Club on Dover Street, and the reputation of the old Bachelors’ Club on Piccadilly for being filled with the idle rich.

This post is about one of the most popular representations of the Drones Club: that seen in the 1990-3 television series Jeeves & Wooster, adapted from the Wodehouse stories, starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. It is a vivid (and mostly faithful) portrayal of Wodehouse’s fictional club. But it is not a particularly consistent one.

The Savile Club

The Drones Club, as portrayed in the very first episode. Note the presence of smooth coverings over the portico, to conceal the “69“ painted onto each pillar, giving the street number; as well as the addition of a bee motif on a panel, for the Drones Club logo.

This is because at least two different real-life clubs were used as filming locations for the Drones Club. Throughout the first series, the exterior and entrance hall of the Savile Club on Brook Street was used. The Savile occupies two distinctive townhouses at number 69 & 71, which were connected into one private residence in the 1890s, and then acquired by the Club in 1927.

Exterior of the Savile Club today.

The use of the Savile Club as the Drones location throughout series one is confirmed by a reverse shot, which shows a redbrick building with a curved turret opposite at 78 Brook Street, on the corner with Gilbert Street,

The view from the Drones Club in series one of Jeeves and Wooster.

This precisely matches the building which can still be seen there today, currently housing the London branch of private equity firm AEA Investors.

The view from the Savile Club’s entrance today. (Picture credit: Google Maps.)

We only see brief glimpses of the front lobby, but it is clear from the window design that the Savile’s entrance hall was used for these lobby scenes - but not for the other Drones Club interiors, which I will come onto.

Bertie Wooster (Hugh Laurie) checks a dictated telegram with the Drones Club Porter (Michael Ripper), in a spot filmed in the Entrance Hall of the Savile Club, against the front-facing window beneath the stairs.

The Naval Club

The second series gives us a complete departure in how the Drones Club is portrayed, with the use of the Naval Club on Mayfair’s Hill Street. Although the Naval Club closed down in September 2021, at the time of the TV series it was very much a going concern, having been founded in 1919 (the same year as Buck’s), and occupied its Georgian building at number 38 since 1946. It continued to be used as the Drones Club exterior and lobby for the remaining three series of Jeeves & Wooster.

How the Naval Club was introduced to viewers, as the new exterior and lobby of the Drones Club in series two. Note the addition of a “Dover Street“ sign, on the corner of Hill Street.

It is unclear why the location changed, but several possible factors come to mind. Most obviously, the Savile Club’s location on Brook Street tends to be a very busy thoroughfare with heavy traffic, as one of the main routes in and out of Grosvenor Square and only a few doors from Claridge’s; the handful of exterior shots in series one, showing an absence of modern traffic, will have invariably been quite challenging to film. By contrast, Hill Street, where the Naval Club is located, is in a far quieter corner of Mayfair, which would have been much easier to cordon off for filming. The ease of filming exteriors is put to good use in the very first appearance of the Naval Club, in the second series premiere’s adaptation of The Code of the Woosters, where Bertie Wooster takes refuge in the club when fleeing from a policeman.

The Drones exterior, as it had been in series one.

The Drones exterior in series two, three and four.

There were some dressing flourishes to make the Naval Club pass for the Drones. As well as assorted Drones Club plaques previously hung on the pillars outside the Savile Club, a large flag with the fictional emblem of the Drones was draped in front of the clubhouse. Most London clubhouses have a flagpole, either in front or on top; although they vary considerably in their etiquette for flying the club colours - some do so almost permanently (barring their being overtaken by other seasonal colours), others only do so on special occasions, or even just once a year.

The Entrance Hall of the Drones Club, as seen through series two to four of Jeeves & Wooster, when filmed in the Naval Club. Note the main staircase in the background.

As with the Savile Club in series one, the use of a real-life club for the Drones lent some authenticity, particularly in the lobby scenes, where the Club’s own front desk and noticeboard were used to depict their Drones Club counterparts.

The main staircase of the Naval Club, pictured in 2021 at the time of the building’s sale. As can be seen from the previous photo, it matches the glimpses of staircase seen through the door of the “Drones Club“ lobby. (Photo credit: GeraldEve/Wetherell estate agents.)

The interiors

Aside from the respective club lobbies, two sets of interiors were shown for the Drones Club. Both remain a mystery to me. Each appears to have been a real location, rather than a set - telltale details in the concentration of artwork, and the quality of the carpentry, suggest a location rather than a set which would have been ruinously expensive for such fleeting screentime. Neither interior matches any recogniseable room of the Savile Club or the Naval Club.

The first of these was a Billiard Room, where snooker was played periodically throughout the first series (but not in later series). Relatively little of this room was seen, beyond the table, and the assortment of framed pictures, many of them of an equestrian theme.

The second area was used throughout Jeeves & Wooster, and appeared in all four series. It portrayed the heart of the Drones Club, with two interconnected rooms. One room was used as the Smoking Room/Drawing Room area, with general chaos. The other was set up as a bar. (There is technically a third room, seen in the series as a dining room. Whilst this is never seen to internally connect to the smoking room & bar area, the matching light fittings and panelling mean that I am convinced they were all part of the same building.)

The general mayhem seen in the Drones Club onscreen closely reflected its portrayal in the books, with all manner of impromptu indoor games of golf, squash, cricket, and some sort of bizarre game involving piggy-backs and rolled-up papers. While certainly embellished for comic effect, this reflected a long-standing tradition of playing cricket in the bar at Buck’s - a club of which Wodehouse himself was an early member, and which provided some of the inspiration for the Drones.

One well-researched touch in the portrayal of the Drones was in the uniforms of club staff. This balanced out Porters on the front desk in the formal livery still found in Georgian clubs at the time, but waiters in white dinner jackets - closer to American-influenced clubs like Buck’s. It shows how the Drones was supposed to occupy elements of both ‘old’ and ‘new’ clubs of the inter-war period.

And there were other small touches which suggest the crew of Jeeves & Wooster thoroughly researched these establishments. The assortment of cold meats laid out for a lunch buffet were exactly the kind of lunch which would have been popular in a club of this kind in the inter-war years.

While I cannot tell the location used for the two sets of interiors - most likely one of the many central London mansions leased for filming - there are some attempts at misdirection, to fool the viewer into thinking they were all filmed in the same building.

When Bertie Wooster is chased into the Drones by the policeman at the start of series two, he seeks refuge in the dining room. There, his friends sat down for lunch help him by throwing bread rolls at the policeman, towards the direction of the camera. A reverse shot shows the bread rolls hitting the policeman in the lobby of the Naval Club, and his being dragged away to safety by the porter, after having fallen over.

In fact, a look at the floor plan of the Naval Club shows that this would be impossible - the area the policeman goes into, a door to the right of the main staircase, is much too small to fit the dining toom shown. It was actually a small corridor leading to a toilet.

Plan of the ground floor of the Naval Club, from a brochure when the clubhouse went onto the market in 2021. (Photo credit: GeraldEve/Wetherell estate agents.)

As mentioned, the identity of these real-life locations for the interior of the Drones Club in Jeeves & Wooster remains a mystery. I am convinced that a location was used, rather than a set. If any readers can throw any light on this, all suggestions would be gratefully received.