The Many Musical Talents
Of House’s Hugh Laurie

M

OST American TV viewers know Hugh Laurie as the curmudgeonly, irascible yet strangely likeable Dr. Gregory House in Fox’s hit TV drama.

But there is much more to the talents of the 52-year-old Golden Globe winning actor who has made Dr. House the kind of medic we can’t resist.

Laurie, it turns out, is a remarkable musician—and many viewers may be a little puzzled to see his name attached to a new documentary show about classic blues music from New Orleans.

But as fans of House may know, when he sits down at the piano looking for ways to find some relief from the medical stress of solving the latest "strange disease of the week," he’s playing for real.

Laurie knows his way around a keyboard. And on top of this he is no dummy when it comes to understanding and appreciating the jazz legends—from Jelly Roll Morton to Lead Belly.

And that’s how come Laurie, also known for his role as Bertie Wooster in Masterpiece Theater’s popular series Jeeves and Wooster, is the centerpiece of PBS’s new Great Performances documentary Hugh Laurie : Let them Talk: A Celebration of New Orleans Blues.

Laurie, whose early 2011 blues singing album was called Let Them Talk, has been a huge hit and the program shows exactly why he is so versatile a performer.

Laurie, son of a doctor who has three children and spends his time between Britain and Hollywood, graduated from prestigious Eton and Cambridge. He starred in movies like Peter’s Friends (l992) and Sense and Sensibility (l995). He wtote novels. He is one half of one of my favorite comedy shows, Britain’s A Bit of Fry and Laurie opposite his Jeeves and Wooster co-star Stephen Fry and it was on that show that I first heard Mr. Laurie exercise his tonsils to great effect.

When did you first get interested in blues music?
As a child, when I first heard the great blues singers on the radio, the hairs on my neck stood up. Listening to them made me laugh—and cry. As soon as I heard my first Willie Dixon song I was on the hunt and would spend my pocket money on whatever blues records I could afford. Muddy Waters was where I spent most of my teenage years—listening to him again and again. Since I was a small boy the sounds of New Orleans have thrilled me.

Is there such a thing as a specific the New Orleans sound?
Yes. And if I had a record deck here with me I could show you examples of why there is a difference. New Orleans is unique for a variety of historical reasons. It has a unique place between so many different musical influences—whether they’re Spanish, French, English and Caribbean. It just has its own feel.

Will people be stunned to hear you sing because they identify you with Dr. House?
Let the record show that I’m a white, middle class Englishman openly trespassing on the music and myth of the American south. But I feel that this whole project and experience has been closer to who I am than many things I’ve done. It was so dear to my heart and so it came reasonably easy to me.

When you shot the film in New Orleans did people perceive you as an outsider—or did they know about your music?
That’s still in the balance—the jury is out. I have no idea how the record will be received—or this film. As a performer you never do. You just put things out there in good faith hoping they will touch people. There’s been no verdict yet from the city of New Orleans.

A question about House. He has been good to you. Were you worried about depicting a guy who is not the warmest fellow on earth—and is also a pill addict?
Pills let House do his job and take away his pain. The bravest thing they did was to put such an apparently caustic and unsympathetic character at the center of a drama. There have been characters like this before but they tend to be peripheral. This guy runs the show　but at the same time　you could not only see the good he was doing but rejoice at his freedom, watching a character who doesn’t give a damn. It’s been exhilarating to play.

Did you ever think casting you in the role was a bit offbeat?
The writers told me they based the character on Sherlock Holmes. And I reminded them that Conan Doyle’s famous detective was based on a Scottish doctor. His name was Joseph Bell who was a surgeon in Edinburgh and he used to be able famously to tell by the callouses on a man’s thumb whether he was a roofer or whatever. So it’s sort of come full circle that now he’s back in a medical context.