The entire caricature was a humiliation for the fascists of the period because it spoke truth. He is also hit in the eye with a potato at a candidate debate in Much Obliged, Jeeves.[16]. It was a short situation comedy! Although I yield to nobody in my admiration of Wodehouse's writing - he was unquestionably the greatest master of the English language of the last century, and in my book the funniest of all time - I was never entirely convinced by his champions' arguments. He has crossed a line that has to be held. But the idea that by honouring their creator, the government would appear to be endorsing an image of Britain as a nation of Woosters and Aunt Agathas is just plain daft. But many English people heard that they happened. That is where you make your bloomer. He was speaking of the forty-eight weeks between 1940 and 1941 that he spent in a series of German-run civil-internment camps. True defenders of liberty get it. Tell him I'm going to break his neck. At the age of ninety-three, Wodehouse was finally knighted. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode!' . Spode soon wakes up, but is knocked out again, by Emerald. , that the fascists and communists are really two sides of a split within the same movement, each of which aspires to control the population with a version of a central plan. Its one of Bertie Woosters funniest, silliest and most perfectly rendered adventures. Welcome back. It is available from the Guardian bookshop for 7.37. Wooster relies on Jeeves to navigate the landscape, which at every moment threatens him with social embarrassment, at the least, and maybe with an engagement to a pretty woman he doesnt much like, at the most. There is a strong liberal spirit running through the whole series. He was grateful, because his professional pride had been wounded by grumblers saying there wasnt enough. That is where you make your bloomer. And the black-white-red of his banners seems also to imitate Hitler, not to mention the brown shirts. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. That the people calling themselves the alt-right are twerps. Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, often known as Spode or Lord Sidcup, is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. There are many reasons to love The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse. The only privilege of which he availed himself was paying eighteen marks a month for a typewriter. It has the substance and the arguments. Jeeves is the Sherlock. That should inspire us to smile from time to time. If he was naive, he was culpably so. Gussie leaves Madeline for Emerald, and Spode proposes to Madeline. She was bouncing through Dixie. by P.G. The Saviours of Britain, nicknamed the Black Shorts, is a fictional fascist group led by Roderick Spode. A handful of people take him seriously but mostly he and his "brownshort" followers are merely a source of . Ideally clowns like this would be ignored, left to sit alone at the bar or at the park with their handful of deluded acolytes. As Spode's fiance, Madeline goes with him. And, if he should ask why? and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. Wodehouse and his wife had trouble getting out of Germany, but eventually moved back to France, then, after the war, to New York. Like Mosley, Spode inherited a title upon the death of a relative; unlike Mosley, who inherited his baronetcy in 1928 (which entitled him to be called Sir) before forming his fascist group, Spode did not inherit his earldom (which made him Lord Sidcup) until after forming his group. [3], In Bertie's eyes, Spode starts at seven feet tall, and seems to grow in height, eventually becoming nine feet seven. Cf. The typewriter was housed in a room also used by a saxophonist and a tap dancer. [11], In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, which takes place at Aunt Dahlia's country house, Brinkley Court, Spode has recently become Lord Sidcup. Spode also antagonizes Gussie, for two reasons. She says that she must marry Bertie to reward his love for her, but Spode and Jeeves convince her that Bertie came to Totleigh to steal Sir Watkyn Bassett's black amber statuette, not out of love for her. As Bertie says, "I don't know if you have even seen those pictures in the papers of Dictators with tilted chins and blazing eyes, inflaming the populace with fiery words on the occasion of the opening of a new skittle alley, but that was what he reminded me of. Their eugenic theories are pseudo-science. (modern). Not aunts., Its an extraordinary thingevery time I see you, you appear to be recovering from some debauch. Wodehouse, and hilariously portrayed in the 1990s TV adaptation starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Oh, how I wish that Wodehouse was still around to paint a pen-portrait of that frightful ass Sir Patrick, swanking about in his pin-stripes as he plotted to eradicate the Empress of Blandings. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. He generally wrote one or two novels a year but published nothing in the U.K. between 1941 and 1945. What the Voice of the People is saying is: Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Spode is described by Wooster as looking "as if Nature had intended to make a gorilla, and had changed its mind at the last moment", which brings to mind the image of Johnson who broke his nose four times at Eton playing rugby and, only last year, shoulder-barged a ten year old to the ground during a street game in Tokyo. In June, 1941, Wodehouse was released. They are just dudes who are exploiting public curiosity and fear to gain attention and power. He perfectly captures the bluster, blather, and preposterous intellectual conceit of the . Spode is a man whom Wooster describes as appearing as if Nature had intended to make a gorilla, and had changed its mind at the last moment. That is what makes his work timeless, and why it will endure long after the Swinging Sixties and Cool Britannia are forgotten. He is clearly imitating Hitlers speech gestures. This was a sinister, leering, Underworld sort of animal, the kind that would spit out of the side of its mouth for twopence.. Many take place in country houses, and often turn on such events as the hope of extracting an allowance increase from a difficult uncle. Harold Pinker steps forward to protect Gussie, and after Spode hits Pinker on the nose, Pinker, an expert boxer, knocks him out. As for my schooldays. It was at least understandable, and particularly in the decade or two after the war, that successive British governments should have been reluctant to honour a man who, however innocently, had allowed himself to be used by the Germans. A group of rare-book dealers and collectors explain their specialized language. I have no hesitation in saying that he has not the slightest realisation of what he is doing, a good friend of Wodehouses wrote to the Daily Telegraph. The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. [8] Despite Spode becoming Lord Sidcup, Bertie usually thinks of him as Spode, at one point addressing him as "Lord Spodecup". "[4], Like Bertie, Spode had been educated at Oxford; during his time there, he once stole a policeman's helmet. How utterly hilarious that this was a picture that Our Man in Washington felt he had a mission to "eradicate". The television series made him less British than German in aspiration. After being elevated to the peerage, he sells Eulalie Soeurs. Mosley appeared in The Code of the Woosters, published in 1938, thinly disguised as Sir Roderick Spode, the leader of the "black-shorts". Liberalism has nothing to do with all this. Here is a not untypical early entry: August 27. Spode, seeing Gussie kiss Emerald Stoker, threatens to break Gussie's neck as well and calls him a libertine. He frequently writes about difficulties in his camp notebook, just never at much length. Within days, he was asked by the German Foreign Office if he would record some radio broadcasts for American audiences. Under normal circumstances, people like the stately-home hopping Bertie Wooster may not be the most natural political allies for most Guardianistas. Dont you ever stop drinking? Second, Gussie has insulted Spode in a notebook, writing that Spode's mustache was "like the faint discoloured smear left by a squashed blackbeetle on the side of a kitchen sink", and that the way Spode eats asparagus "alters one's whole conception of Man as Nature's last word. Civilian men were normally released at the age of sixty. His reputation in England was partly redeemed by the persuasive efforts of Evelyn Waugh, in a radio broadcast in 1961. He wrote articles and funny bits for the newspapers on the side. He leaves the group after he inherits his title. I thought that people, hearing the talks, would admire me for having kept cheerful under difficult conditions but I think I can say that what chiefly led me to make the talks was gratitude. Later, Wodehouse wrote to the editor of The Saturday Evening Post that he didnt understand why the broadcasts were seen to be callous: Mine simply flippant cheerful attitude of all British prisoners. The statist Left and the statist Right play off each other, creating a false binary that draws people into their squabble. 19:21, 19 November 2005 (UTC)Reply[reply], Spode is a star in the TV series 'Jeeves & Wooster' & a shining exception to the general miscasting (Jeeves isn't old enough, Bertie isn't young enough, Madeline Bassett isn't silly enough & Sir Watkyn isn't nasty enough). After being hit by a potato at a lively candidate debate, Spode changes his mind about standing for Parliament and decides to retain his title, leading to a reconciliation between him and Madeline. He said he could have made it more by adding water, which would have spoiled it.. He was separated from his wife. Spode is also blackmailed into taking the blame for the theft of Constable Oates's helmet. But the idea was now up for debate. There were angry letters to the BBC, calling the broadcast slanderous. It was a point of honor with us not to whine. Wodehouse failed to understand how even a childrens bedtime story broadcast on Nazi radio could be a form of propaganda. [5] While the leader of the Black Shorts, he is also secretly a designer of ladies' underclothing, being the proprietor of Eulalie Soeurs of Bond Street. : 21: The Plot Thickens", "Classic Serial: The Code of The Woosters", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roderick_Spode&oldid=1150150913, Fascist politician and designer of ladies' lingerie, later Earl of Sidcup, This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 16:01. When Bertie Wooster rebukes Spode in The Code of the Woosters (1938), he mocks Spode's black shorts, calling them "footer bags" (football shorts): "It is about time", I proceeded, "that some public-spirited person came along and told you where you got off. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Opposition blocked Wodehouses being knighted in 1967, but sentiment was shifting. Roderick Spode is a character who makes appearances at odd times, making speeches to his couple dozen followers, blabbing on in the park and bamboozling nave passersby, blowing up at people, practicing his demagogic delivery style. That fantasy would never hold if we heard him tell his own tale. [6] Spode later inherits a title on the death of his uncle, becoming the seventh Earl of Sidcup. . He was separated from his wife. Wodehouse was four months shy. Plenty of Room for Stupidity: On P. G. Wodehouse. He had published four novels in his nineties. The scandal of the broadcasts didnt diminish. ~ Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. Plus the company he contacted only had affordable shorts, so brown shorts it would be. People tend to believe they must join the Left to defeat the Right or join the Right to defeat the Left, forgetting that there is a third option: rule by no party and no one, but rather by universal self-rule and the society of freedom first and always. But he did do themhe apparently received two hundred and fifty marks for his work. [18] This alludes to various radical groups: Mussolini's Blackshirts, Hitler's Brownshirts, the French Blueshirts and Greenshirts, the Irish Blueshirts and Greenshirts, the South African Greyshirts, Mexico's Gold shirts, and the American Silver Shirts. Madeline, who wanted to gain the title Lady Sidcup, breaks their engagement, and says she will marry Bertie instead. After the success of his speeches, Spode considers standing for election himself for the House of Commons, which would require him to relinquish his title. He had already written and published a lightly comic account of his time in camp for The Saturday Evening Post. Thats how Wodehouse presented his fascist just as a silly distraction whose only value is a good joke. Error rating book. One of the squad has an apoplectic fit and keels over. 129.241.62.157 (talk) 17:05, 8 December 2010 (UTC)Reply[reply]. Or at least more vital than it has done since round about 1945. He is horrified. We now learn, however, that the Establishment had another reason for denying Wodehouse an honour. Lurking about is Roderick Spode, a disturbingly large and ill-tempered man, friend to Sir Watkyn and an admirer of Madeline's who is deeply jealous of Gussie. One of Turner's most recognisable roles was that of Roderick Spode (6 episodes, 1991-1993) in the ITV television series Jeeves and Wooster, based on the P. G. Wodehouse novels. Mosley appeared in The Code of the Woosters, published in 1938, thinly disguised as Sir Roderick Spode, the leader of the "black-shorts". The Oddest Terms Used for Antique Books, Explained. Wodehouse was a fool but not, by most definitions, a traitor. . Dont you ever stop drinking? Spode appears as a real threat and as a buffoonboth. Wodehouse was always careful for a credible background to his characters. Gussie leaves Madeline for Emerald, and Spode proposes to Madeline. Later in the story, Spode identifies a different pearl necklace, one belonging to the Liverpudlian socialite Mrs. Trotter, as fake. It's quite impossible that the man who had invented Sir Roderick Spode in 1938 was prey to any covert sympathy for fascism. The character of Roderick Spode is a lesson in how Wodehouse metabolizes politics. How about when you are asleep?, She laughed a bit louder than I could have wished in my frail state of health, but then she is always a woman who tends to bring plaster falling from the ceiling when amused.. Many great writers, including George Orwell and Auberon Waugh, argued for years that it was mean-spirited of the Establishment to vilify Wodehouse for what they said was an act of naivety, and to deny him the honour that they felt was his due. [6] Spode later inherits a title on the death of his uncle, becoming the seventh Earl of Sidcup. Sir Patrick was strongly against it, not only on the grounds that it would revive the controversy about Wodehouse's broadcasts during the war, but for this reason: "It would also give currency to a Bertie Wooster image of the British character which we are doing our best to eradicate.". In the first novel in which he appears, he is an "amateur dictator" and the leader of a fictional fascist group in London called the Saviours of Britain, also known as the Black Shorts. (Webley is another fictional fascist leader, from Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point, and unlike Spode does end up being assassinated.). The British knee is firm, the British knee is muscular, the British knee is on the march! [12], In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, which takes place at Totleigh Towers, Spode is as protective of Madeline as ever and threatens to break Bertie's neck when he thinks that he has caused Madeline to cry (she was shedding a tear because she thought Bertie was lovesick and could not stay away from her). Roderick Spode, as played by John Turner in the television series, List of P. G. Wodehouse characters in the Jeeves stories, "Jeeves, Lyrics To The 'Lost' Songs: Eulalie", "Jeeves, Lyrics To The 'Lost' Songs: SPODE", "What Ho, Jeeves! Anyone who knows this secret about his life has deep control over his psyche, with only the threat of revelation keeping him under control. This page is not available in other languages. by the popliteal unpleasantness. It was the years of not being able to workas opposed to internmentthat must have been the real hell. At one point, Wooster tells Sir Roderick: "The trouble . Bertie and his Aunt Dahlia plan to blackmail Spode with knowledge of "Eulalie" to keep Spode, who is a jewellery expert, from revealing that Aunt Dahlia's pearl necklace is a fake (she pawned the real one to raise money for her magazine, Milady's Boudoir). Its like Holmes and Watson, but no one ever gets murdered; no one even goes hungry. Roderick Spode - 8th Earl of Sidcup : Yes. However, the blackmail plan is unsuccessful, because, as Spode tells Aunt Dahlia, he has sold Eulalie Soeurs. He gets to be so addicted to his own oratory and the cheers of the crowd that he decides the House of Lords isn't a big enough stage for him & he must disclaim his peerage & stand for the Commons. The fantasy that theres a Jeeves who can resolve all problems is the necessary joy of these books. Jeeves & Wooster: Roderick Spode 1 - YouTube 0:00 / 2:53 Jeeves & Wooster: Roderick Spode 1 LIST Analysis 6.52K subscribers 235 46K views 15 years ago Roderick Spode, amateur. As Spode's fiance, Madeline goes with him. . But although there was nothing in the least bit political about the five radio broadcasts that Wodehouse made from Berlin, the great man's persecutors felt it to be treachery enough that he had co-operated with the recordings in the first place. People need to understand, as F.A. Its fortifying and inspiring that Bertie stands up to Spode and so thoroughly trounces him. Because he is a butterfly, who toys with women's hearts and throws them away like soiled gloves! It can be the hardest thing in the world to remember this in the midst of political upheaval and antagonisms. Red, brown, and black were already taken. Our problem isnt just post-truth, its post-irony. This should also give a more consistent style and cover age (as copied from the small articles, you'll see quite a disparity between them) - Just zis Guy, you know? How about when you are asleep?, But when I say 'cow', dont go running away with the idea of some decent, self-respecting cudster such as you may observe loading grass into itself in the nearest meadow., I dont mind people talking rot in my presence, but it must not be utter rot., She was standing by the barometer, which, if it had had an ounce of sense in its head, would have been pointing to 'Stormy' instead of 'Set Fair, a chap who's supposed to stop chaps pinching things from chaps having a chap come along and pinch something from him., Scotties are smelly, even the best of them. Thewriter paid dearly for his indomitable high spirits in internment camps, though not in the way one might have expected. Bertie says in Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves that before Spode succeeded to his title, he had been "one of those Dictators who were fairly common at one time in the metropolis", but "he gave it up when he became Lord Sidcup". [13], In Much Obliged, Jeeves, which takes place at Brinkley Court, Spode has been invited by Bertie's Aunt Dahlia to Brinkley for his skills as an orator. That chinThose eyesAnd, for the matter of that, that moustache. Photograph by Irving Penn / The Irving Penn Foundation. He describes having ten minutes to pack a suitcase while a German soldier stands behind him telling him to hurry up; his wife thinks he should pack a pound of butter; he declines, saying he prefers his Shakespeare unbuttered. He also forgets his passport. "You hear them shouting 'Heil Spode!' Just as important is the fact that Spode has so outraged Berties fundamental sense of decency. Roderick Spode is the founder and head of the Saviours of Britain, a Fascist organization better known as the Black Shorts. For one thing, it reminds us that there is nothing new about Tony Blair's obsession with Britain's "image" abroad. in the UK, or more well-known statesmen in interwar Europe. Page contents not supported in other languages. 2023 Cond Nast. Spode is a large and intimidating figure, with a powerful, square face. And, if he should ask why? Im reading Wodehouse novels every evening now, not because my own life is difficultIm eating a lot of peanut butter, and am healthybut because whenever the impersonal or personal news cycle becomes overwhelming I find that its easier to transition into a night of sleep after a character is described as looking like a bewildered halibut. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. He died a month later. And in their private lives, they are just like everyone else: they arent demigods or elites or superior in any sense. The proposal was rejected, it now emerges, after it had been put to Sir Patrick Dean, who was then the British ambassador in Washington. Wodehouses most enduring literary creation is the duo of Jeeves and Wooster. I had described Roderick Spode to the butler as a man with an eye that could open an oyster at sixty paces, and it was an eye of this nature that he was directing at me now, Wooster narrates. or words along those general lines. In 1967, Cool Britannia had yet to be invented, but Harold Wilson was just as keen as Mr Blair on painting a picture of these islands as the place where everything was happening, the nation where it was at. Here is his first speech in the television series, in which proclaims the right, nay the duty of every Briton to grow his own potatoes. Verified account Protected Tweets @; Suggested users Bertie : Break his neck, right. [12], In Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, which takes place at Totleigh Towers, Spode is as protective of Madeline as ever and threatens to break Bertie's neck when he thinks that he has caused Madeline to cry (she was shedding a tear because she thought Bertie was lovesick and could not stay away from her). In The Code of the Woosters, Spode is an "amateur dictator" who leads a farcical group of fascists called the Saviours of Britain, better known as the Black Shorts. Bertie and his Aunt Dahlia plan to blackmail Spode with knowledge of "Eulalie" to keep Spode, who is a jewellery expert, from revealing that Aunt Dahlia's pearl necklace is a fake (she pawned the real one to raise money for her magazine, Milady's Boudoir). Its the tragedy of real-world politics that we keep moving through these phases, trading one style of central plan for another, one type of despot for another, without understanding that none are necessary. Spode's head goes through the painting, and while he is briefly stunned, Bertie envelops him in a sheet. Like Mosley, Spode inherited a title upon the death of a relative; unlike Mosley, who inherited his baronetcy in 1928 (which entitled him to be called Sir) before forming his fascist group, Spode did not inherit his earldom (which made him Lord Sidcup) until after forming his group. That these are all mirthless, absurd nincompoops. I dont necessarily read them front to back, but pick them up more as someone would a whiskey-and-soda, or a hymnal. That perfect perishers are once again disfiguring the London scene. [4] Spode adopted black shorts as a political uniform because, as Gussie Fink-Nottle says, "by the time Spode formed his association, there were no shirts left". Like all great comedy, his books contain flashes of insight into the human condition that keep us laughing. Refresh and try again. Bertie does not learn the true meaning of "Eulalie" until the end of the story. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. About eight feet high with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster at. [7] At some point, he leaves the Black Shorts. It has no party flower and no party color, no party song and no party idols, no symbols and no slogans. [4] Spode adopted black shorts as a political uniform because, as Gussie Fink-Nottle says, "by the time Spode formed his association, there were no shirts left".
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