: 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. One of the many tragedies of our times is that we have taken so many perfect perishers so seriously instead of laughing them off the stage. But here in 2016, it seems more vital than ever. Apart from what Jeeves would have called the symbolism of the action, he had a grip like the bite of a horse.. or words along those general lines. and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. 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. He has crossed a line that has to be held. One thinksif one has been reading a lot of Wodehouseof those ducks elegantly moving across the water, as their duck feet paddle furiously, unseen below the surface. 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.. 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.". People need to understand, as F.A. Later, barber is seen crouching on his bed, holding lighted match under jam jar of water, soft soap and boot blacking. I propose a merge of the several short articles on minor Wodehouse characters to P. G. Wodehouse (minor characters) in line with normal practice for fictional subjects on WP. At one point, Wooster tells Sir Roderick: "The trouble . Forget about the authors wartime mistakes, the way Bertie tackles Mosley-esque thug Roderick Spode is a great lesson in sending up would-be despots. 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. The price Wodehouse paid for creating Jeeves and Wooster Apart from anything else, Sir Patrick's memo was extraordinarily insulting to Americans. Hayek emphasized in. 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. The author invites The New Yorker to lunch. Harold Pinker steps forward to protect Gussie, and after Spode hits Pinker on the nose, Pinker, an expert boxer, knocks him out. After two years, he decided that he could make a living by his pen alone. Declining the offer, he shared a cell with sixty-three others. Its one of Bertie Woosters funniest, silliest and most perfectly rendered adventures. Madeline accepts Spode's proposal. [9], In The Code of the Woosters, most of which takes place at Sir Watkyn's country house, Totleigh Towers, Spode is the leader of the Black Shorts. Connors address on the BBC began, I have come to tell you tonight of the story of a rich man trying to make his last and greatest salethat of his own country. Later, he described Wodehouse falling to his knees as Joseph Goebbels asks him to bow to the Fhrer. He sells the stuff to man for 83 pfennigs and man is very satisfied. Spode leaves the Black Shorts after gaining his title. At the same time, we are mistaken to think they are not a threat to civilized life. He was grateful, because his professional pride had been wounded by grumblers saying there wasnt enough. If you will recollect, we are now in Autumn season of mists and mellow fruitfulness., I couldn't have made a better shot, if I had been one of those detectives who see a chap walking along the street and deduce that he is a retired manufacturer of poppet valves named Robinson with rheumatism in one arm, living at Clapham., You cant fling the hands up in a passionate gesture when you are driving a car at fifty miles an hour. The whole point of Wodehouse, of course, is that he described a fantasy world that never existed and never will. Soon after his camp experience, Wodehouse paid dearly for his indomitable high spirits. They are still engaged at the end of the novel. That Putin is so clearly overcompensating. Dont you ever stop drinking? Humor is a great method for dealing with clowns like these, as Saturday Night Live has recently rediscovered. Its a novel by one of the finest exponents of the English language at the very top of his game. Cf. Because he is a butterfly, who toys with women's hearts and throws them away like soiled gloves! Their pretensions to command a massive following are completely wrong. 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. They are just dudes who are exploiting public curiosity and fear to gain attention and power. [1] He is intensively protective of Sir Watkyn's daughter, Madeline Bassett, having loved her for many years without telling her. Fortunately Spode soon encounters a hostile meeting, and a shower of vegetables hurled at his head in enough to convince him that the non-elected Lords remains the better option. U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross for the . He lost nearly sixty pounds. The Code of the Woosters is perhaps the most madcap of them all. I dont necessarily read them front to back, but pick them up more as someone would a whiskey-and-soda, or a hymnal. 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. Later in the story, Spode identifies a different pearl necklace, one belonging to the Liverpudlian socialite Mrs. Trotter, as fake. It called Wodehouse a traitor to England, and again claimed that he had engaged in a quid pro quo for his early release. Like everyone else, I had assumed that it was because of his behaviour during the war that P G Wodehouse was kept waiting for his knighthood until a month before his death in 1975, at the age of 93. Spode threatens to beat Bertie to a jelly if he steals the cow-creamer from Sir Watkyn. Opposition blocked Wodehouses being knighted in 1967, but sentiment was shifting. Here is a not untypical early entry: August 27. Refresh and try again. It's quite impossible that the man who had invented Sir Roderick Spode in 1938 was prey to any covert sympathy for fascism. 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. Page contents not supported in other languages. Bare knees? Wooster asks in disbelief, learning about Spodes activities. By the time he was detained, hed become a beloved national figure. 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. A fellow standing around says, I say, Ive never quite thought of it that way.. The English reading public mostly defended Wodehouse: it wasnt fair to speculate. 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". He said he could have made it more by adding water, which would have spoiled it.. [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. It is a matter of the nicest adjustment.Like that?Admirable, sir.I sighed.There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself Do trousers matter?The mood will pass, sir.. A large and intimidating figure, Spode is protective of Madeline Bassett to an extreme degree and is a threat to anyone who appears to have wronged her, particularly Gussie Fink-Nottle. But wouldnt that feeling fade? That meanness and cruelty so often accompany an inability to understand comedy. "[10] With help from Jeeves and the Junior Ganymede club book, Bertie learns the word "Eulalie", and tells Spode that he knows all about it. It can be the hardest thing in the world to remember this in the midst of political upheaval and antagonisms. And, if he should ask why? He created a composite and caricature of all of them and turned it to hilarity. These are not difficult modernist tomes. [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. Far from gruntled John Turner as Roderick Spode and Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster in ITVs Jeeves and Wooster. Sign up for the Books & Fiction newsletter. Having taught Wodehouse for a few years, Ive discovered that most students have never heard of him. The entry for November 14th begins, I must make a note of this day as one of the absolutely flawless ones of my life. Even if his private journal was a kind of performancefor himself? We could argue all day about the shades of grey, but when the question is as black and white as the fight against fascism, I would be mighty glad to link arms with someone with such a strong sense of fair play, such generous kindness, and so much warm feeling for his fellow humans. "[3] Bertie learns how accurate his initial impression of Spode was when Gussie tells him that Spode is the leader of a fascist group called the Saviours of Britain, also known as the Black Shorts. This was a sinister, leering, Underworld sort of animal, the kind that would spit out of the side of its mouth for twopence.. Poison Pen - The Atlantic Spode soon wakes up, but is knocked out again, by Emerald. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode!' The article could mention this if it were to be expanded, but as a basic statement seems all right as it is. 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. He is an easy-going and kindly man, cut off from public opinion here and with no one to advise him. George Orwell, in his essay In Defence of P.G.Wodehouse, from 1945, concluded, of Wodehouses broadcasts, that the main idea in making them was to keep in touch with his public andthe comedians ruling passionto get a laugh.. He leaves the group after he inherits his title. If he was naive, he was culpably so. By the way, when you say shorts, you mean shirts, of course. No. [2] When he first sees Spode, Bertie describes him: About seven feet in height, and swathed in a plaid ulster which made him look about six feet across, he caught the eye and arrested it. 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. Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'"[19]. Thats how Wodehouse presented his fascist just as a silly distraction whose only value is a good joke. [6] Spode later inherits a title on the death of his uncle, becoming the seventh Earl of Sidcup. [14], Although Spode regularly threatens to harm others, he is generally the one who gets injured. There's a brilliant scene (not in the book) where he outlines his five-year plan. One favorite plot hinges on a banjolele. [3], In Bertie's eyes, Spode starts at seven feet tall, and seems to grow in height, eventually becoming nine feet seven. That not-losing-a-minute feeling remains. "You hear them shouting 'Heil Spode!' There were angry letters to the BBC, calling the broadcast slanderous. As Spode's fiance, Madeline goes with him. Wodehouse had to write. He wrote articles and funny bits for the newspapers on the side. However, the blackmail plan is unsuccessful, because, as Spode tells Aunt Dahlia, he has sold Eulalie Soeurs. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. That Donald Trump is Donald Trump. 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. Show more Jeeves & Wooster: Roderick Spode 1 46K views 15 years ago Jeeves and. My own was to buy a villa in Le Touquet on the coast of France and stay there till the Germans came along., Wodehouse didnt do the broadcasts in exchange for being released. Spode appears as a real threat and as a buffoonboth. I didnt fall for Wodehouse until I had passed through the inevitable losses, fears, disappointments, and embarrassments that even a fortunate person accumulates over the decadesonly then did the Jeeves-and-Wooster books become essential comforts. There is a strong liberal spirit running through the whole series. 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. 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. However, this is not typically how people do deal with them. What a dream! Wodehouse was four months shy. In The Code of the Woosters, when Spode advances to attack Gussie, Gussie manages to hit him on the head with an oil painting. Did you ever in your puff hear of a more perfect perisher? John Turner: Spode - IMDb Roderick Spode - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia Gussie says of Spode, "His general idea, if he doesn't get knocked on the head with a bottle in one of the frequent brawls in which he and his followers indulge, is to make himself a Dictator. When thinking of how genuine lovers of human liberty should deal with such settings, I always fall back on, 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. The Saviours of Britain, nicknamed the Black Shorts, is a fictional fascist group led by Roderick Spode. It seems that by the time he started ordering uniforms for his followers, there were no more shirts left. "[4], Like Bertie, Spode had been educated at Oxford; during his time there, he once stole a policeman's helmet. Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.173.6.74 (talk) 15:56, 18 July 2008 (UTC)Reply[reply], I thought Wodehouse was mocking the fascists as "Spode" was slang for a urinal or toilet. 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. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. In 1946, when the new Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, was asked in the House of Commons whether Wodehouse would be tried for treason, he answered that the question would be addressed if and when the writer returned to England. Many take place in country houses, and often turn on such events as the hope of extracting an allowance increase from a difficult uncle. She was bouncing through Dixie. Aunt Dahlia ends up using a cosh she found on the ground to knock out Spode, which allows her to retrieve her fake necklace from a safe in order to hide it so it cannot be appraised. 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. 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. Tamfang 08:17, 11 July 2007 (UTC)Reply[reply], In Much Obliged Jeeves (1971) Spode is roped in to support Bertie's friend Ginger Winship who is standing in a by-election. Our problem isnt just post-truth, its post-irony. He slept. At age two, he was sent to Bath, to be brought up by a nanny; he went to boarding school at age seven. Error rating book. Roderick Spode of Totleigh Towers, head of the Black Shorts in The Code of the Woosters, secretly designs ladies' underclothing under the trade name of Eulalie Soeurs, of Bond Streetknowledge of which renders him harmless to Bertie, whom he despises, distrusts, and often threatens with violence. 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. You hear them shouting Heil, Spode! and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. they were just six years of unbroken bliss. In his final year at boarding school, his father told him that there were too many kids to educate, and that Wodehouse could not go to Oxford, where his brother was studying. Wodehouses most enduring literary creation is the duo of Jeeves and Wooster. They are so offensive to peoples ideals that they inspire massive opposition, and that opposition in turn creates public scenes that gain a greater following for the demagogue. This was the Britain of the Beatles, Carnaby Street and the Swinging Sixties, where a modern nation was being forged in the "white heat of technology". And the black-white-red of his banners seems also to imitate Hitler, not to mention the brown shirts. But when I say 'cow', don't 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. Jeeves & Wooster: Roderick Spode 7 - YouTube Why shorts? Wodehouse and his wife had trouble getting out of Germany, but eventually moved back to France, then, after the war, to New York. Maybe for the first weeks an illusion that internment was a brief change of circumstance would persist. 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. (Webley is another fictional fascist leader, from Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point, and unlike Spode does end up being assassinated.). "Norfolk shall make umbrellas and Suffolk shall produce their handles." Wodehouse. He perfectly captures the bluster, blather, and preposterous intellectual conceit of the interwar aspiring dictator. The two men feature in novels and stories that make up more than a dozen books. ~ Bertram "Bertie" Wooster, The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. His general idea, if he doesn't get knocked on the head with a bottle in one of the frequent brawls in which he and his followers indulge, is to make himself a Dictator.' 'Well, I'm blowed!' . His resilient happiness, to me, remains heroic, and more essentially who he was. The fantasy that theres a Jeeves who can resolve all problems is the necessary joy of these books. In one of his very rare forays into politics, he had poked fun at Sir Oswald Mosley's fascist black-shirts. Jeeves gets Wooster out of tangles. 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. It is available from the Guardian bookshop for 7.37. and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. But the Code of the Woosters has a message for us here, too. But, later in the same entry: Instance of ingenuity in Camp. Some of the family finance (on the Mitford side rather than Mosley's) came from the ownership of 'The Lady', a publication which continues to this day. Jeeves is the Sherlock. The statist Left and the statist Right play off each other, creating a false binary that draws people into their squabble. Spode is modelled after Sir Oswald Mosley,[17] leader of the British Union of Fascists (19321940), who were nicknamed the Blackshirts. His idea, if he doesn't get knocked on the head with a bottle in one of the frequent brawls in which his followers indulge, is to make himself Dictator. He was introverted, and, with the exception of schoolboy camaraderie, preferred to be at home, working. When he learned that the broadcasts horrified much of the English public, he recorded no more. He should obviously have been bedded out in the stables., Dont you ever read the papers? Madeline accepts Spode's proposal. Or at least more vital than it has done since round about 1945. He was separated from his wife. 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. The moment I had set eyes on Spode, if you remember, I had said to myself What ho! Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. That is where you make your bloomer. [11], In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, which takes place at Aunt Dahlia's country house, Brinkley Court, Spode has recently become Lord Sidcup. 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. It is that All very genial that distinguishes Wodehouse from the irritable rest of us, while the observation of the fit from smoking tea shows that he isnt oblivious, or deranged. We now learn, however, that the Establishment had another reason for denying Wodehouse an honour. Refresh and try again. After being elevated to the peerage, he sells Eulalie Soeurs. For one thing, it reminds us that there is nothing new about Tony Blair's obsession with Britain's "image" abroad. Spode is a large and intimidating figure, with a powerful, square face. Spode is a friend of Sir Watkyn Bassett, being the nephew of Sir Watkyn's fiance Mrs. Wintergreen in The Code of the Woosters, though she is not mentioned again. Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, often known as Spode or Lord Sidcup, is a recurring fictional character from the Jeeves novels of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a Nazi Sympathizer, an amateur dictator and the leader of a fictional fascist group in London called The Black Shorts. The book would be worth treasuring for such writing alone. Nobody could honestly call Wodehouse a fascist sympathiser. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Their eugenic theories are pseudo-science. Wikipedia:WikiProject Fictional characters, Template:WikiProject Fictional characters, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Roderick_Spode&oldid=587296941, WikiProject Fictional characters articles, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 22 December 2013, at 23:26. Error rating book. Spode, who does not want his followers to learn about his career as a designer of ladies' lingerie, is forced not to bother Bertie or Gussie. '", I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled., I mean, imagine how some unfortunate Master Criminal would feel, on coming down to do a murder at the old Grange, if he found that not only was Sherlock Holmes putting in the weekend there, but Hercule Poirot, as well." An eloquent public speaker, Spode is founder and head of the Saviours of Britain, a mob of underlings wearing black shorts who shout "Heil, Spode!" , 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. The Honorable Schoolboy - The Atlantic I couldnt have made a better shot, if I had been one of those detectives who see a chap walking along the street and deduce that he is a retired manufacturer of poppet valves named Robinson with rheumatism in one arm, living at Clapham. He admitted as much himself, writing in May 1945: "I made an ass of myself and must pay the penalty." Its fortifying and inspiring that Bertie stands up to Spode and so thoroughly trounces him. (modern). He is horrified. Prior to this moment of hideous embarrassment, Wodehouse had. 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. That fantasy would never hold if we heard him tell his own tale. What would he be thinking by November? In the 1990s television series, Jeeves and Wooster, he is . That is where you make your bloomer. 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. In Berlin, he was reunited with his wife. Connor became, according to Wodehouse, a great friend, and, in a 1961 letter, he asked Waugh not to say bad things about the journalist on TV. 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. Papers released yesterday by the Public Record Office show that Wodehouse was recommended for appointment as a Companion of Honour in 1967. 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. 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. Some British libraries banned his books. [1] He is intensively protective of Sir Watkyn's daughter, Madeline Bassett, having loved her for many years without telling her. They are still engaged at the end of the novel. Sir Oswald Mosley, 1930's leader of the British Union of Fascists. We had a couple of the books in our houseRight Ho, Jeeves and Joy in the Morningand I read them dutifully, more bemused than amused.