roderick spode speech roderick spode speech

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. About eight feet high with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster at. [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. But here in 2016, it seems more vital than ever. 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. 174.91.4.148 (talk) 00:49, 10 October 2011 (UTC)Reply[reply]. He does have the Mussolini portrait too, as you say; I think he is meant to be fusion figure showing different types of fascist influences. Spode, based on Mosley, was exposed for his ownership of Eulallie Souers, ladies' underwear makers. Its a novel by one of the finest exponents of the English language at the very top of his game. (The pencilled journal pages can be read in the rare-books room of the British Library.). 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. 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 used to think that this was because it was easier to write the voice of a familiar fool than that of a mastermind. All rights reserved. Wodehouse was always careful for a credible background to his characters. ", Well, you certainly are the most wonderfully woolly baa-lamb that ever stepped., It was a silver cow. While interned, he kept a journal. Later in the story, Spode identifies a different pearl necklace, one belonging to the Liverpudlian socialite Mrs. Trotter, as fake. I Spode, seeing Gussie kiss Emerald Stoker, threatens to break Gussie's neck as well and calls him a libertine. In his memorandum to his masters in London, Sir Patrick showed that he saw no place in this arcadia of mini-skirts and psychedelic ties for the man who had given more pure pleasure to literate English-speakers throughout the world than any other writer then alive. 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. My first encounter with Wodehouse was as a teen-ager, as my hard-of-hearing father stood two feet away from the television, the volume turned up to maximum. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode!' 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. My childhood went like a breeze from start to finish, he wrote, half convincingly. . 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. He was grateful, because his professional pride had been wounded by grumblers saying there wasnt enough. At one point, Wooster tells Sir Roderick: "The trouble . Though, as in the twist of one of his plots, not in the way one might have expected. Photograph by Irving Penn / The Irving Penn Foundation. . The former bank clerk went on to write more than seventy novels and dozens of plays. 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. His reputation in England was partly redeemed by the persuasive efforts of Evelyn Waugh, in a radio broadcast in 1961. Mr Blair would like the world to think that this is a country full of Conran restaurants and cutting-edge artists who dissect cows and pickle them in formaldehyde. 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. I aspired to find the show funny, but didnt, really. He slept. It is hard to know where to begin to explain what a crass judgment that was. One of my favorite characters from 20th century pop fiction is Roderick Spode, also known as Lord Sidcup, from the 1930s series Jeeves and Wooster by P.G. Madeline accepts Spode's proposal. Which book would that be? Ideally clowns like this would be ignored, left to sit alone at the bar or at the park with their handful of deluded acolytes. : 21: The Plot Thickens", "Classic Serial: The Code of The Woosters", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roderick_Spode&oldid=1150150913, Fictional characters based on real people, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Fascist politician and designer of ladies' lingerie, later Earl of Sidcup, This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 16:01. 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. In the television series Endeavour (series five episode four "Colours"), there is a reference to "Spode and Webley" being shot as fascists. The author invites The New Yorker to lunch. 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! Welcome back. He had been smoking tea. 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. The distance of time makes it difficult for students to imagine how the innocuous and honest Wodehouse voice of the broadcasts could get him into so much trouble. Its fortifying and inspiring that Bertie stands up to Spode and so thoroughly trounces him. The only privilege of which he availed himself was paying eighteen marks a month for a typewriter. The two men feature in novels and stories that make up more than a dozen books. 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. Tell him I'm going to break his neck. Spode is also secretly a coward. Perhaps our bigger problem is that all laughter dries in the throat. [8] Despite Spode becoming Lord Sidcup, Bertie usually thinks of him as Spode, at one point addressing him as "Lord Spodecup". There are lots of political fools. 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. By the time he was detained, hed become a beloved national figure. They were nativists, protectionists, longed for dictatorship, and believed that science had their back. Wooster gets into tangles. 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. 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. 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. By the time Spode formed his association, there were no shirts left. British forces had suffered through Dunkirk; London had been firebombed. Humor is a great method for dealing with clowns like these, as Saturday Night Live has recently rediscovered. as if Nature had intended to make a gorilla, and had changed its mind at the last moment, 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.. He was separated from 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. '", 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." This was not unusual for the time. He is also hit in the eye with a potato at a candidate debate in Much Obliged, Jeeves.[16]. by the popliteal unpleasantness. Because he is a butterfly, who toys with women's hearts and throws them away like soiled gloves! Roderick Spode - 8th Earl of Sidcup : He knows why. The snail was on the wing and the lark on the thorn - or, rather, the other way around - and God was in His heaven and all right with the world. The discussion of these antagonisms must therefore necessarily prove fruitless Nothing is more absurd than this belief Rhetorical bombast, music and song resound, banners wave, flowers and colors serve as symbols, and the leaders seek to attach their followers to their own person. Within days, he was asked by the German Foreign Office if he would record some radio broadcasts for American audiences. 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. 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. And then there's Jeeves, the brilliant, hyper-competent valet, who wants his master Bertie to agree to go on an around-the-world cruise. But many English people heard that they happened. "[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. By the way, when you say shorts, you mean shirts, of course. No. Spode, we learn, is the head of the Black Shorts, a group clearly kin to Mussolinis Blackshirts, but hampered by a shortage of shirts. "[4], Like Bertie, Spode had been educated at Oxford; during his time there, he once stole a policeman's helmet. 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. Spode soon wakes up, but is knocked out again, by Emerald. [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". Not by force, or ethical argument, but by knowledge of his secret: he is a co-owner of Eulalie Soeurs, a womens-underwear line. 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!' . Like Seinfeld, Jeeves and Wooster was about nothing but managed compelling cultural commentary that shaped the way a generation saw the world around them. 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. 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". It called Wodehouse a traitor to England, and again claimed that he had engaged in a quid pro quo for his early release. Jeffrey Tucker is a former Director of Content for the Foundation for Economic Education. "Norfolk shall make umbrellas and Suffolk shall produce their handles." Bertie's Aunt Dahlia is a customer at Eulalie Soeurs and remarks that the shop is very popular and successful. [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. , 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. Spoke perfectly captures the bluster, blather, and preposterous intellectual conceit of the interwar aspiring dictator. He is horrified. He was introverted, and, with the exception of schoolboy camaraderie, preferred to be at home, working. A violent man, he threatens to tear Bertie's head off and make him eat it. 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. As for my schooldays. This isnt the time or the place to go into the tragedy of Wodehouses war record, but lets at least grant that he showed a good way forward against home-grown fascists and Hitler alike: you send them up as the rotters they are. Refresh and try again. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. "[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. Camp was really great fun, the English comic novelist P.G.Wodehouse wrote to an old school friend. 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. [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". The Jeeves-and-Wooster stories were made into a television series, which began airing on PBS in 1990. He and his adherents wear black shorts. Footer bags, you mean? Yes. How perfectly foul., It was a silver cow. After being elevated to the peerage, he sells Eulalie Soeurs. And here he is proposing mandatory bicycles and umbrellas for all free-born Britons. and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. Papers released yesterday by the Public Record Office show that Wodehouse was recommended for appointment as a Companion of Honour in 1967. That is where you make your bloomer. Spode is modelled after Sir Oswald Mosley,[17] leader of the British Union of Fascists (19321940), who were nicknamed the Blackshirts. It was the years of not being able to workas opposed to internmentthat must have been the real hell. [14], Although Spode regularly threatens to harm others, he is generally the one who gets injured. . Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'"[19]. 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. 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? 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. Bertie does not learn the true meaning of "Eulalie" until the end of the story. Bitter wind and snow, he writes, in December. [1] He is intensively protective of Sir Watkyn's daughter, Madeline Bassett, having loved her for many years without telling her. Madeline only wants him as long as she can be countess of Sidcup, so she breaks the engagement and engages herself to Bertie instead. That is where you make your bloomer. Wooster and Finknottle disrupt Spode's inspection of his stormtroopers - an occasion that bears witness to a new assertiveness on the part of Finknottle. This page is not available in other languages. 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!" 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.. In real life, Mosley in the UK and Rockwell in the US were a serious menace, as much as the establishments they opposed. Just as important is the fact that Spode has so outraged Berties fundamental sense of decency. 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. And, if he should ask why? Page contents not supported in other languages. It is available from the Guardian bookshop for 7.37. 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. . How utterly hilarious that this was a picture that Our Man in Washington felt he had a mission to "eradicate". First, Spode thinks Gussie is not devoted enough to Madeline, who is engaged to Gussie. 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.. That fantasy would never hold if we heard him tell his own tale. 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. As well as a moral failure, the ascendency of cruel rightwing demagogues is a sense of humour failure. [1] He is intensively protective of Sir Watkyn's daughter, Madeline Bassett, having loved her for many years without telling her. Bertie only finds out about that later when Dahlia tells him about it and how she solved the problem by discovering the cosh Bertie dropped by the safe. and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. Refresh and try again. Such menacing is brought to an end thanks to a typically clever intervention from Jeeves and in one of the most satisfying speeches in the western canon, when Bertie declares: 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 youre someone. When an M.I.5 officer and former barrister, Major Edward Cussen, interviewed Wodehouse, he said that he had wanted to reach out to his Americanpublic, who had written to him and senthim parcels while he was interned. There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, 'Do trousers matter? What the Voice of the People is saying is: 'Look at that frightful ass Spode, swanking about in footer bags! That is what makes his work timeless, and why it will endure long after the Swinging Sixties and Cool Britannia are forgotten. It is often maintained that what divides present-day political parties is a basic opposition in their ultimate philosophical commitments that cannot be settled by rational argument. [11], In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, which takes place at Aunt Dahlia's country house, Brinkley Court, Spode has recently become Lord Sidcup. [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. And isnt it beautiful to see fascists being treated with exactly the contempt they deserve? However, the blackmail plan is unsuccessful, because, as Spode tells Aunt Dahlia, he has sold Eulalie Soeurs. Very few English people heard the broadcasts when they first aired. Some British libraries banned his books. (Webley is another fictional fascist leader, from Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point, and unlike Spode does end up being assassinated.). 2023 Cond Nast. The Code of the Woosters is published by Arrow, priced 8.99. Declining the offer, he shared a cell with sixty-three others. [7] At some point, he leaves the Black Shorts. 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. by P.G. And yet, across time, Wodehouses navet seems the less extraordinary of his qualities. 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. A few weeks later, Connor delivered a BBC broadcast, following the nine-oclock news. Spode is also blackmailed into taking the blame for the theft of Constable Oates's helmet. Wodehouse, and hilariously portrayed in the 1990s TV adaptation starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. (The larger threats are implied.) 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. At one point, Wooster tells Sir Roderick: "The trouble with you, Spode, is that because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of halfwits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. [6] Spode later inherits a title on the death of his uncle, becoming the seventh Earl of Sidcup. I suppose even Dictators have their chummy moments, when they put their feet up and relax with the boys, but it was plain from the outset that if Roderick Spode had a sunnier side, he had not come with any idea of exhibiting it now. Her natural tough-mindedness was schooled and tempered by a fierce devotion to the Communist Party, and in particular to its work for civil rights and civil liberty. 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. They were nativists, protectionists, longed for dictatorship, and believed that science had their back. 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. Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'"[19]. 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. It can be the hardest thing in the world to remember this in the midst of political upheaval and antagonisms. Mosley appeared in The Code of the Woosters, published in 1938, thinly disguised as Sir Roderick Spode, the leader of the "black-shorts". He has crossed a line that has to be held. 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 an "amateur dictator " and the leader of a fictional fascist group in London called The Black Shorts. 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. Spode threatens to beat Bertie to a jelly if he steals the cow-creamer from Sir Watkyn. In one of his very rare forays into politics, he had poked fun at Sir Oswald Mosley's fascist black-shirts. This was a sinister, leering, Underworld sort of animal, the kind that would spit out of the side of its mouth for twopence. 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. Spode threatens to beat Bertie to a jelly if he steals the cow-creamer from Sir Watkyn. We meet Spode at an antique shop; he accuses Wooster first of stealing an umbrella, then of stealing a precious antique. That is where you make your bloomer. 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. They are just dudes who are exploiting public curiosity and fear to gain attention and power. . That Putin is so clearly overcompensating. "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bertie delivers . He has a low opinion of Jeeves's employer Bertie Wooster, whom he believes to be a thief. One favorite plot hinges on a banjolele. 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. Civilian men were normally released at the age of sixty. He gives speeches in support of the Conservative candidate for Market Snodsbury, Harold "Ginger" Winship.