Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tim Pigott-Smith, Zoe Wanamaker, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Curran McKay, Simon Coury, Robert Cooper, Paul Ritter, Flora Montgomery, Paul Mallon, Niall Cusack, Kevin Trainor, Conor Grimes, Richard Dormer, Ian McElhinney, Paul Kennedy.
P.G. Wodehouse’s writing has never been in question, the writer who works symbolises the passing of one age into the next and who himself can be seen as man, an author out of his time. However for many watching the B.B.C. 4 drama about his the time when he was being ridiculed at best for being naïve in helping the German war effort or at horrifyingly worst, being a propaganda mouth piece in just a similar offensive way as William Joyce or Lord Haw Haw as he was characterised in the media as a repugnant Nazi sympathiser, then Wodehouse In Exile was a well-crafted and sympathetic look at the man who gave Jeeves and Wooster to the world.
Living life as a writer and a tax exile at the outbreak of World War Two, the man tried to ridicule the German army the best way he could, in gentle sarcastic abandonment, an easy task to the writer of witty and stirring one-liners but in the face of such oppression by an army not renowned for its sense of humour, it was inevitable that without his pen or typewriter and being sent to an internment camp for civilian men deep in Germany that the naivety of his situation would come racing to the forefront and would eventually come to represent him fully in British eyes after the war ended.
Portrayed by the excellent screen veteran Tim Pigott-Smith, P.G. Wodehouse’s time during those six years was bought impressively to life. For his many years on television and film, Mr. Pigott-Smith has played some incredible characters and in some classic dramas, from parts in Doctor Who, Escape To Victory with Michael Caine, The Jewel in the Crown and V For Vendetta, it is perhaps with honour to the man that he has arguably never had such a more interesting and superb role in which to immerse himself into. Perfectly cast as the man who was forced away from Britain after the war, Tim Pigott-Smith gave an astonishing portrayal as the author who’s England had long since died but clung onto the belief that all was still well through his writing.
If it was just a single-handed performance then it may have passed away into television obscurity but beside Tim Pigott-Smith was Zoe Wanamaker as his wife and an impressive Julian Rhind-Tutt, who for many years seems to have suffered from being miscast in a lot of television serials but who was magnificent as the post-war Malcolm Muggeridge who’s own life, whilst just as interesting to document, was laid on the line as he aided Wodehouse to prove his innocence in accusations of treachery.
As one-off dramas go, this was a perfect escape for cold spring night and showed that the writer had so much more to him than outdated ideas of life in service.
Ian D. Hall