Overview
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. 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 leaves the group after he inherits his title.
He has a low opinion of Jeeves's employer Bertie Wooster, whom he believes to be a thief. 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.
Life and character
Spode is a friend of Sir Watkyn Bassett, being the nephew of Sir Watkyn's fiancée Mrs. Wintergreen in The Code of the Woosters, though she is not mentioned again. He is intensively protective of Sir Watkyn's daughter, Madeline Bassett, having loved her for many years without telling her. A violent man, he threatens to tear Bertie's head off and make him eat it. Spode is a large and intimidating figure, with a powerful, square face. When he first sees Spode, Bertie describes him:
In Bertie's eyes, Spode starts at seven feet tall, and seems to grow in height, eventually becoming nine feet seven. Bertie immediately thinks of Spode as "the Dictator" even before he learns of Spode's political ambitions. 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." 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. 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."
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