Sense of humour is not always a laughing matter T

HE trouble with having a sense of humour is that it almost always gets its possessor into trouble at some point. This was certainly true for one of our best-loved comic writers, PG Wodehouse, the creator of the Jeeves and Wooster stories.

His misfortune was not to return to England immediately after the Nazis invaded France but to stay put as he and his wife Ethel quickly found their escape route was cut off.

At first all was well. Although he had been sent to prison under the internment regulations, he was fortunate that his captor was the liberal-minded Lagerfuhrer Buchelt who kindly allowed him a quiet place in which to write. But inevitably news leaked out, and an American journalist secured an interview which was published in December 1940. It also led to an article by Wodehouse for the Sunday Evening Post. There is a time and a place for the light touch but this was spectacularly not it. Entitled: ‘My War with Germany’ it read: “There is a good deal to be said for internment. It keeps you out of the saloon and helps you to keep up with your reading. “The chief trouble is that it means you are away from home for a long time. When I join my wife I had better take along a letter of introduction to be on the safe side.”

Ultimately, the Germans realised what a propaganda gift they had under their noses and poor Wodehouse ended up digging himself into a huge hole with his broadcasts, making it appear as though foreign prisoners were being treated humanely and thereby aiding the Nazis’ determined effort to keep the US out of the war.

Although an official later report exonerated Wodehouse, it condemned him as politically naive – “susceptible to any form of flattery”. Despite this he felt an outcast and settled in the US never to return.

On Wednesday BBC Radio ran a report saying that after all these years he had finally been vindicated of all charges relating to Nazi collaboration.

Cold comfort now I am sure.