The truth about P.G. Wodehouse: Robert Daws on playing England's greatest comic writer

Anyone who loves PG Wodehouse knows Jeeves and Wooster, Blandings Castle and the Oldest Member golf stories.

But what of the man himself? His early life as a sensation on Broadway? His extraordinary seven-days-a-week work ethic? The truth about his attempts to flee the Nazis, scuppered by an unreliable car, before he was interned and pressured into making wartime broadcasts for the German regime? His later life in the US, and his sadness at never returning to the UK — even to collect his eventual knighthood?

These are some of the things that fuelled a conversation a decade ago between Robert Daws and Stephen Fry, which set Daws off on a road that will lead him to the stage at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh this summer, playing the role of P.G. Wodehouse in a one-man show, Wodehouse in Wonderland.

'Stephen mentioned that very few people know anything about P.G. Wodehouse the writer,' he said. 'They might know about the scandal around him in the Second World War, but apart from that, not really anything. And we thought there should be something.'

That led to Daws speaking to William Humble, a friend, collaborator, screenwriter and playwright who happened to have been working on an unproduced screenplay about Wodehouse. The play Wodehouse in Wonderland was ready within weeks, went on tour a couple of years ago, and is now back on stage at the Edinburgh festival to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Wodehouse's death.

We're delighted that Robert was able to join us on the Country Life Podcast to talk about Wodehouse's life and career, from his little-known start as a writer of smash-hit shows on Broadway — he was a huge success before he wrote a single word about Jeeves and Wooster — through to his final years living in the US.

Wodehouse in Wonderland is at Tabard in London from July 20-22 and at The Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh from July 30 to August 25, 2025.

Episode credits

Host, editor and producer: Toby Keel

Guest: Robert Daws

Music: JuliusH via Pixabay

Back next week: James Fisher