Branded a traitor and collaborator, but later pardoned by the British government, comic author PG Wodehouse will live long in the memory, as ANDREW WHITE finds out.

IT'S always a shock when somebody you admire is exposed as a sham but, in the case of PG Wodehouse, it was more upsetting than usual. During the Second World War, the acclaimed comic author, who had won universal praise for his numerous books recounting the exploits of such memorable characters as Ukridge, Psmith, Clarence the ninth Earl of Emsworth and, of course, Jeeves and Wooster, made a series of radio broadcasts while he was an intern in Nazi Germany.

Wodehouse maintained that the five broadcasts, which painted a typically light-hearted picture of life as a prisoner, were only meant as an alternative way of keeping his American fans amused.

Starved of his books, they had been lobbying his captors for his release so, according to Wodehouse, the Germans compromised and allowed him to take to the airwaves.

Unsurprisingly, the broadcasts were immediately seized on as pro-Nazi propaganda and Wodehouse was branded a traitor and collaborator.

A later investigation - carried out by Malcolm Muggeridge, then a young officer with British Intelligence - could find no evidence (other than the seemingly obvious) that this was the case, and Wodehouse received an official pardon from the British government.

His status as a respected pillar of the establishment was further consolidated when he was made a Knight of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours List in 1975.

But, whether his actions were those of an innocent abroad or a calculated attempt to save his own skin, the damage to his reputation had already been done.

And, although, perversely enough, sales of his books increased during this turbulent period, anti-Wodehouse feeling in his home country ran high for years afterwards, stoked to boiling point by livid newspaper stories which made him out to be an arch-collaborator.

To this day, there is still some ambiguity as to Wodehouse's true motives. The PG Wodehouse Society (UK) is, naturally enough, convinced of his innocence and has even produced an impressively researched paper with the aim of proving this.

According to this, Wodehouse was captured and interned in Upper Silesia after a chain of events - which could have been lifted direct from the pages of one of his books - prevented him and his wife from leaving France, where they were living as tax exiles at the outbreak of the war.

After being promised early warning of the need to evacuate in case of German invasion - which they apparently never got - the Wodehouses put themselves in further danger by insisting they remain in Le Touquet for the sake of their beloved dogs (who would have been quarantined on arrival in England).

When the urgency of the situation finally hit home and they decided to leave, two car breakdowns stopped them getting away - with the result that they were taken prisoner as the invading German forces swept through France.

An official summary of the paper by the society's executive states: "The German Foreign Office had the idea of gaining favour with the USA, whom they wanted to stay neutral, by releasing Wodehouse a few months early and arranging for him to broadcast to his fans in neutral America.

"There was no deal for him to broadcast in return for freedom. The success of the plan, of which Wodehouse remained completely ignorant, depended on him NOT being viewed as a sympathiser."

The broadcasts, which the society insists were "wholly innocuous", were originally only intended for American ears, but a last-minute decision by the German Ministry of Propaganda meant they were also sent to the UK - with disastrous results.

"The broadcasts were received hysterically in the UK," says the Society. "The tabloid journalist Cassandra obtained the approval of the Minister of Information Duff Cooper to launch a vitriolic tirade against Wodehouse on the BBC."

Files lifted from the German Embassy in Paris after the war contained no evidence that Wodehouse had received payments in return for making the broadcasts, which detractors claimed must have been the case.

Although his name was cleared, Wodehouse spent the rest of his life in self-imposed exile in America. And, while he may have shown no outward signs of bitterness, the anger and even hatred his broadcasts provoked must have deeply wounded the gentle, English-loving author.

The heaviest blow was dealt by his alma mater, Dulwich College, where he was considered such a disgrace his name was erased from the Roll of Honour. In the end, the qualities people so admired in Wodehouse as a person - his innocence and gentleness and his generosity - turned out to be his greatest flaws.

Actor Anton Rodgers, currently playing Wodehouse in a tour of Beyond a Joke, a dramatisation of PG's wartime troubles, sums it up when he says:

"He was a very good man. I don't think he had an evil thought in his head. But he was incredibly privileged and totally out of touch with reality."

Beyond a Joke, starring Anton Rodgers as Wodehouse and Angela Thorne as his wife, Ethel, is at Poole Arts Centre tonight (Saturday, October 7). Box office: 01202 685222.