From the archive, 2 January 1975: Knighthoods for 'exiles' Chaplin and Wodehouse

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/02/new-years-honours-knighthoods-chaplin-wodehouse

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Britain has finally honoured two of the greatest entertainers in our history. In today’s New Year’s Honours List Mr Charles Spencer Chaplin, at the age of 85, and Mr Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, aged 93, become Knight Commanders of the British Empire, and not, as millions all over the world will say, before time.

There is an element of forgiving and forgetting in both honours, since both men were somewhat unexpectedly and very bemusedly involved in unpleasant political controversy at the height of their fame.

Charlie Chaplin was ruthlessly hounded in America in the early fifties for his alleged and deeply obscure Communist sympathies. He always denied these (while admitting to being a Socialist), but in 1953, just after the American Legion had tried to ban his film Limelight, he left the States after 40 years to live in Switzerland. He is still a British citizen.

P.G. Wodehouse found himself vilified in Britain during the war after a series of five lighthearted radio broadcasts made in Berlin just after he had been released from internment by the Germans in 1941.

He was bitterly attacked in a campaign led by Duff Cooper, then Minister of Information, and even now there are people who believe that the broadcasts - which contained no politics or propaganda - were part of a deal with the Germans for his release.

At his home in Long Island yesterday, Mr Wodehouse said of the controversy over the broadcasts: “There’s no bitterness on my part. But I think they might not have had trial by newspaper. You could understand it though. You must remember the times.

“It came as a great surprise to me. You see, I knew how perfectly harmless my broadcasts were. Feeling was pretty high, but it gradually eased off.”

Referring to his knighthood, he said: “I may go to the British Embassy in Washington to receive the award. But I understand that there all they do is pin a ribbon on you.”

Other honours include five life peerages: Sir William Armstrong, the former head of the Civil Service; Mr Patrick Gibson, the chairman of the Arts Council; Sir Derek Pritchard, the president of the Institute of Directors; Sir Rudy Sternberg, Chairman of the Sterling group of companies and a personal friend of the Prime Minister; and Mr David Pitt, the coloured chairman of the Greater London Council.