Roger Woddis (17 May 1917 – 16 July 1993) was a British writer and humorous

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. One of his most famous poems, ''Ethics for Everyman'', deals with double-morality of ethical principles. His early writing career included some involvement with

Unity Theatre, London Unity Theatre was a theatre club which existed between 1936-1994, and was initially based in St Judes Hall, Britannia Street, Somers Town, London, NW1. In 1937, it moved to a former chapel in Goldington Street, also in Somers Town, an area whic ...

, where he contributed material to a number of revues. His poetry featured regularly in ''Radio Times'' and other periodicals in the 1970s. During much of the 1980s and early '90s, he had his own weekly poem in the humour magazine '' Punch'': titled "Subverse". This consisted each week of a humorously subversive political poem, often dealing with recent events. He was also ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

s weekly poet from 1970 until months before his death, following in the footsteps of 'Macflecknoe'; '

Sagittarius Sagittarius ( ) may refer to: *Sagittarius (constellation) *Sagittarius (astrology), a sign of the Zodiac * Sagittarius of Gap, a 6th century bishop *Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy Ships *'' S ...

' (Olga Katzin); and Reginald Reynolds; and succeeded by Bill Greenwell. His poems featured topics such as the Vietnam war, miners strikes, and apartheid. He also wrote for television, including an episode of ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a British television series created by Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan portrays Number Six (The Prisoner), Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a The Village (The Prisoner), mysteri ...

'' ("

Hammer into Anvil "Hammer into Anvil" is an episode of the allegorical British science fiction TV series ''The Prisoner''. Written by Roger Woddis and directed by Pat Jackson, it was the twelfth episode produced. It was the tenth episode to be broadcast in the ...

", 1967) which is generally considered the most literate episode of the series: several pieces of classical music figure are used in the plot, where one character quotes

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

in the original German, and another character quotes from ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' in the original Spanish. He also wrote episodes for the

Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Ca ...

and

Churchill's People ''Churchill's People'' is a series of 26 historical dramas produced by the BBC, based on Winston Churchill's '' A History of the English-Speaking Peoples''. They were first broadcast on BBC1 in 1974 and 1975. It was produced to mark the centena ...

. Much of Woddis's writing was openly sympathetic to

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

political causes, including

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. Woddis's obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' confirmed that he had been a member of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

. His poems include ''Ethics for Everyman'' and ''Down with Fanatics''. His collections include 'Lot 71' (1971), 'Sex Guyed' (with Arthur Horner, 1973), 'The Woddis Collection' (1978), 'God's Worried' (1983), 'Funny Old World' (with Steve Bell, 1991), and the posthumous 'One Over The Eighties' (1994). He also recorded

The Elephant Song ''The Elephant Song'' is a Canadian stage play by Nicolas Billon, first presented in 2002 and since performed across Canada and around the world. There is also a film adaptation of the play, released in 2014. History ''The Elephant Song'', by Can ...

in 1975. Woddis was married to Joan Hobson and they had two children; they later divorced.

References

External links

Obituary
in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''
IMDb entry
1917 births 1993 deaths British poets British television writers Communist Party of Great Britain members 20th-century British screenwriters {{UK-screenwriter-stub