Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright

Who they are

Claude Cattermole Potter-Pirbright, usually Catsmeat, is a Drones Club man whose professional life as an actor makes him especially valuable when a Wodehouse plot demands an assumed identity. He is an old school friend of Bertie’s and has an ease of performance that Bertie, even at his most confident, cannot match. The long name itself sounds like a club anecdote waiting to happen. His direct appearances span Drones stories and the Jeeves world, so a single series label would conceal part of the pleasure of following him.

Catsmeat is first directly present in The Masked Troubadour, a 1936 story later placed in the British Lord Emsworth and Others. It is a mixed book; its title should not send a reader to the tale expecting an Emsworth plot. Earlier mentions can establish a person in the fictional world before the story puts him on stage. The Mating Season gives him a larger role in a novel where disguises and the Deverill Hall company make an actor a particularly useful friend.

Personality and relationships

Bertie is a former schoolmate and a friend who can be recruited to help someone else. Freddie Widgeon and other Drones know the same club world. Catsmeat’s sister Corky is also an actress; that family connection gives performance a place in the character’s life beyond a convenient trick for one scene. Gertrude Winkworth’s presence in The Mating Season ties his own romantic concern to the already crowded household.

His professional skill does not guarantee that every impersonation will remain under control. It may solve one social obstacle and create several others. That is why he works so well beside Bertie, whose loyalty can lead him into a part he was never equipped to play. Catsmeat’s confidence is a comic resource, but the stories keep the cost of a wrong audience or unexpected arrival in view. The friendship is more persuasive for those risks.

Best books and memorable moments

On screen

John Elmes portrayed Catsmeat in an ITV Jeeves and Wooster episode; Kenneth Fortescue played him in What Ho, Jeeves! radio episodes. Cast and production record. Compare Wodehouse screen, stage and radio versions.