CAN we laugh during the lockdown? As soon as Springtime for Hitler comes on halfway through Patrick Kielty’s interview with its creator Mel Brooks (Patrick Kielty’s Comedy Heroes, Radio 2, Sunday), it’s impossible not to. Such a sly, knowing and, yes, joyous, slice of comic invention.
Now in his nineties, Brooks remains the consummate storyteller and Kielty, to his credit, lets him get on with it. And so, Brooks reminisces about his days on the Borscht Belt, working with Sid Caesar and Jerry Lewis, his love of Richard Pryor and Billy Connolly and his late wife Anne Bancroft.
Brooks also revealed that he seems to have a photographic memory of every meal ever eaten in his presence. In the case of Alfred Hitchcock, to be fair, it was memorable. “He orders shrimp cocktail, sirloin steak, a baked potato with sour cream and chives, white asparagus and, for dessert, two bowls of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles with a maraschino cherry on top.
“I couldn’t believe it. He says to the head waiter George, ‘I’m still a bit peckish. Do it again.’ I look at my wife. I whisper, ‘Does he mean he wants the same meal again?’ She says, ‘I think so.’ Sure enough.
“He didn’t have the bowls of ice cream.”
One to Look Out For: Three Vicars Talking, Radio 4, 1.30pm, tomorrow
Marking Easter Sunday, the Reverend Richard Coles, Kate Bottley and Giles Fraser in conversation about Easter in the clerical calendar.
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