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British movie 'face' and Lovejoy costar Dudley Sutton says he has had an addiction to excitement ever since the Germans bombed his area during the war and he hid under the table. His mother said if they went down into the shelter they would meet the wrong sort of people.

He went to a public school but, to deprogramme himself, he joined the RAF in the ranks as an engine mechanic only to be charged with and found guilty of reading, something much disapproved-of by the authorities. In Fifties Soho, he found that existentialism was a very good excuse for lying around doing nothing except read Camus and Sartre.

In this whimsical collection of humorous poems and anecdotes, there is a wonderful description of Sixties London as a black and white city because of pea-souper fogs and uncleaned sooty buildings. There is a jolly poem about gents' toilets in tribute to
Dudley's chum Joe Orton, a reference to Tony Blair being Scotland's revenge on England for Culloden and a passionate attack on state restriction on freedom called Following The Twin Towers. 'Who would ever have thought," asks Dudley, 'that we would now be looking to the Lords to protect us from the Commons.'

Charming, talented, lightly humorous and a joy - that's Dudley Sutton. And if you doubt Dudley's comedy credentials, Barry Cryer was in the audience laughing along, as an ardent fan.

I enjoyed Dudley's wonderful 2003 show Killing Kittens, too. Someone should publish his autobiography. This is a 73-year-old who has lived it all and knew 'em all.

John Fleming