Benjamin Dreyer: With apologies to anyone who read this piece when it was fresh off the presses a few hours ago, I'd never have forgiven myself had I not added a couple of choice, if not necessarily relevant, Ernest Thesiger anecdotes. (Though can an Ernest Thesiger anecdote be other than relevant?)

With apologies to anyone who read this piece when it was fresh off the presses a few hours ago, I'd never have forgiven myself had I not added a couple of choice, if not necessarily relevant, Ernest Thesiger anecdotes. (Though can an Ernest Thesiger anecdote be other than relevant?)

Have a potato.open.substack.com [a bit of a meander]

[cc @tomasjmurray.bsky.social]

I have been up since three; you might imagine why. I’m running on fumes. Bless your sweet sweet heart, B. Also re ET: “[He] was getting off a bus with his shopping when the doors closed on him. He immediately cried, ‘Stop! Stop! You are killing a genius!’” (Kenneth Williams)

❤️

Speaking of Kenneth Williams and buses, I do recall the day at the other place when I was speaking of Williams and my affection for him (and perhaps asked if anyone there actually knew him?) and Nigella Lawson mentioned that she'd once ridden on a bus with him. I mean: 😳

And she remembered which bus, too.

It wouldn’t be right not to go back for seconds.

I would love an anecdote that explains why Thesiger is styled to look pretty much exactly like Bertrand Russell in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, other than Russell was the world’s most famous atheist?

I mean…

“Oh, you know those atheists, if you don’t keep your eye on them they’ll be growing ballerinas in bell jars!”

‘To the manor born’ is surely only a pun coined for the Penelope Keith sitcom. I’ve not seen it used elsewhere.

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