Sitcommunism

A very interesting talk on Creative Writing Saturday with Ray Allen, the man who wrote Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and later wrote for, erm, Jimmy Cricket and stuck the oohs and aahs in Frankie Howerd's (steady on now) dialogue. Plenty of witty anecdotes from Mr Allen about working with Michael Crawford and once giving dictation to Mr Howerd from an Isle of Wight call box, where a queue of frustrated telephone wannausers heard half-an-hour of oohs, aahs and titter-me-nots. Mr Allen himself was great (minutae fans: he ate scampi and chips for lunch and looked a bit like Charles Laughton as he did so) but my growing band of nemesises on the second year (what's the plural of nemesis? Nemesi? Nemelux? No matter, I'm quickly acquiring them) seemed determined to shroud Ray from the evil eyes of us first years. They quite clearly were the superior group and so of course could dazzle Ray with their comedy chops. Which lead me to coin the word sitcommunism and pitch an idea for a sitcom in the former Soviet bloc. Ray preffered the Vicar of Dibley, sadly and glazed over when I started talking about Curb Your Enthusiasm.