Was in HK when Peter Ustinov came out to give a show....had met him at Uni when he came up, guest of Frank Muir, who I sponsored to become rector.
He told a story that grabbed us as we had been there on honeymoon.
Was in Ireland, going to a small place called Kanturk. You know what it's like (this was pre-sat nav) - it's easy to find the town, the last two or three miles to find the location, this time the Assolas Manor hotel, is the difficult bit. And we men are loathed to stop, wind down the window and ask someone....
Anyway, coming down the mainstreet in Kanturk on a Sunday pm, you could have fired a machine gun off and been lucky to hit a stray dog, that quiet it was. I see an old codger, pull the car up in front of him, wind down the window and ask, "Excuse me Sir, do you know the way to the Assolas Manor?"
He scratches his head, looks vacant and ponders, eventually a reply, "No - I;m afraid I don't (in a rich Irish brogue).
I wind the window up and move down the road. Some 60-70 yards down, I look in the mirror and there's a second old codger out in the road with him, both waving for me to come back.
So I do, another lowering of the window.
The first bloke leans in and says, "I'd just like yer ta knae, ma brother doesn't knae either."