This being soporific August - with deals being done, but the engines stilled - it seemed like a good idea the other day to listen again to Peter Ustinov's sublime 'Grand Prix of Gibraltar': I may have known it word for word since childhood, but, as with 'Fawlty Towers' or 'Frasier', unfailingly it makes me laugh anew.
Recorded off the cuff - Ustinov had no script, preferring to 'wing it' - in a single afternoon in New York, it is an affectionately satirical take on grand prix racing, and if it were created 60 years ago, trust me, there remain echoes of it in the Formula 1 of today.
Ustinov, who loved racing all his life, had a genius for mimicry, and here he gives it full rein, gently mocking the team personnel in the paddock, amplifying the perceived characteristics of each nationality. The British are self-effacing, the French laidback, the Italians chaotic, the Germans meticulous, and like that.