could see (though not as clearly as I do now) that one of my biggest problems was me. Because I wanted everyone to like me and to approve of me, I tried to be nice to everyone all the time and this proved a remarkably efficient way of losing control over my life. Connie noticed this very quickly. After we’d been in London a few months, she gave me

In addition, Peter helped me to edit what I had written, removing whatever ‘fat’ my dialogue had on it, whether it was a repetition, a redundant phrase, an unnecessary adjective – even a single syllable. I’d half-realised some of this, but not the ruthlessness it required.

I certainly liked New York, and I loved the feeling of freedom it gave me. It’s hard to explain, but I felt anonymous in a way that was completely liberating. Why

All in all, my diligence gave me a false sense of not having much time spare to explore Cambridge life.

In addition to the sketches Graham and I wrote for the show, Connie helped me with a couple, the first time we had ever worked together. One of them drew on her amusement at the way in which the English upper class avoided the pronoun ‘I’, as though there were something vulgar about using it. I’d already noticed that using ‘one’ instead of ‘I’

‘Yis,’ she said. ‘But I ordered Colonial Goose.’ ‘Colonial Goose is lamb,’ she explained.

politeness and inability to shake off people who were being a pest, had developed an annoying habit since his arrival. Every morning, after we arrived at the beach, he would wander off on his own, chatting to people at random, until he came across someone – always a man – whom he judged to be outstandingly boring. He would talk to them until he had

Once Alan had picked Tim and me up at Brussels airport we began driving south (they wouldn’t allow me behind the wheel), all three of us full of high spirits, playing up the role of young English gentlemen abroad. We wore panama hats, I had on a cricket shirt and a cravat, and as Alan drove the first leg of our journey, Tim and I did a lot of

The one and only sketch Graham and I wrote for the show that, judging from internet viewings, has stood the test of time concerns two airline pilots who become so bored on a long-haul flight that they decide to amuse themselves by making ambiguous announcements to frighten their passengers: Captain (John Cleese): (over intercom) ‘Hello, this is