19 MAY 2007, Page 24

Daft mistake

Sir: Roy Hattersley (Letter from Arcadia, 12 May) has his mid-20th century comedians confused. The ‘over the garden wall’ comic was not Albert Modley. It was the brilliant Norman Evans, the finest panto dame of his time. Albert Modley, in the shade of a huge cloth cap, sat behind a drum kit, imitated a Blackpool tram, and inquired of his audiences: ‘Isn’t it grand to be daft?’ They usually agreed that it was.

John Stevenson Cheshire