Comic grief
From Colin Bostock-Smith Sir: One of the side effects of taking the antimalarial mefloquine, as referred to in these pages recently Mow to scare a US marine', 29 November), is reputed to be bouts of filthy temper — a factor that is alleged to have once nearly ruined the annual effort of that lugubrious charity Comic Relief.
Those who have forced themselves to watch one of the queasy Comic Relief evenings on television will know that it is traditional for a popular 'comedian' to be flown out to somewhere like Ethiopia or the Congo, and be filmed jovially mingling with an enchanting group of semi-starved African kiddiewinks. But apparently the year when mefloquine came on the market, the appointed comedian is said to have taken it as part of his anti-malaria precau
tions, and subsequently had to be physically restrained from turning on his enchanting group of semi-starved African kiddiewinks and knocking their heads together.
Colin Bostock-Smith
Ndola, Zambia.
Previous page
