i've just been listening to "an audience with kenneth williams" (the lovely thing about audio recordings is that you can listen while you work, whereas you couldn't while watching a tv program.) and he finished by doing something charlotte mitchell once did on the goon show, which was to string a lot of words - french words which have come into the english language - all together and performed it all to a highly exaggerated version of auld lang syne. it sounded simply terrific, and of course he was wonderfully showy about it, but all he was saying was (in a typical line): fiance enfant espionage reconnaisance camembert! mayonnaise pince-nez bandinage lingerie mirage!

(charlotte mitchell played a hysterical tear-jerk love scene in french by saying only things like defense de fumer! defense de cracher! la plume de ma tante a cote de la mer! and so on and on. it is one of my favourite episodes ever.)