Ben Jonson will appear a line after a popular instant coffee blend has been mentioned, Dante will be found next to a mime artist, MarcelMarceau, and Lawes himself figures auditioning for Ronnie Scott.
Parts of all this went into the making of him, as well as the imaginings of the young MarcelMarceau, in Strasbourg in the 1930s, trying on his father's long trousers and contorting his body to make his friends laugh.