"It's not easy being a woman," he lamented.  It was a real drag for Nigel, famous as the hippie Neil in the hilarious TV series, The Young Ones.  But it was being done in a good cause.  Making us laugh some more.

 

He is acting in a movie called The Supergrass with stars from TV's loony mirth machine, The Comic Strip.  It is being filmed on location in London and Devon, and Nigel plays the mother of a delinquent family, the Johnsons.

 

A statuesque mother.  Nigel stands six feet three inches - without his high heels.  He said:  "When we were in Devon they put all this thick foamy stuff on my legs to get rid of my hair.  It smelled disgusting.  The next day I was walking down the cliffside and my skin was rubbing against my jeans.  It felt like I'd got rats up my legs. 

 

"Once some tourists came up to me and askedme the way to somewhere.  I was in full costume.  I'm sure they thought I was a transvestite about to have a sex change.  They always seem to be big, hefty blokes who have that operation, don't they?

 

"Mind you, it's very good for the posture, being a woman.  you have to stand straight like a soldier.  Well, I have to, anyway, to make my boobs stick out in the right way."

 

The Supergrass has a crazy plot which doesn't so much thicken as congeal into confusion and absurdity.  Quite as you would expect from The Comic Strip's previous creations, such as Five Go Mad in Dorset and The Bad News Tour.

 

Adrian Edmondson, the revolting Vyvian in The Young Ones, plays Dennis.  He is a lovable if idiotic 25-year old virgin who falls for the charms of a world-weary 15-year old called Andrea (Dawn French).  In order to impress her, Dennis tells Andrea about his daring life as a drug smuggler.

 

Unfortunately for him, he is overheard by a couple of coppers.  Enter Commander Robertson.  He is played by Ronald Allen of Crossroads fame.  Allen was also the gay villain, Uncle Quentin, in Five Go Mad in Dorset.