Anthony Burgess gave the address at Benny Hill's memorial service

You'll never guess who gave the address at Benny Hill's memorial service.

Well you will because you've just read the headline, but it is still a remarkable piece of trivia. Indeed, it's my Trivial Fact of the Day.

I was put on to it by Jonathan Meades and The International Anthony Burgess Foundation has more:

Burgess was introduced to Benny Hill through his brother Lenny Hill, with whom he shared a literary agent. They met occasionally for dinner in London until Benny Hill’s death in 1992. 

Burgess admired Benny Hill’s bawdy style of visual comedy, and he claimed that Hill was a great English comedian in the tradition of William Hogarth, James Gillray and Donald MacGill. When he learned of Benny Hill’s death, Burgess said: ‘The gaiety of nations is dimmed,’ quoting Samuel Johnson’s words on the death of David Garrick.

It also says Burgess's address was recorded and played on the BBC television news.

Horrorshow.