The writer, broadcaster and satirist Victor Lewis-Smith, who has died aged 65 after a short illness, once climbed the scaffolding outside York Minster in the early hours of the morning. At the top, he stood on a ledge singing Qur’anic invitations to prayer, before being arrested for causing a public disturbance.
Magistrates fined the then music undergraduate £20, and asked if he had anything to say. “Yes,” replied Lewis-Smith. “All my leftwing friends told me they were beaten up by the police when they were in custody. But nothing of the sort happened to me. What am I to tell them when we next meet?”
