[Bluecortina]

Once he put the costume on he was Dame Edna and Barry Humphries simply did not exist and no-one referred to him as Barry.

We were in the canteen one evening and Barry himself came into the canteen for his evening meal. He was joined by some of the production crew and he got a bit noisy and flamboyant. Being engineers sat nearby we just wanted to eat our meal in peace. Whilst Barry was in full flow I turned round and simply looked at him. Our eyes met and I instantly knew I'd made a big big mistake and waited for the inevitable invective. It didn't come and I think he got the message and calmed it down.

I still break out in a sweat when I think about it after all these years.