Bitter-sweet, touching and funny, The Naked Civil Servant (1975), a biopic of the late Quentin Crisp (“one of the stately homos of England”) starring John Hurt was, and is, one of the gems of British television drama.

Naked civil servants, alas, are not what they were: the Guardian is reporting that “Civil servants who were supposed to be administering the government’s much-criticised farm subsidies system have been taking part in ‘depraved’ office pranks such as leaping naked from filing cabinets. The beleaguered Rural Payment Agency has begun an investigation into the behaviour of its staff at its Newcastle office, which allegedly included leaving cups of vomit in cupboards, taking drugs, having sex in toilets and holding breakdancing competitions during office hours.”

After a not entirely respectable early life, Quentin Crisp, by contrast, generally contented himself with a few good jokes, of which the best may have been his appearance in an “alternative” Queen’s Christmas television broadcast in which, if I remember correctly, he urged the British people to get out while there was still time – and move to America.

Not bad advice, now I come to think of it.