adicktuckWhen I had to make my speech to the Belgian Fondation Universitaire some ten days ago, I wanted to use the saying ‘the people have spoken, the bastards’, and so I googled it, as one does, and discovered that its original author was Dick Tuck, back in 1964. I then looked up Tuck on Wikipedia (as one does) and discovered that this man, who is apparently still alive, was a great political prankster. He seemed to take particular delight in playing tricks on Richard Nixon. One of these, in 1950, involved hiring a big auditorium and inviting Nixon,  who was running for Congress, to speak. When Nixon arrived, however, he found the hall virtually empty, and Tuck deliberately gave a long-winded speech to introduce the candidate. Now, if they can make a film about Charlie Wilson’s war, and if they can make a film about David Frost and Richard Nixon, surely they must be able to make a film about Dick Tuck? You can read about him here.