Film: Double Bill

Rik Mayall, Star Of Guesthouse Paradiso, Released On December 3, On His Ideal Cinematic Pairing

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953)

I would like to watch Casablanca for every reason there was to make that film, and because of who was in it - Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains. No wonder they were nominated for so many Oscars. I love the way it's lit and the way it switches genres throughout.

I've got many favourites, though - like Sir Henry At Rawlinson's End, with Vivian Stanshall. It's so weird and strange. I think it began as radio sketches on the John Peel Show, became an album, a stage show, then a film. Vivian never quite fitted in, particularly when doing rock'n'roll in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He was middle class but trying to be groovy.

The choice is so difficult, sometimes it's to do with when you saw the film and what happened when you saw it. But I would pick Monsieur Hulot's Holiday. I'd happily watch Jacques Tati in anything. I'd happily watch him walk in this room and sit down.

I especially like the fireworks sequence in the hut - it's so brilliant when he's trying to get water from the sprinkler to put the fire out. I hope Ade [Edmonson] and I carry on in that European tradition, of Tati, Chaplin and Tommy Cooper: an accident-prone character - all that apparent incompetence - hiding a supreme performance.