Groucho Marx steals show at audition for Saddam lookalikes

Father Brown – G K Chesterton's masterful detective – once observed: "Where does a wise man kick a pebble? On the beach. Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In the forest," and similarly, should Saddam Hussein now wish to lie low there should be no better hiding place than an audition for Saddam lookalikes.

The flaw in this argument became clear at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith yesterday where auditions were being held for a Saddam to appear in a new satirical play by Alistair Beaton, Follow My Leader, which will open in the West End this summer.

Outside the studios, dressed in combat jackets and berets and surrounded by microphones, cameras and notebooks, there was every variety of man but you would not have believed that so many people, trying hard to look exactly the same, could look so different. I spotted an Omar Sharif, a P J O'Rourke, and a Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Beatles phase). If the real Saddam had turned up, he would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Few auditioning were professional actors (several were journalists – one each from The Guardian and The Mirror, and supposedly two from Richard and Judy).

Proceedings moved indoors to the Riverside Cinema, for the public part of the audition – walking into the centre of the auditorium, waving and smiling dictatorially. The director, Geoff Posner – best known for The Young Ones and Dinnerladies – tried to engender an air of professionalism but with limited success. He later professed himself bemused by the number of Groucho Marx lookalikes, but said he had been particularly impressed by one.

Most spectators assumed he meant Michael Hyatt, who combined genuine gravitas with the advantage of a real, if dyed, moustache. The recently retired Mr Hyatt, from east London, said he regarded the prospect of playing Saddam as "an alternative to the day-centre and the public library", but was not sure that he was pleased to be told he looked like a notorious dictator: "I'd like to be told I look a bit like Saddam Hussein."

Meanwhile, if the real Saddam is looking to earn some spare cash, he knows where to apply.