Andy Miller

It's probably not into the Ballad of Reading Jail, but even there.

And he wrote it in prison.

I know.

This is Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys speaking in the late 1990s about why we were talking about Wilde 25 years ago and why we're talking about him now.

What do you think?

I mean, I'm not seeking to cause a 25-year late fight with Neil Tennant.

I should say in the program maker's defense, they follow that little clip of Neil Tennant talking by playing David Bowie's rock and roll suits, which I think is where he was heading from.

So I thought it would be nice if you said, Stephen, that you know 1900.

wild was nothing and well the good news is that in 1923 he returned via the offices of a medium called hester travers smith and she published a book called psychic messages from oscar wilde wow which i can tell you i i'm no i'm no expert but i i question the veracity

You cynic, you unspoiled sceptical.

146 pages of pseudo-Wildian wit.

Great.

Or Wildian pseudo-wit.

Anyway.

But this being the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses by James Joyce, and when this episode goes out, it will be very close to Bloomsday.

I noticed that one of the questions the medium asked Oscar in 1922 or three was, what is your opinion of Ulysses by James Joyce?

I thought we might end by hearing that.

This is what Oscar Wilde thought, Oscar Wilde, quote unquote, thought of Ulysses.

Yes, I have smeared my fingers with that vast work.

It is...