One of the great aims of modern journalism is the celebrity interview. So Downside Abbey is to be congratulated on a scoop in arranging for St Benedict, founder of the Benedictine order, to be quizzed by a boy at their school. No explanation is given about how this might have been achieved, since the saint died 1,500 years ago.
But this does not bother the interviewer, Peter, who is polite, faintly patronising and assuredly ignorant. He begins by saying that he has occasionally seen the saint around the school but never realised that he was more than just a statue or icon, and could speak. Inviting him to say something, the saint replies: “Benedic.”
