Boisterous cinematic vaudeville brag is comprised of five distinct sections: the 2001 send up Come to mind of Man, The Stone Discretion, featuring Brooks’ acid observe on the role of the art critic, and a temporary ‘Old Testament’ whit, which together run 10 minutes; The Roman Empire, the finery-unchanging and, at 43 minutes, longest episode; The Spanish Inquisition, a splashy nine-minute drama number; The French Revolution, a rather namby-pamby 24-flash sketch; and Coming Attractions which, with put paid to credits, runs six minutes and at least punches up the finale with the hilarious Jews in Space inter-galactic mellifluous action number.

Although Monty Python’s Life of Brian went well beyond Brooks in the blasphemy department, many of the pic’s most successful gags poke holes in religious pieties. When Brooks as Moses comes down from the mountain, he’s carrying three tablets. Frightened by a lightning blast, he drops one of them and quickly switches to 10 commandments instead of 15.

The one interlude which really brings down the house has Brooks working as a waiter at the Last Supper and asking the assembled group. ‘Are you all together or is it separate checks?’

As the old ad line said, there’s something here to offend everybody, particularly the devout of all persuasions and homosexuals.