Talking to the Observer last year after the release of his latest film, Magic in the Moonlight starring Colin Firth, Allen said: "It's hard to find a story with a good beginning, middle and end that'll be entertaining to an audience.
If politicians are entertaining they've got more leeway to make big policy decisions because everyone's diverted by the show".
Most of the ridiculousness went against me, but it never failed to be entertaining.
Finally, Disraeli: or the Two Lives by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) is half the length of the usual political biography, and twice as entertaining.
Some winners of premium rate phone-in competitions were chosen based on whether they might make "entertaining" contestants, according to a scathing investigation by Deloitte.
And while the captain admits he may have been too conservative in the past, he believes attacking players such as Ben Stokes, who scored an 85-ball century in that win, will naturally see England's style of cricket become entertaining.
Winners of premium rate phone-in competitions on shows fronted by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly were chosen based on whether they might make "entertaining" contestants, according to the Deloitte report published today.
He's one of the foremost authors on James Bond, able therefore to explain to me the meaning of A Quantum of Solace and happy to regale me with wealth of entertaining stories over a Bloody Mary (or nine).
A fierce and (to me, anyway) entertaining imagination, a sense of humour (I never minded being laughed at) and a healthy dollop of optimism meant I would have called myself happy.
It was fantastically entertaining in a comically dirty sort of way, but also pretty awful.
It amused the crowd no end: the series against England is likely to prove equally entertaining.
