The Unlikely Lads: When Michael Jackson met his comedy hero Benny Hill

The year was 1992. Michael Jackson was still arguably the most famous person on the planet. British comedian Benny Hill, however, was convalescing at London's Royal Brompton Hospital following a heart attack eleven days earlier, his TV show had been canned and two months later he would be dead.

And in this unusual, singular situation, Jackson was the fan.

This unlikely meeting is, exactly thirty years later, the subject of a brand new audio drama, entitled 'When Michael Met Benny'. The piece, written by Jonathan Morris, explores what may have taken place in that room.

"The idea from this came when I saw something on the internet saying 'did you know that Michael Jackson was a huge Benny Hill fan and that they met, and Jackson visited Benny Hill in hospital a few weeks before he died, and there are photos of it?', which just struck me as an incredibly unlikely situation," Morris tells Euronews Culture.

"They were two very, very different people and yet they had this connection. Michael Jackson wasn't just a Benny Hill fan, he adored him. Benny was his favourite comedian in the world. He collected every videotape, he was obsessed by him. So I just thought: there's a play there."

When Michael Met Benny is being released as a free drama podcast by Morris' audio production company, Average Romp. It stars Daniel Anthony as Michael and Phil Nice as Benny.

"It could be the next Frost/Nixon," quips Morris, who has also written for Doctor Who and impersonation favourite Dead Ringers. Indeed, writing convincing narrative voices to portray two such extraordinary stars is no mean feat.

"I wanted to capture the voices of the real people involved. And do so fairly and honestly," Morris explains. "It was particularly difficult with Michael