OF THE three deaths of famous people over Easter, the Queen Mother's inevitably took the lion's share of the headlines. But the passing of the comedian Dudley Moore was also well noted, with many glowing tributes.

However, the death of a man whose name will be feted around the world long after these two have faded, slipped by almost unnoticed.

He was the movie director Billy Wilder, whose work represents the best of Hollywood at the peak of its golden era. Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Witness for the Prosecution, Twelve Angry Men, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment - classics all.

What distinguishes Wilder's films is a concern for plot, dialogue and characterisation. Unlike many directors, Wilder never indulged in spectacle or special effects. He told good stories so tautly that you can hardly look away from the screen for a moment without risk of missing a vital word or image.

Wilder's perfectionist concern for language and character was strikingly illustrated when an interviewer quoted to him a famous line by Norma Desmond, the ageing reclusive ex-film star in Sunset Boulevard. "I'm still big. The pictures got smaller.''

"No,'' said Wilder. "The line is: "I AM big. 'Still' would kill it.'' And so it would, for it would suggest that Desmond recognised her day was over.

But what I chiefly want to say about Wilder is that, like many distinguished Americans, he was an immigrant. A Jew born in Galacia, now part of Poland, he could speak only ten words of English when he fled to America from the Nazis in 1933. We really ought to be more tolerant, even welcoming, to the asylum seekers now on our shores.

And down in Cornwall they are - but for quite the wrong reason. Short of pickers for their daffodil crop, they recently asked for asylum-seekers to be released to boost their labour force.

Yet, if some of these workers eventually settled in Cornwall, the cry would go up that they were getting benefits denied local people. Despite being just about the most mongrel race on earth, we British are fundamentally racist. Did you know, by the way, that Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has not only English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish strains in his blood, but also Japanese and Indian?

Last week, I said that the Queen Mother ran up debts of approaching £5m. The figure most usually quoted is £7m. The QM had five houses, six cars, three chauffeurs and five chefs. She also planned every detail of her not-quite-humble funeral. But all this was to serve us, whom she loved dearly and whose lives she so deeply enriched. May she rest in peace.

Due to be replaced by a shorter version, the traditional bobby's helmet will not quite disappear from public view. It will continue to be worn by the duty officer outside No 10 Downing Street. So much for Tony Blair's mission to modernise Britain. But, of course, the decision to keep a traditional-looking copper outside the PM's door is quite right. As the QM's funeral triumphantly demonstrated, a Ruritanian image is now our most marketable asset. Have we any other?

Published:10/04/2002