"Chris Clarkson is one of the best living statues in the business. In fact, he represented Britain at last year's World Statue Championships in Holland (this year's is due to take place at the end of the month).

He got the idea for his Greek statue which pours water from a local garden centre. 'At the Championships,' Clarkson says, 'two kids walked up to me wanting to be splashed. I got them a few times and built up a nice crowd of 50 or so people. But then their dad walked up to collect them.'

At this point, it's worth pointing out that living statues can't move their eyes. They are, after all, statues. So, they wear sunglasses (which the purists think of as cheating) or they focus on a fixed point until it's time to change position. All they can see clearly is what they focus on - everything else is peripheral. 'Many a time I've thought a short 30 year-old was a 10 year-old, and vice versa,' Clarkson says. Which accounts for his confusion over the 'dad'.

'Anyway,' he explains, 'I reckoned I could get a roar from the audience if I splashed the dad as well as the kids. So I turned around on my plinth and poured water all over him. However, as I rotated, I saw him clearly. He wasn't the boys' dad - he was a policeman. For a brief moment I thought I was going to end up in a Dutch prison, but he laughed - after the shock of the cold water had sunk in. The audience loved it and I made a small fortune in euros.'"