The band ‘Spandau Ballet’ got their name from some graffiti on a Berlin nightclub wall in the 70s. The writing read: 'Rudolf Hess, all alone, dancing the Spandau Ballet.' Spandau was a prison in the city, infamous for holding Hess, Hitler's deputy, until his death in 1987. The ‘Spandau ballet’ was the nickname given to the swinging, twitching movement of a hanging body.

Incidentally, though, it appears the phrase is even older, and was coined during the Second World War. 'Spandau' was the manufacturer of Nazi machine guns. When that weapon was rapidly fired at somebody’s shins, targets would dance around, which became known as…