'huge, queer and tawdry' but 'much admired by the public'

I can't think of that nasty story without being reminded of the Derek and Clive sketch wherein Peter Cook, after running down an old lady, decides, "naturally", to rape her. (There's a particularly D&C twisted brutality in that story, combined with a Cook-esque element of surreal preposterousness to it, all of which made me smirk, which is probably rather wrong of me).