Has anyone else been enjoying the Round the Horne episodes that are available on the BBC site at the moment? If you haven’t been listening, then have a vada at the link below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c7q4l/episodes/player
The show of course is very British, or perhaps that should be British as British was in the late 1960s. A lot of the humour is double entendres or allusions to risque (that’s your actual French) behaviour being performed by someone on someone else, somewhere, hopefully at a safe distance from your living room. I think niscum makes a good point over on the “Is this funny?” thread,about comedy not necessarily aging well and perhaps to really enjoy this show you have to meet it half way. Imagine it’s the late 60s and you’re listening to this on the Binatone radio while eating your Vesta curry.
And then there’s Kenneth Williams. One thing the show demonstrates is how powerful radio can be as a medium for comedy if you have performers with great technical ability, and I’m continually impressed by just how good Williams was. Whether he’s rolling out the polari as Sandy or singing about being stung in the nurdles as Rambling Sid Rumpo, or just interjecting a well-timed “Hmmm” during one of Horne’s monologues.
And finally, I’m surprised at how, well, knowing the show was. At the start of the final episode of the third series Horne, in an end-of-term mood, makes fun of each of his cast members in turn. For Kenneth Williams, he tells a story that has a punchline involving Williams getting someone’s daughter “in trouble”. Among the audience’s laughter we can hear Williams’ mocking and derisive cackling at the very thought. Everyone was in on it.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/336×189/p01lcrgm.jpg
Went through a listening binge a few years back. It has stood up remarkably well but what surprised me most was the fact that RTH was firmly mainstream (130 on a Sunday afternoon after Family Favourites) yet chock full of risque sexual banter and innuendo.
First time round in the 60s most of that went completely over the head of this simple teenage lad from the North of Scotland – I suspect I was not alone in my naivety.
I’m sure a lot of the innuendo would have, such as the famous line in the routine where Julian and Sandy were lawyers: “We’ve got a criminal practice that takes up most of our time”.
Some of it is more full-on though, like the references to the over 80s nudist leap-frogging team.
I was glued to the radio every Sunday. The radio was in the room where we had Sunday lunch, so I was always desperate to get it over and done with – no doubt for reasons of his own my dad refused to have it on while we were eating.
I had a RTH binge recently – it stood up pretty well, I thought, although the Dame Celia Volestrangler/Binkie Huckabuck threads seemed to go on a bit. Julian and Sandy are still bliss.
I’ve downloaded quite a few from a torrent in the past that I’m ekeing out – shall certainly be clicking this link – thank you, Hawkers!
I love the structure of the show, with Mr Urbanity linking each piece with a delivery that has yet to be equalled. He doesn’t change so much as an inflection, no matter what part he’s playing, from wise-cracking “private dick” to sea captain, which is so much funnier than it would have been if he’d tried the accents.
The outrageousness seems to get more outrageous, not less, with the passing years – quite an achievement. Great scripts, great players, and radio at its wonderful best.
Fill your boots – dozens of episodes here: http://www.radioechoes.com/round-the-horne?searchTerms=horne
Oof!
Muchas gracias (that’s your actual Castellano) Gatz!
Oooh, bona!
I always listen to the podcasts, but often find myself skipping through it (as Julian and Sandy might say) to Rambling Sid and J & S’s finale. I find it has stood the test of time much better than the rather puerile I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, which at the time was far cooler. What comes of riding on the coat tails of Beyond the Fringe, I suppose.
BBC Four Extra (along with Five Extra, worth the license fee on its own) seems to have a policy of pretty much ALWAYS having ‘Round the Horne’ and ‘Hancock’s Half Hour’ somewhere on their schedule.
It’s a policy I completely agree with.
The various Python spin-offs on the station re-inforce my belief that the original TV series was successful largely because of the ‘look’ of it, including the brilliant cartoons, as much as how funny it actually was. And it was in colour.
‘I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again’ is really very poor!
I can’t listen to or watch Tony Hancock any more. I cannot forgive him for being the public face for the media campaign backing Beeching’s Axe. Sold swathes of our glorious rural rail network for Fifty thousand pounds. Bastard.
OM
Oh dear, Rob. If you can separate the art from the artist you’ll be a much happier man. Try looking at it the other way round – that someone so full of fault (whoever it is; human after all) could have created something so good. Then you’ll be able to hear the beauty in a Mamas & Papas record, which is a much more lasting thing than the character of the artist. Also – you know – Lennon was a smack-head – so your criteria are already compromised.
Pails into comparison when gazing upon the loneliness of an abandoned track, home now only to weed and briar, but valiantly mourned by a dandelion’s wind borne lamentations. The laughter, tears, loves and stories of yore now ghosts that linger on the banks of imagination.
Railway cuttings indeed. Bastard!
Peace & Love
I’ll just leave this here: not, as it might appear at first sight, lost members of the Magic Band, but some of the characters appearing or referred to in Beyond Our Ken and RTH. Read ’em and weep.
Seamus Android
•Lord Athelstone of Tring
•Armitage, the musical seal
•Winnie and Fred Atwell
•Ariadne of Shanklin
•Sidney Arborbridge
•Lippy Angst
•Barbara Buttress MP
•Rita Bollard
•Sir Arthur Brown-Horrocks
•Tarquin Bannister-Hicks
•Sir Hamilton Bean
•Vergil Backwater
•District Nurse Fay Botting
•Arnold Boldwicket
•Hugo Blubberlips
•Dame Freda Bannister OBE
•Stanley Birkenshaw
•Dr Gladys Postern, nee Bolstrode
•Blodwyn Blubber
•The Earl of Bedlam
•May Batley
•Celia Backstroke
•Kenneth Bond Special Agent – and invisible mending
•Harry Booth and his Swingin’ Spoons
•Adrian Bolt and The Pacemakers
•Ebeneezer Cuckpowder
•Prinny Cattermole
•Rocky Cattermole
•Sir Redvers Cornposture
•Darryl F Claphanger
•Dr Cronkmeyer
•Mad Alice Cudlipp
•L Dougard Cortinbras
•Mavis Clutterbucket
•Mssrs Cattermole, Mousehabit, Neepthye and Trusspot, Solicitors
•Dr Chou En Ginsberg MA (Failed)
•Lady Beatrice Counterblast, nee Beatrice Clissold
•Judy Coolibah, Australian Tourist
•Brigadier and Mrs Chudleigh
•Arnold Creamtee, of the Devonshire Creamtees
•Johnnie Clogg MP
•Reverend Unseemly Dogposture
•Malcolm Dredgestrangler
•Alice D’Artagnan
•The Very Reverend Ignatius Dangle
•Ludmilla Dogtrouser, the singing nun
•Piggy Dipthong
•Yaroslav Drobnik, the bouncing Czech
•Lady Dovehawker
•Sid and Rita Dipfinger
•Lady Devere Stoatsfumbling
•Dame Sweeney Eggblast, the Clacton Dripping Heiress
•Dr Crimly Fiendish
•Maudie Fiddleworth
•Ethel Fredsnimble
•Nemesis Fothergill
•Pete Frontkettle
•Lord Fustion of Thrax and Ann Thrax
•Arthur Fallowfield
•Irving B Fish
•Albert Figgis
•Hans Foortvangler
•Loomis Grousefavour
•Ramases Gumbrill, the whistling vicar of All Souls
•Sidney Goosecreature
•Rev Ignatius Niblung Goosecreature
•Leonide Grasspepper
•Otto von Grasspepper
•Buttercup Gruntfuttock
•J Peasmold Gruntfuttock
•Ransden Gnomefumbler
•Sherpa Gutbucket and the Electric Druids
•The Widow Ganderpoke
•Brigadier Edith Gormenstrop (Mrs)
•Ramona Grott
•Rex Goodbody
•Charmaine Glasspole
•Gordon LeStrange
•Lemule Ghast
•Artemeus Gluckk
•Hamilton Gore-Strangely
•Detective Inspector Tom Grutt, aka “Grutt of the Yard”
•Detective Sergeant Obadiah Grasspole
•Pixie Hotmuffin
•Polyp Grunter-Pulpitt
•Albert Haverstrap
•Fyffe Hobbertson
•Phyllis Hopkins
•Evelyn and Winnfred Hoist
•Leslie Harblow
•Binkie Huckerback, ageing juvenile actor
•Fanny Haddock
•Sir Gladys Harbinger
•Paddy Handbell and Gladys Runt
•Horseposture and Loombucket, Publishers
•Sir Henry Horseposture
•George Hyeesha
•Daphne Hormone
•Lady Kneetrembler
•Gaylord Haemoglobin
Wow. Enough aliases to keep the Afterword going for a good few years …
Beachcomber’s a good source, too.
I had thought of becoming ‘Dr. Strabismus’ here, but wondered how the naming convention would have coped with ‘(whom God Preserve) of Utrecht’.
If there isn’t a 1972 album on Vertigo by The Earl of Bedlam then there should be.
Pete Frontkettle was a luxuriously bearded singer-songwriter from the Home Counties who made one appearance on the OGWT in dungarees.
Pixie Hotmuffin was that squeaky-voiced teenager who had that one dance hit about Weebles.
Artemeus Gluckk played the zither with plastic spoons. Fired from Gong in 1976 for being “too weird”.
Charmaine Glasspole was actually one of the Ormsby-Gores, and her breathy ditty about sandcastles (“Sandcastles In The Sand” – Deram 7665-87) was the surprise holiday hit of ’64!
Charmaine Glasspole prepares herself for her Top Of The Pops appearance:
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/camplimp/deb_zpsznhce5xm.jpg
Wot? No Dame Celia Mole-Strangler?
Cuh.
Also on Four Extra at the moment:
Linda Smith’s A Brief History Of Time Wasting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fbz5m/episodes/player
I missed these back then but later caught a run of the second series so I’m enjoying hearing the first series for the first time.
Bless my Dad, he taught me this, not so much at his knee but later in life. I’ve been listening to them all, but we’re now on to the inferior (IMHO) season 4 in this particular run.
That said, there are still come belly laughs, and Jools and Sand are terrific in very show. The Uni of Nottingham had a talk on Polari the otehr week and I really wanted to go…
Kenneth Williams was clearly outrageous in many ways, and his asides into “I’m an artiste, I need to be serviced..” land are the stuff of legend.
Chou En Ginsberg, MA (failed) is another top quality character, marvelously played for laughs. “Ahhh, Mr Horne”, “Ahh, Chou”, “Bless you” etc. You wouldn’t get away with it these days.
My grandson, age 8, loves rambling Syd, he makes me very proud when we sing “Green Grow My Nadgers-oh” to Nanna…
Hopefully my Dad is looking down approvingly.
The “criminal practice” line is the best illustration of how near the knuckle they were for the 60s, but they got away with it.
Which was the Kenneth Horne alias who said “My name is (let’s say) Elias Mousehabit Goosecreature the Third. The other 2 died of embarrassment…”?
One day I’ll find the nude cyclist of Polperro.
I have bored some of you previously with the tale of when a bloke called Sandy came to join my team a few years ago and I was able to attend a board meeting to present a paper and say “Hello, I’m Julian ( my real name) and this is my friend Sandy”.
A young chap called Bob started where I used to work just before Blackadder 2 started.
I hope he didn’t leave because too many people had said ‘Ah, young Bob’ or ‘I find you strangely curious company, Bob’ to him. The ‘Bob’ was always done in the Rowan Atkinson voice, often by people who’d never seen Blackadder.
That’s never happened to me.
(sighs)
“Ah, young Bob!”
(The Afterword – where dreams come true!)
Bless you, sweet marster!
Did anyone get it?
I’ve downloaded them whenever they appear, and also eke them out. As was said above, they have stood the test of time so much better than I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, Hello Cheeky or The Navy Lark. The “answers to last week’s questions” was always the best bit as it leaves the listener to work out the dirtiest possible question. I still can’t hear anyone say “many times” without thinking of Betty Marsden. Or “answers on a postcard”.
That fellow in the fawn raincoat gets about a bit…
RTH was just about the only thing in his professional or personal life that Kenneth Williams didn’t routinely disparage in his diaries, other than to occasionally complain about the script being weak sometimes.
And who among us hasn’t thrilled to the way out sounds of the Frazer Hayes Four?
File under Shite Enough for @beany….
DO NOT DISTURB
Beer festival day. Hic.
Kenneth Williams. Superb raconteur. His ‘Audience With…’ from 1984 is on YouTube in full.
Priceless storytelling and thesping.
I’m a recent convert to Round The Horne, mainly through a gag I overheard which made my day at the time. I forget the actual dialogue but the scene was a WWII prison camp spoof. ‘They were marched to Stalag Lavender’, ‘Why was it called Stalag Lavender?’
‘Because it was only a little camp…’
No, we dressed casual – sweaters and jeans. Oh, I see what you mean!
Punchline to possibly The Greatest Joke Of All Time.
Find it here:
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/fabulosa/tours.htm
“I had my sea lallies by then…” – genius!
I can only repeat that at the time I laughed myself silly with no idea at all re what was actually going on…
I think that was the major part of the the whole raison d’etre. (That’s yer actual French…)
Have you got a copy of “Ethel The Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying?” – Took and Feldman were geniuses, but the casting was fantabulosa too ! It was always my favourite before ISIRTA, along with the Ronnie Barker show on a Friday night. Don’t know how I was allowed to listen to it on a Sunday Lunchtime, cause I was only young. Maybe the double-entendres passed my parents by. I was sniggering like a good ‘un.
Digressing, I always remember a dreadful Ronnie Barker gag where he was invited to use the word ‘Tintinnabulator” in a sentence. He came up with (IIRC in a Welsh accent), “The Police won’t catch you, but we’ll have to let Rin-Tin-Tin nab you later”…………ouch
All the way down and still no mention of Lena Horne? WTF?
Great hairy FOOL!