A
BBC Radio 4 comedy program that seems to have been running forever (actually since April 1972). It is basically an excuse for a set of
comedians to sit around and have a good time. Described in its tagline as "The
Antidote to Panel Games". Can be considered an ancestor of
Whose Line is it Anyway?.
The regulars include Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, and Barry Cryer. Unfortunately with the death of Willy Rushton in 1996 a great talent was lost. As the credits say they are "given silly things to do by Humphrey Littleton, with Colin Sell setting some of them to music".
This is the main forum these days for that great institution Mornington Crescent. This is a game where it is probably better not to know the rules (at least Humphrey Littleton seems to think so).
Other games include:
- Pick Up Song Involves singing along to a record that is then muted
- X's Film Club X is a particular type of person (last night was Cheese Maker's film club). They then make up film titles like "The Hunt for Red Leicester" and "Bring me the Cheese of Alfredo Garcia".
- Cheddar Gorge Sentences are constructed word at a time in a round robin manner
- Late Arrivals at the X Ball Like Film Club but for people's names. i.e. The Peer's Ball - Lord Elpus and Baron Landscape
- One Song to the Tune of Another A game with very complex rules which there is not space to relate here (as you can tell sarcasm plays a great part in this show)
There is a lot of innuendo regarding the scorers Samantha and Sven. An example is the description of muting the record during the game 'Pick Up Song' - "While the music is playing Samantha will give my knob a quick twist."
Humphrey Littleton's closing comments to the show these days are of the type "And while the E2 node of Fate is sent to the Nuke List of Destiny ..."