All good clean fun – mostly
HEARD ANY GOOD JOKES LATELY? MARION McMULLEN LOOKS AT THE LEGENDS OF RADIO COMEDY AS WE TAKE A MINUTE TO SAY FAREWELL TO NICHOLAS PARSONS
COMEDY quiz Just A Minute launched with a breakneck speed version of Chopin’s Minute Waltz and Nicholas Parsons explaining the rules of the game.
Guests had to speak for 60 seconds on a given subject without “any form of hesitation, repetition, or deviation”.
The first contestants on the launch show in 1967 included Beryl Reid and Derek Nimmo who were tasked with chatting about such diverse subjects as keeping fit, the English nanny and things to do in the bath.
Veteran entertainer Nicholas, who passed away last week at the age of 96, ended up hosting more than 900 instalments of the BBC panel show over the next 53 years.
In fact, he only ever missed one episode in 2018 and Gyles Brandreth stepped in for him.
Prince Charles was a fan of the show and even made a cameo appearance on the 2016 Christmas special and guests over the years included Kenneth Williams, Stephen Fry and Graham Norton.
Paul Merton joined the show’s line-up in 1989 and paid his own tribute to Nicholas saying: “He was always upbeat, and loved to work. He gave 100% to everything he did. Nicholas was the embodiment of Just A Minute and his chairmanship was always very fair and very honest.”
Comedy has long ruled the airwaves on the radio. It’s That Man Again (ITMA) was the BBC’s secret comedy weapon during the Second World War.
It saw Liverpool comedian Tommy Handley and his team lifting the spirits of the nation and it proved to be one of the BBC’s most popular radio comedies attracting 16 million listeners a week.
It featured characters like Colonel (“I don’t mind if I do”) Chinstrap, Mrs (Can I do yer now, sir?) Mopp and Funf the Spy proclaiming “Ziss iss Funf speaking”.
ITMA first aired in 1939 and the supporting cast included the likes of future Carry On star Hattie Jacques and Deryck Guyler, best known as the grumpy caretaker of TV sitcom Please Sir!
The 40s also offered Take It From Here which showcased the comedy talents of Jimmy Edwards and a young June Whitfield. It was written by Frank Muir and Dennis Norden and introduced listeners to characters like The Glums, which followed the fortunes of Ron Glum and his long-suffering fiancée Eth.
Radio continued to offer some of the biggest comedy stars throughout the 1950s including Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine in The Goon Show and Bebe and Ben Daniels in Life With The Lyons. The latter began in 1955 and was a situation comedy written by popular American actress Bebe Daniels. She starred in it alongside her real-life family – husband Ben and children Barbara and Richard. She played a scatterbrained version of herself and the show regularly attracted more than 11 million listeners.
Bebe, who starred in the movie 42nd Street, once said: “All during the war we kept saying, Ben and I, that when it was over, we’d come back to Hollywood. But now we’ve been here [in the US], and we just have to be honest, this is no longer home. Home’s back in London because we went through the bombings with them.”
The Goon Show began a year later in 1951 as Crazy People and was described in the Radio Times as “Radio’s own Crazy Gang”.
The comedy ran until 1960 – with the cast reuniting for a final show in 1972 – and the show spawned a spate of colourful characters such as Eddie Seagoon, Eccles, Major Bloodnok, Bluebottle, Private Bogg and Henry Crun.
Episodes included programmes entitled I Was Monty’s Treble, Ill Met By Goonlight and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin.
Spike once said: “I spent many years laughing at Harry Secombe’s singing until somebody told me that it wasn’t a joke.”
Listeners also immediately took to the characters in Round The Horne when it launched in 1965.
Kenneth Horne helmed the show with Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee bringing the laughter as Julian and Sandy, Celia Molestrangler and folk singer Rambling Syd Rumpo.
The show was created by Marty Feldman and Barry Took and was the successor of Beyond Our Ken. The pair took advantage of the permissive air of 1960s Britain to insert lots of saucy humour and double entendres.
Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick played popular camp characters Julian and Sandy – “I’m Julian, this is my friend Sandy” – and spoke in the underground slang of Polari used when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK.
Kenneth Williams also provided the voice of the outrageous J Peasmold Gruntfuttock, who ended up making spoof calls to the programme.
The comedy was transmitted on a Sunday afternoon and Kenneth Horne would declare: “I’m all for censorship. If ever I see a double entendre, I whip it out.”