The I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue story
The show, devised by Graeme Garden, started in 1972 – and has never stopped. It’s just been voted the funniest radio comedy of all time by the Radio Times, ahead of Hancock’s Half Hour and
Round the Horne. Barry Cryer has been on the show since the year it began
I love Clue. But to rank it above Tony Hancock is odd. Hancock’s Half Hour was a brilliant miniature sitcom. Round the Horne is closer in style to Clue – it’s really loads of sketches. I admit I was on the
judging panel with Graeme Garden! But we weren’t allowed to vote for ourselves.
Graeme devised Clue after ten years of writing another
radio series, I’m Sorry, I’ll
Read That Again. The original cast was the same as on that earlier show: Graeme, the late Tim Brooke-taylor, Bill Oddie (aka The Goodies) and John Cleese. Humphrey Lyttelton was the chairman.
John and Bill left, to be replaced by me (in 1972) and Willie Rushton. We’re like an old rock band now. For the latest series of
Clue, we recorded two programmes from home, with 100 people watching remotely. It was a bit tricky. You do a line and have to pause to wait for the laugh.
Clue is joyful – like Morecambe and Wise
behaving like kids. Or Tommy Cooper – a brilliant magician who’s being silly.
Clue is a silly game show that doesn’t need a full script. It’s really grown-up people being silly in a childish sort of way.
Two episodes of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue starring the late Tim Brooke-taylor will be aired in January