HEADLINE-GUFFAWING weekly satire-lite hoedown. That HIGNFY-inspiring format in full: competing panel of ‘witty intellectuals’ of a journalistic (Bill Deedes, Ian Hislop, Francis Wheen) or comedic (Jeremy Hardy, Armando Iannucci, Andy Hamilton) bent are challenged to spot newsworthy happenings of the past seven days courtesy of a series of very awful puns indeed, with ‘points’ taking second billing to gags and rounds interspersed by sub-That’s Life! ‘humorous’ cuttings sent in by listeners, and all of it framed by Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter (ie that thing that goes “diddleiddleiddleiddleiddleiddleiddlei diddleiddleiddleiddleiddleiddlei TING!”). Hosts have included Barry Norman, Barry Took, Simon Hoggart and Sandi Toksvig, while for years the show also acted as an unofficial “there’s only one way to find out – FIIIIGHT!” running battle of the satire rags between Punch and Private Eye courtesy of competing regulars Alan Coren and Richard Ingrams.
Posts Tagged With 'Sandi Toksvig'
I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue
STARTED off as an excuse for the old I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again team to keep on getting their I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again money while tied up with TV projects, courtesy of an improvised panel game made up of smut, innuendo and silliness. Original rotating line-up was therefore Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, Jo Kendall and John Cleese (with fellow ex-ISIRTA-er David Hatch as producer) being given silly things to do by former Joe Meek-produced Trad Jazz Boom hitmaker and irreverent host of BBC jazz shows Humphrey Lyttleton. Oddie, Kendall and Cleese dropped out after a series or two, making way for external witmongers Barry Cryer and Willie Rushton to make up the long-running classic four-man line-up. Key running themes developed during these early days, most of them still in use to today, include ritual humilation of town and townspeople playing host to that evening’s recording, baiting of resident pianist Colin Sell, ridiculing of comedy panel game contemporaries (“I heard a joke the other day, apparently Quote… Unquote has a Listen Again feature… good one, Nigel!”), ever more ambitious double entendres about scorekeeper The Lovely Samantha, and of course the games – some self-explanatory, others not explanatory in any way at all: Late Arrivals, The Uxbridge English Dictionary, Just A Minim, The Bad Tempered Clavier, Pick Up Song, Cow Lake Bomb, Swanee Kazoo, Letter Writing, Name That Barcode, Quote… Misquote, One Song To The Tune Of Another, Sound Charades (invariably introduced with an anecdote about ‘The Undisputed Grand Master Of The Game’ Lionel Blair), Film Club, Book Club, and of course Mornington Crescent, famed for its innumerable, impenetrable and fiercely guarded rules. Survived Rushton’s death in 1997 by bringing in clued-up guest contestants like Jack Dee, Linda Smith, Rob Brydon, Stephen Fry, Andy Hamilton, Sandi Toksvig, Jeremy Hardy, Tony Hawks, Harry Hill, Phill Jupitus and Ross Noble, bringing their own running jokes with them, and similarly countered Lyttleton’s recent passing with installation of HIGNFY-esque ‘guest hosts’, and long may it continue.
Number 73
RUEFULLY RECALLED by many a kid as the first long-term replacement (see just about anything beginning with the word “Saturday” and FUN FACTORY for the short term) for TISWAS. Considering what had gone before, it’s amazing that No. 73 lasted as long as it did, although being up against SATURDAY SUPERSTORE probably helped. The themed setting was a terraced house in Maidstone, Kent (ME15 6RS, or “Me fifteen, six arse”) where landlady Ethel (SANDI TOKSVIG) presided over a wacky extended family which included blonde no-mark HARRY, irritating still-at-it artist NEIL BUCHANAN (who was so crap he even failed an interview for an art foundation course, possibly the easiest game in the world), and rollerskating cockney redhead Dawn (ANDREA ARNOLD). Later additions included KIM “WATCH” GOODY. Mullets and ra-ra-skirts prevailed. The usual mixture of bands (Westworld and Amazulu being typical examples), “educational” bits (zoo vet, DAVID TAYLOR, local kids-with-a-talent, etc.) and cartoons (WILLIE RUSHTON’s cultish TRAPDOOR) ensued. Everyone remembers Toksvig’s Sandwich Quiz, where two guest celebs were invited to answer questions and build sandwiches, one layer at a time, for no reason at all. Arnold and Buchanan survived name transition in late ‘eighties (to 7T3, set in a wild west theme park for no discernible reason), then lacklustre MOTORMOUTH.
You might also want to see... Saturday Mornings.
Creamguide's Pick of the Day
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The Legendary Bing Crosby
Tuesday, 23.00, Sky Arts 2Doubtless Sky Arts have shown this a thousand times, and probably another channel before that, but we’re a bit quiet this week so it gets in. It’s Bing with all his mates, including Dino and Frank and Bob and of course Dame David, suitably seasonal for this time of year. We don’t know if it’s got him being impressed by Pan’s People, though.
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