Humphrey Lyttleton

RadioCity

News from the BBC:

Veteran jazz musician and radio host Humphrey Lyttelton has died aged 86.

The chairman of BBC Radio 4's comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue recently had surgery in an attempt to repair an aortic aneurysm.

The latest series of the quiz programme was cancelled after Lyttelton was admitted to Barnet Hospital in north London on 16 April.

"Humph" retired from hosting Radio 2's The Best of Jazz last month after more than 40 years presenting the show.

Lyttelton hosted I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - the "self-styled antidote to panel games" - since 1972, appearing alongside regulars Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor.

In 1993, he received a Sony Gold Award for services to broadcasting.

Lyttelton began playing the trumpet in 1936 and was still touring with his band up until his admission to hospital.

Best known for the song Bad Penny Blues, they became the first British jazz act to enter the top 20 in 1956.

He was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at both the Post Office British Jazz Awards in 2000 and at the first BBC Jazz Awards in 2001.

mike65

F-U-C-K

And such lousy timing

Humph. Lunchon voucher fan. Legend.

Mike.

Boardsbud

wow, may he rest in peace. listened to his last jazz show on radio 2 a few weeks ago and hoped he'd have a long and musical retirement. A sad loss to to the radio and music world. RIP.

DMC

Had switched off the PC last night and switched on Radio 4 when the baldy boffin in charge of Radio 4 was giving a warm tribute to him on The World Tonight.

Bugger. R.I.P. Humph.

Still, LOL at the Guardian, the obituary for Humph was written by George Melly. Who is also dead. It just goes to show what they have "in the can" for you!

mike65

From bbc

You can hear a classic edition of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 27 April at 1200 BST. There will also be a special programme in tribute to Humphrey Lyttleton on Wednesday 30 April at 0900 BST.

Nice touch



Mike.

DMC

As is this..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

mike65

But mine is better, it won't melt

Mike.

DMC

mike65 wrote: »

But mine is better, it won't melt

Depends where you put it.

mike65

Classic Humph

The teams are going to display their acting skills now, in the game called Sound Charades. This is based on the erstwhile TV favourite Give Us A Clue, in which teams mimed titles of films or books against a strict time limit. In the original, the teams weren't allowed to speak, and the audience couldn't have been happier. Our version is exactly the same...until the teams start to speak. The grand mime-master of Give Us A Clue was Lionel Blair, but since the show ended, he's confined to the occasional pantomime appearance, and they say he's becoming difficult to work with due to his mood swings. In this year's Snow White, they said one minute Lionel could be feeling Happy, and the next he'd come all over Grumpy...

Mike.

Sherifu

RIP.

Wertz

Gah, one of my favourite things to wake up to of a sunday.
Well at least he had a good long go of it...
Be sadly missed, don't know who could even stand in for him on ISIHAC...

mike65

A few funnehs

Samantha went into a cocktail bar and asked for a 'doublé énténdre'. So he gave her one.

"Samantha is off on a dinner date with a gentleman friend from Moscow who's brought over a variety of caviares and an array of vodka-based aperitifs. She says he's going to offer her delicious food in his hotel room and then liquor out on the balcony."

"Samantha is a qualified croupier and often works at an exclusive Soho club where gamblers pay top money to play roulette all day and poker all night."


Mike.

DMC

Wertz wrote: »

Be sadly missed, don't know who could even stand in for him on ISIHAC...

I think he's irreplaceable. Willie Rushden died young, so therefore the show could carry on with the other 3 team members, but losing Humph, the linchpin, I dunno.

Its like Countdown without Richard Whiteley.

The Late Late Show without Gay Byrne.

Or Give Us a Clue without Lionel Blair.

Speaking of Lionel, that master of charades, I remember the opposing team captain's Una Stubbs, sitting open-mouthed as he tried to pull off Twelve Angry Men in under 2 minutes.

DMC

mike65 wrote: »

Nice touch

Heh! The confusion! The image didnt display for me earlier :o

mike65

They should quit, with 35 years of material on tape/disk/RAM theres plenty of amusment still to be had.

Mike.

mike65

:pac: Bloody internets.

Mike.

DublinWriter

mike65 wrote: »

They should quit, with 35 years of material on tape/disk/RAM theres plenty of amusment still to be had.

I think so too, but I don't think they will.

ISIHAC is a nice little earner for Brooke-Taylor and Greene, and let's face it, I don't think they do much else. Remember that the audience for the recorded shows pay in and tickets have always been sold out months in advance.

Humph was also a very talented cartoonist back in his day.

His passing feels to me almost like the loss of a family member. Still, the old git was 86 and ran up the curtain and joined the choir-invisible being as sharp as a tack and at the top of his game, both as a broadcaster and musician.

RIP Humph.

RadioCity

Speaking of Lionel, that master of charades, I remember the opposing team captain's Una Stubbs, sitting open-mouthed as he tried to pull off Twelve Angry Men in under 2 minutes

I've had that quote going through my head all day today along with "trying to pull off An Officer And A Gentleman in under two minutes".


Its hard to imagine anyone else delivering the running gags in the show. You could imagine Humphrey keeping a straight face all through them.

"Its time to play the game 'One Song To The Tune Of Another', and for those who don't understand that, let me explain...."

"And keeping the scores, sitting on my right hand, Samantha..."

"The expert's expert was Lionel Blair..."

tbh

RIP Humph. I think we all knew this was coming when he went into hospital, still a kick in the nads tho.

"Samantha is off on a tour of the Lake District with a naturist gentleman friend who wants to strip off at Keswick and Cockermouth."

grumpytrousers

http://www.g0akh.f2s.com/isihac/Sound_Charades_Introductions_Page.php

RIP the Humph

mike65

Bump from the dead

BBC Four televison station is showing the following

Click

Clack

Clock

Mike.

DMC

And Clue will return, next year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7606882.stm

mike65

Great hours tv, I wasn't aware of his background having never checked.

Mike.

tbh

DMC wrote: »

And Clue will return, next year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7606882.stm

OOOH! interesting, I wonder who the new host will be? I'd quite like to see Rob Brydon get the gig, but it'll probably be someone I never thought of and will end up loving (I hope).

DublinWriter

tbh wrote: »

OOOH! interesting, I wonder who the new host will be? I'd quite like to see Rob Brydon get the gig, but it'll probably be someone I never thought of and will end up loving (I hope).

I heard Graeme Garden being interviewed and he said they are going to have a rotating chairman, a la Have I Got News For You.

Personally I don't think this will work.

There's only one man for the job. His name is Stephen Fry.

tbh

oooh, good call there DW.

DMC

DublinWriter wrote: »

There's only one man for the job. His name is Stephen Fry.

Stephen would be a brilliant and capable host, a very good spot, but to capture Humph's doe-eyed senility in glossing over a double entendre, I'm not so sure. I think Fry would corpse half way through a punchline unlike Humph.

Also, he would rather Sven to sit on his right hand more than Samantha. :pac:

Do we want someone to replace Humph or to be Humph, that is the question.....

mike65

Fry has only modest "Clue" history, so I'd go with Brydon. Clearly the host whoever he/she was would have to be themselves while nodding towards the legacy of Humph.

Unless they went Big Bang and got a complete outsider, Johnny Vaughan! Okay maybe not.

Mike.