Round the Horne: 50th Anniversary Tour

You'll have to hurry to catch it, because it closes on 12 March, but I can thoroughly recommend the Albany Theatre Company's Round The Horne: 50th Anniversary Tour at the London Comedy Museum.

In the 1960s the radio comedy Round the Horne was extraordinarily popular and this production puts you in the place of the audience at the recording of a couple of episodes of the show.

Much of the script was filth (if only in the listener's mind) but the writers Barry Took and Marty Feldman got away with it because the show was centred on the urbane, establishment presence of Kenneth Horne.

Here are a couple of examples of the humour. Kenneth Williams as Rambing Syd Rumpo singing The Ballad of the Woggler's Moulie above and the opening of the sketch Bona Law below...

HORNE: Can you help me? I've erred. 

SANDY: Well, we've all erred, ducky. I mean, it's common knowledge, ennit, Jule? 

HORNE: Will you take my case? 

JULIAN: Well, it depends on what it is. We've got a criminal practice that takes up most of our time.

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Flooding in Market Harborough (well Little Bowden actually)

This was the scene in Scotland Road an hour ago.

The police have now closed the road near its junction with Northampton Road. This is because of submerged roadworks as well as the floods. If anything the waters have gone down since I took the photo.

Meanwhile, the temporarily traffic lights, set up for those works, continue their work dutifully.

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Liberator's Ralph Bancroft has died

I spent Tuesday in London and met some Liberator friends at the Comedy Museum where we saw the Round the Horne show.

While it was bona to vada their dolly old eeks, I learnt the sad news that another of our number, Ralph Bancroft, has died.

There are tributes to him by Gareth Epps on Liberator's blog and by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice.

When I first joined the Liberator collective Ralph was central to the magazine and was responsible for its finest hour. That was the Runners and Riders article that led the BBC News one evening in 1984.

I think that is the best way to remember him...

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‘He just appeared and started singing Neil Diamond’ - mystery of Norfolk’s Sunday League Werewolf

Our Headline of the Day Award goes to the Eastern Daily Press.

And the paper has a video of the incident too!

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