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Start giftingRound the Horne: The Complete Series Four
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Learn moreKenneth Horne, Kenneth Williams, Betty Marsden and Hugh Paddick star in 17 episodes of the anarchic 1960s radio comedy, including the 1967 Christmas special.
Round the Horne arrived on BBC radio in 1965, bringing laughter to Sunday lunchtimes throughout the land. Over the course of sixteen weekly episodes it carved a niche in the history of broadcast comedy, a sketch show which prodded the boundaries of propriety and innuendo. At its heart was the suave and upstanding Kenneth Horne, around which revolved the multiple naughty personas of Kenneth Williams, Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick and Bill Pertwee.
Among the parade of regular characters were Julian and Sandy, the camp couple of resting thespians happy to turn their hands to anything, Rambling Syd Rumbo the musical cordwangler, Fiona and Charles the passionate duo, and J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock - the world's dirtiest man. Meanwhile regular film parodies, spoof sagas and musical interludes peppered the mix.
In addition to the 16 episodes of Series Four, this edition also includes the 1967 Christmas special episode Cinderfella and The Bona History of Julian and Sandy, in which Maureen Lipman takes a vada at Round the Horne's most flamboyant omipalonies.
Content warning: the humour in this programme reflects the era in which it was broadcast and may not reflect current attitudes.
©2016 BBC Worldwide Limited (P)2016 BBC Worldwide Limited
Barry Took was born in London in 1928. An early career as a stand-up comedian and sketch writer led to his first radio script credit, for Beyond Our Ken. From there he went on to create Round the Horne with Marty Feldman, whilst on television he wrote for series including Bootsie and Snudge and The Army Game. Amongst a variety of later jobs in front of and behind the camera, Took wrote and presented Points of View on BBC1 and also chaired BBC radio’s The News Quiz. He wrote a number of books, including The Complete and Utter History of Round the Horne and his autobiography A Point of View. He died in 2002.
Johnnie Mortimer was a British scriptwriter for British TV whose work included radio seies Men from the Ministry and Round the Horne, and TV situation comedies including Foreign Affairs, Man About the House, Never the Twain, Robin's Nest and George and Mildred, often working in partnership with Brian Cooke. A version of Man about the House later transferred to America under the name Three's Company. Brian Cooke is a British comedy writer who, along with co-writer Johnnie Mortimer wrote scripts for and devised many of the top TV sitcoms of the 1970s, including Man About the House, George and Mildred and Robin's Nest. Cooke also wrote and created the 1980s TV sitcom Keep It in the Family, starring Robert Gillespie and the 1960s sitcom Father, Dear Father starring Patrick Cargill. Man About the House, George and Mildred, Robin's Nest, and Keep It in the Family were remade for American television as Three's Company, The Ropers, Three's a Crowd, and Too Close for Comfort. [source: Wikipedia]