Product Description

'It's a great missing piece of the jigsaw - people go on endlessly about Python and Peter Cook, which is all well and good but there's basically this great corpus of work stretching for decades - and consistently good. I mean very very few traditions...I can't think of one! I mean, Christ, it's forty-five years! A major piece of work, and universally loved.' So says John Lloyd, brains behind "Blackadder", "QI", "Spitting Image", and so much besides - all shows with a massive debt to "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again" and "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue". Together they form a body of work stretching across five decades, from Cambridge in 1960 to today's world-beating "Antidote" to "Panel Games", a laughter-bringer which has inspired unparalleled adoration in millions over fifty series. "The Clue Bible" tells the whole story, from 'Footlights' to 'Broadway' to the ferret-filled madness of Radio Prune - comedy's answer to the rock & roll revolution of the sixties. Offering an exhaustive guide to the comedy world that brought us "Mornington Crescent", besides episode guides, glossaries and rare facsimiles, the book will take the story right up to the present day, celebrating the lives of Willie Rushton, Sir David Hatch and of course, the irreplaceable Humphrey Lyttelton. With exclusive input from the Teams, plus Bill Oddie, Stephen Fry and many more, this is the long overdue authoritative, entertaining and above all, very silly lasting celebration of an unsung comic legacy that both shows so richly deserve.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1533 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 386 pages

About the Author
Jem Roberts is a lifelong fan of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. He lives in Bath, where he runs the comedy sketch troupe The Unrelated Family, and plays the ukulele very badly.

Customer Reviews

Truly clueful book
I have wanted to read this book for about 15 years, so it's been very frustrating that nobody wrote it until now- but it was well worth waiting for!
If you like this kind of book, this is exactly the kind of book you'll like. It's well written, but more importantly it's concise yet detailed, honest yet bubbling over with love for the subject. Yum.
(It has a slightly misleading title in that the first half is really about I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again and related projects, but I think that's a feature, not a bug; at last, a proper critical appraisal of Hello Cheeky...)

No Longer Clueless
The first half of this, largely, excellent book traces the careers of a small group of satirists and comedians from Cambridge Smokers to Clue via Footlights, revues, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, The Goodies, Hello Cheeky and numerous other less well remembered projects and, over that time, there are comedy connections to most of the greats of the last 40 years. It is only half way through that we are finally introduced to Humph, Barry and Willy.

The author tries to make a case for ISIRTA being the greatest of all radio scripted comedy. Having been too young to have listened to it when first broadcast I have only encountered it far down the line via, the wonderful, BBC Radio 7. As the author writes in another context perhaps you had to be there at the time.

Of course after nearly 40 years Clue has undergone massive changes in style - if not in cast. Most of the early years got wiped by the BBC long ago but those episodes left are a much gentler affair than the current, barely broadcastable, riot with its systematic victimisation of Lionel Blair and the infliction of Jeremy Hardy's "singing" on an unsuspecting world. It was a succession of young producers - Perkins, Mayhew Archer on - who slowly transformed the game into what we know now. Jack Dee has the right personality and wit to keep it going.

I am sure some people saw this title and feared it was a cut and paste rush job to exploit the good will we all had for Humph. Nothing could be further from the truth, this book has clearly been pieced together by a decent writer over a long period and with significant input from most of those involved over the best part of 50 years. My one criticism is that the author likes everyone a little too much. There are hints that there were tensions - Oddie's moods, Cleese's ego, Kendall being the "token" woman and marginalised, Rushton not even trying to contribute to games he disliked - but these are not really explored. What we are left with is a celebration of people and programmes much loved by a large number of people. As Neil Young said, long may they run.