Round the Horne
| Genre | Sketch comedy |
|---|---|
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Light Programme/BBC Radio 2 |
| Starring |
Kenneth Horne Betty Marsden Hugh Paddick Bill Pertwee (series 1–3) Kenneth Williams |
| Announcer | Douglas Smith |
| Created by |
Barry Took Marty Feldman |
| Written by |
Barry Took (s 1–4) Marty Feldman (s 1–3) Johnnie Mortimer (s 4) Brian Cooke (s 4) Donald Webster (s 4) |
| Produced by |
Jacques Brown John Simmonds |
| Recording studio | Paris Theatre, London |
| Air dates | 7 March 1965 to 9 June 1968 |
| No. of series | 4 (+ 2 Christmas specials) |
| No. of episodes | 67 |
Round the Horne is a BBC Radio comedy programme that was transmitted in four series of weekly episodes from 1965 until 1968. The series was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, with others contributing to later series after Feldman returned to performing, and starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee. The show's announcer was Douglas Smith and from time to time he took part in the sketches. It had musical interludes by close harmony singing group the Fraser Hayes Four, and accompaniment by the big band of Edwin Braden ("the great, 'airy fool" according to Kenneth Williams), known as Edwin Braden and the Hornblowers. The band was actually the BBC Radio Orchestra but was never billed as such. In the fourth series, all the musical duties were performed by the smaller Max Harris Group. Took and the cast had worked on the predecessor series Beyond Our Ken. The name is a pun on the nautical phrase for sailing around Cape Horn.
Round the Horne featured a parody a week, several catchphrases, and many characters. The show often opened with a deadpan delivery by Horne of "the answers to last week's questions", despite no such questions having been asked in previous episodes, and which were laced with double entendres and sexual innuendo, such as
"First, the 'Where Do You Find It?' question. Well, the answer came in several parts, as follows: wound round a sailor's leg; on top of the wardrobe; floating in the bath; under a prize bull; and in a lay-by on the Watford Bypass. At least, I found one there - couldn't use it - it was covered in verdigris. I gave it to the Scouts, actually, and they exhibit it proudly next to a daguerreotype of Baden-Powell's woggle."
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Wikipedia