Round the Horne Series 1

Round the Horne rose from the ashes of Beyond Our Ken, a radio comedy show which ran for seven series on the BBC Light Programme between 1958 and 1964. A popular mix of sketch show and revue, Beyond Our Ken had been devised by Kenneth Horne and co-scripted for the first 41 episodes by Barry Took and Eric Merriman, after which Merriman continued solo. Chief amongst the cast were the eponymous Horne himself, Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Bill Pertwee, with musical accompaniment by the Fraser Hayes Four.

In 1964, following a dispute with the BBC, Merriman’s involvement with Beyond Our Ken came to a sudden end. It was briefly considered that the series might continue with Barry Took, who had been instrumental in creating and naming the series, heading up a team of new writers. Whilst this option was eventually ruled out, it was generally acknowledged that the success of Beyond Our Ken had been due in no small part to the ensemble work of its cast. The decision was therefore taken to create a new show featuring them all under the aegis of the same producer, John Simmonds. Barry Took and Marty Feldman, who at this point had been successfully writing in partnership for four years, were approached for scripting duties. They initially turned the offer down, feeling that they couldn’t possibly match the success of Beyond Our Ken. Second thoughts led them to give it a go, however, and they agreed to write an initial six scripts.

The new series was provisionally titled It’s Ken Again. Concern that it should not merely be a carbon copy of Beyond Our Ken, however, led to the birth of the more familiar name: Round the Horne.

The first episode was performed at the Paris Cinema in London, at that time a venue for many radio comedy programme recordings, on 18 February 1965. Following its first broadcast, on Sunday 7 March at 2.30pm, a BBC audience research report was conducted. Based on a sample listening audience of 473, it revealed that the programme was largely well-received – with some reservations. One housewife commented, ‘I never like first programmes because the cliché is still too new to get the laughter...but I have great hopes for this series.’ Dissenting voices came from what the report called ‘a substantial minority’. Some felt that the new series was too similar to Beyond Our Ken, whilst others spoke of ‘nasty suggestiveness’, ‘prevalent crudity’ and ‘smut’. Many people also noted the ‘guffaws, immoderate laughter and near pandemonium’ of the studio audience, believing it to be so intrusive as to spoil their enjoyment of the programme. This aside, the return of Kenneth Horne to the airwaves delighted many people, and the report concluded that ‘Kenneth Williams took the honours for his versatility and apparent spontaneity.’

By April 1965 Round the Horne had gained a faithful audience – but its risqué contents was also causing something of a stir, and complaints were voiced in a number of quarters. Matters came to a head in May when the Assistant Director of Sound Broadcasting wrote, in a memo to Denis Morris, Chief of the Light Programme, ‘there is increasing evidence from correspondence, telephone calls, Audience Research reports, private contacts, that this is not going unnoticed… I don’t believe that the dirt is adding very much to the humour of the programme, and I think if it goes on it can do the reputation of sound radio a good deal of harm.’ Morris duly consulted the Head of Sound Light Entertainment, Roy Rich, commenting that ‘[Round the Horne] will either shortly be one of the very best Light Entertainment programmes we do – the characterisations improve with every number – or else it will give such offence to a vociferous minority that we shall find it difficult to sustain it…’ and asking that all those concerned with the programme take note of the adverse criticism. These comments were passed to the producer, John Simmonds, who in turn conveyed their nature to the cast and writers. In defence of the programme’s bold stance, Simmonds mentioned to Rich that ‘we should also take into account the majority reaction demonstrated by…unsolicited letters and newspaper comment.’ One such example of this hailed from the Norfolk-based Eastern Daily Press on 18 May. In response to the reports that the writers of Round the Horne had been ordered to tone down their double entendres, it printed an article headlined Gagging the Gags. ‘It is a highly amusing programme and not offensive in any way. Surely an audience claiming to be eight million… should be a good enough reason to leave it alone… I hope the BBC will think again.’ It didn’t take long for Took and Feldman to respond to the criticism in their own way by creating, as part of the series’ regular ‘Backroom boys of the BBC’ slot, a super-sensitive and entirely fictional BBC censorship committee.

Round the Horne’s popularity soon snowballed, to the extent that it was even singled out for recognition by the BBC Board of Management. In April 1965 permission was granted to extend the current run to 19 programmes, although this was in fact commuted to a more cautious 16 at the advice of John Simmonds.

Episodes were recorded weekly, usually some ten days in advance of transmission. According to Barry Took’s book The Complete and Utter History of Round the Horne, the cast would gather on the day of recording for two run-throughs of the script, during which time those members not involved in a particular sketch might sit and watch from the cinema stalls. Kenneth Williams would rehearse his Rambling Syd Rumpo song with guitarist Terry Walsh, while the Fraser Hayes Four ran through their musical interlude and links. By late morning a ‘dry run’ for the actual recording would take place, and for the first time dialogue met with music and sound effects. Direction would come from John Simmonds, with Took and Feldman adding any of their own comments about characterisation. At midday the studio audience would arrive – including friends and associates of the cast and production team – and, following John Simmonds’ on-stage introduction of all those taking part, recording would commence. As with any radio comedy played out before an audience, a number of re-takes were often necessary at the end of the recording. Douglas Smith, who in his ‘day job’ was a BBC Third Programme announcer, became an integral part of Round the Horne by providing links and introductions to sketches. His modern day counterpart might be BBC Radio 4’s Brian Perkins providing announcements and readings for The News Quiz. Julian and Sandy, the flamboyant resting actors who found their own loyal following amongst Round the Horne fans, started life as elderly Shakespearian thespians J. Behemoth Cadogan and T. Hamilton Grosvenor. On reading Took and Feldman’s prototype sketch, however, producer John Simmonds felt that it was just too sad, and he suggested the writers turn the ageing home helps into chorus boys.

Julian is said to have been named after the co-writer of Salad Days, Julian Slade, and Sandy after the playwright Sandy Wilson. Their characteristic patois was based on polari (a variant spelling is palare) – also known as ‘gay slang’. Its use in homosexual circles probably grew out of the theatre and was necessitated by a political climate which criminalised homosexuality and proclaimed it to be a treatable ‘disease’. Barry Took said he was taught polari by his choreographer, whilst Kenneth Williams regularly contributed his own knowledge of it to the scripts. Although Julian and Sandy’s use of the wide and intricate vocabulary was limited, many of their key lines had sophisticated triple entendres – the deepest (and rudest) of which would usually only be appreciated by true polari speakers.

By the time the first series of Round the Horne drew to an end, in June 1965, it had already begun to carve its niche in the history of broadcast comedy.

Programme notes researched and written by Michael Stevens

SERIES ONE MARCH 1965 - JUNE 1965 CRE DITS Written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman Starr ing Kenneth Horne, Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick, Bill Pertwee, Douglas Smith and Kenneth Williams Produced by John Simmonds musical accompaniment by Edwin Braden and the Hornblowers and The Fraser Hayes Four episodes restored and remastered for cd by Ted Kendall