-Sandi Toksvig, one of the UK's wittiest women, admits she was once Humph's lover for thirty seconds.
Barry Cryer on Humph's first missed show in 36 years last week, and how even then the old boy was pretending he wanted not to be there:
'We've got a stage version of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and did a show without him, the first in 36 years, in Bournemouth last Tuesday, when Rob Brydon deputised brilliantly. What Rob didn't know was our great producer Jon Naismith got Humph to record an introduction in hospital, and what the audience heard was: 'Good evening. This is Humphrey Lyttelton. I can't do the show tonight because I'm in hospital; I wish I'd thought of this earlier. Will you give a big welcome to Rob Brydon?''
Melvyn Bragg recalled Humph's notorious double entendres, usually involving Samantha, his non-existent assistant:
"He was a very amiable, good-mannered and well-bred man and that is why he got away with all of the stuff he said on Radio 4 as chairman of the panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. His lines must surely be among the rudest jokes that have ever been broadcast anywhere on the radio..."
(This morning on the BBC, someone reminisced that Humph said he wanted someday to have an old-fashioned butcher's van with "Humphrey Lyttelton, Purveyor of Blue-Chip Filth" on the panels).
On Humph's jazz composition that was the first to register on UK music charts:
"In 1956 his simple riff composition “Bad Penny Blues” became the first jazz record to reach the Top 20. “It climbed to number 19 and then fell back exhausted,” he said."
No comments:
Post a Comment