Jo Kendall (a radio actress in many straight dramas subsequently; also appeared in another popular radio comedy series The Burkiss Way) Bill Oddie wrote and performed a daft but well-crafted song in the middle of most programmes. Tim perfected a high-pitched feminine voice for the ghastly Lady Constance de Coverlet, who would often arrive at the close of a lengthy adventure to a rapturous audience welcome. John and Jo developed poignant - almost romantic - dialogues as the respectable but dysfunctional couple "John and Mary", a forerunner of the relationship between Basil and Sybil later televised in Fawlty Towers. As with Round the Horne, the cast's adventures would sometimes be episodic with cliff-hanger endings each week as with the "Curse of the Flying Wombat". Christmas specials normally included a spoof of a traditional pantomime (or several combined). They had few qualms about the use of puns - old, strained or inventive - and included some jokes and catchphrases that would seem politically incorrect by the mid 1970s. Graeme's impressions of Eddie Waring (a rugby league commentator) and John's occasional but manic impressions of Patrick Moore (astronomer and broadcaster) built these people into eccentric celebrities in a way that the Mike Yarwood, Lenny Henry, Rory Bremner, Spitting Image and Dead Ringers programmes would do for other TV presenters with similar disrespect years later.
The show ended with an unchanging sign-off song which Bill Oddie performed as "Angus Prune". Spoof dramas were billed as Prune Playhouse and many parodies of commercial radio were badged as Radio Prune, but the name Angus Prune seemed as random and incidental as the name Monty Python, which appeared seven years later.
Although the BBC radio shows ITMA, Much Binding in the Marsh, Take it from Here and Beyond Our Ken had conditioned listeners to accepting a mix of music, sketches and jokes within a 30 minute show, and Round the Horne was currently doing this, ISIRTA (as it was known to its friends), accelerated the transitions and certainly seemed more improvised. It was one of those programmes where you were unlikely to get all the jokes on first hearing so would have to listen to the scheduled repeat (or an illegal tape recording) to discover what you had missed. It thus helped prepare the television audience for At Last the 1948 Show, the Q Series from Spike Milligan and Monty Python's Flying Circus.
It may also have influenced other fast-paced British radio programmes such as Radio Active , On the Hour, The Sunday Format, and The News Huddlines.
Some of the cast also appear in the radio comedy quiz show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, which was originally a spinoff from ISIRTA but has outlived it by decades.
Since December 2002, examples of ISIRTA can be heard on Fridays at 12.30 and
19.30 hours GMT on BBC 7 (available on the web, digital radio and digital television).
See also
