Warning: Long threaded 'toot' about classic British radio comedy:
'Round the Horne' really was before my time, and I discovered the programme through BBC Radio 4 Extra. I was, of course, well aware of Kenneth Williams and Bill Pertwee from other work, but Kenneth Horne, Hugh Paddick and Betty Marsden were mostly unknown to me.
I have come to appreciate the amazing writing by Marty Feldman and Barry Took (whose work I also knew well from other contexts).
Over the past few years, I managed to listen to the first three series of 'Round the Horne', but I had never heard the fourth and final series until the past few weeks, when it was rebroadcast on Radio 4 Extra.
There were significant changes between series 3 and series 4. Marty Feldman left to pursue other projects, and Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke joined Barry Took as writers. Bill Pertwee was dropped, as were the Fraser Hayes Four singing group and their musical interlude.
While series 4 is still quite amusing, it doesn't strike me as being as clever and innovative as the previous three series were.
Much of the programme's humour involved double entendre, but this double entendre seems to dominate the fourth series, and sometimes the attempts are a bit of a stretch. The loss of Bill Pertwee limits the writing, and sometimes the cast announce that an actor is playing multiple parts in a sketch.
Michael Meckler
Mark Saltveit
Probertd8