Im Sorry Ill Read That Again Episode 2

L to R: Bill Oddie, John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Jo Kendall, Graeme Garden and David Hatch

"This is 'I'thousand Sorry I'll Read That Again', an extravaganza specially written for the wireless by several persons, and featuring a number of performers."

—Announcer

I'm Sorry I'll Read That Over again was a popular BBC Sketch Comedy show which ran betwixt 1965 and 1973, with a one-off "25th ceremony" prove in 1989. It was something of a spiritual successor to The Goon Show, featuring numerous awful puns, funny voices and bizarre situations. The program originated from a broadcast of the 1963 Cambridge Circus revue, followed past three preparatory shows in April 1964, which were followed by the first series proper a year and a half after.

The cast, all Cambridge alums, included Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Nib Oddie, who later went on to create The Goodies, and John Cleese, who, forth with occasional writers Eric Idle and Graham Chapman, later went on to form Monty Python. Also in the bandage were Jo Kendall and David Hatch. The early series featured occasional appearances by producer Humphrey Barclay (the original managing director of Cambridge Circus), but these concluded after Barclay handed the reins of production to Hatch.

The format of the show was rather slapdash in the beginning, but eventually was streamlined into a Cold Opening sketch followed past the tongue-in-cheek opening announcements, followed by two or three unrelated sketches, a (commonly) comic vocal by Pecker Oddie, and then the extended central sketch of the week, normally an Appreciating Parody of either a specific picture, volume, or play, or merely a genre.

I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again was responsible for the cosmos of I'chiliad Sorry I Haven't a Clue a few years afterward.

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Tropes:

• Cryptic Syntax: One John and Mary sketch has John driving Mary effectually the bend with an ceaseless cord of magic tricks:

  John: How nigh the baffling Chinese mice play a joke on?
  Mary: Darling, the dining room is total of Chinese mice as it is.
  John: Well, can't I become down and bamboozle them?

• And Starring: Invoked in the intro of one episode, in which no one can agree nigh the casting and billing.

  John: This is I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, with special guest John Cleese.
  Tim: Featuring Tim Brooke-Taylor...
  David: Starring David Hatch!
  Graeme: Surprise celebrity — Graeme Garden!
  Jo: Introducing Jo Kendall.
  Bill: With...(sadly) Beak Oddie.

• Butt-Monkey: Bill Oddie, and occasionally David Hatch. Case:

  Jo Kendall: And now a trivial song well-nigh a 1-man band, sung past our lilliputian songster, Pecker Oddie, who should be ane man banned.

• Campsite Gay: Often played by Tim Brooke-Taylor, and sometimes John Cleese as well.
• Campsite Straight: Sir Prancelot, in the King Arthur sketch, is Tim Brooke-Taylor at his near military camp — and madly in beloved with the King'south daughter.

  Prancelot: That surprised you lot, didn't information technology?

• Captain Obvious: They mined this for a lot of humour.

  David: Oedipus had known his mother a long time.

• Car Meets Business firm: Neb and Graeme park within Tim's business firm in the 25th anniversary episode.
• Catchphrase: Usually avoided, although "I'm the rex rat!" stands out as an exception, also as Jo Kendall'southward characters' "Hello, sailor!" and Bill Oddie's "How de do dere, honey!"
  • One episode featured Bill attempting to turn "Terrapins!" into a catch phrase, only for the residue of the cast to proceed telling him at that place was null funny most terrapins. He proceeded to prove them wrong with "The Terrapin Song".
  • Another episode included characters randomly blurting out the word "teapot" in the hope that the audience would exist conditioned to find it funny. And past halfway through the episode they were.
  • Catchphrases seemed to go on happening, whether the performers wanted them or not. In one later on episode, they ran through all the catchphrases from the show's run right at the start to get them over with, with John Cleese commenting "Honestly, it's like feeding time at the zoo" at the audience'due south cheers. ^note A reflection of John'southward 18-carat cloy at the do of milking catchphrases for laughs - and the susceptibility of audiences to said practice.
• Censored for Comedy: A recurring gag with medleys of censored songs from performers similar Tom Jones or Rolf Harris. As you can imagine, they had a lot of fun with songs like 'Two Little Boys' (even if that's Harsher in Hindsight at present).
• Character Evolution: Unusual for a sketch testify, but still present — for many seasons, David Hatch commonly played himself playing a generic journalist, and was otherwise either boring or snarky. Then, towards the end of season 7 and throughout season 8, he started identifying himself more every bit a producer, becoming more assertive, occasionally power-mad, and actively trying to stop the surreality/filthy-mindedness of other cast members rather than simply providing a contrast to it.
• Deadpan Snarker: David Hatch and John Cleese, only John especially. A running gag was him breaking grapheme or otherwise interrupting to snark.

  David: London is abode to many people.
  John: ..."London is home to many people". Oh, well done. David Hatch, the boy genius.

• Dirty Old Man: Grimbling.

  John: Aren't you a fiddling past it, quondam man?
  Grimbling: No, I'm a little dirty old man.

• Double Entendre: Almost every joke that wasn't a pun was this. Sometimes the jokes were sexual in nature, sometimes they were only plays on the fact that a given give-and-take or phrase could be taken two different ways and spun off from the less obvious estimation.

  David: Think of Scandinavia, and you may think of beautiful blondes.
  Graeme: Oh, may I?
  David: Oh, certainly.
  Graeme, Neb, Tim: [lustily] Wa-hey!...
  Graeme: [chuckles] Oh, thanks, I enjoyed that.
  David: Yes, non at all.

• Exact Words: The unfortunate name of an arts show is caused by this.

  David: No, no, that's not going to cutting it. Look, nosotros need an arts show — but something with a bit of a kick in it.
  (theme music)
  Tim: We present A Kicking In The Arts.

• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Played for laughs in a sketch where Tim, John and Jo wanted to nowadays 3 different radio programs (gardening, yoga and cookery respectively) at the aforementioned time, so Graeme makes them share the same microphone, leading to a barrage of Double Entendre one-act.

  Tim: Good evening. Now is the time of twelvemonth you should be lifting your bulbs-
  John: -crossing your legs-
  Jo: -and whipping one-half a dozen-
  Tim: -pansies. And every bit shortly equally y'all can, get them into the bed-
  Jo: -coat them liberally with butter-
  John: -and take a deep breath.

• Hurricane of Puns: Many times.
• Impossible Insurance: In one sketch, a character buys a ridiculously-specific insurance policy that will but pay out if he's trampled past a herd of bison in the center of Whitehall. As he is explaining to a skeptical friend (while standing in the middle of Whitehall) what a good deal it was, he is indeed trampled by a herd of bison — only information technology turns out they're buffalo, not bison.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: By the bushel.
• Inherently Funny Words: Favorite frequently-used funny words on the show included "ferret", "rhubarb tart", "gibbon", and "terrapin".
• I Resemble That Remark!: Unintentional on David'due south part. From their version of Alice Through The Looking-Drinking glass:

  David: Oh my, oh my, oh my—I'm late, I'm late, I'm late—oh my ears and whiskers—oh my, I'g late, I'm late, I'm late...
  John: Information technology was a loony.
  David: I am not! I'm a little white rabbit!

• Leave Behind a Pistol: Played for Laughs in their Great Escape sketch where the escaping P.O.W.s are told:

  In case of capture, y'all'll each have a pistol with 1 bullet. And then, for God'southward sake, exist careful or you could hurt yourself!

• Left the Groundwork Music On: Several times. In ane episode, the BBC tin't beget any musicians, so the linking music that usually signifies a shift in location is conspicously absent. The cast, therefore, sing an a cappella rendition of the music to motion from location to location.
  • Also played straight at times:

    BBC Manager: Now, here'southward what we desire you to practice!
    [transitional piano music]
    David Hatch: ...but I can't play the pianoforte.

  • An episode opens in the Houses of Parliament. The narrator explains that "select committees meet to discuss matters of national import" and and then there is a tinkly piano transition. Followed past the narrator calculation "And play the piano". The scene so cuts to a meeting room where a member is asked to stop playing the piano and come dorsum to the table.
  • In "Murder on the iii.17 to Cleethorpes", Hush-hush Serviceman Cliff Hanger-Ending (David) has but received orders from his boss, Special Branch head Twiggy (Graeme), to take classified documents to Cleethorpes, and says he volition never exist forgotten if he succeeds. Twiggy and so immediately forgets who Hanger-Catastrophe is and orders him out of his part. A clarinet-led musical transition follows, after which Twiggy adds, "And accept that blasted clarinet with you lot!"
  • Another 1 from the 25th anniversary testify when John begins to deliver an impassioned speech communication virtually how miserable he was not being allowed to do a Silly Walk or sing 'The Ferret Vocal' and a pitiful trombone starts playing in the background.

  John: Don't desert me, please... don't abandon me, delight... and delight... stop playing that bloody trombone, would you!

• Loads and Loads of Roles: There were just vi performers (and very occasional contributions from early on series producer Humphrey Barclay), only the spoof radio dramas that took up the second one-half of most episodes always featured many more than than six characters, requiring frequent doubling, tripling, or quadrupling up of roles (ofttimes resulting in performers - about ofttimes Tim Brooke-Taylor - holding conversations with themselves).
• Lovable Sex activity Maniac: Lady Constance. Her being an Abhorrent Gentleman didn't assistance.
• Mistaken for Gay: This, from "The Source of the Nile".

  Egyptian Man: Effendi, effendi! I take nice sister!
  Lord Luvaduck: How dare y'all?! I'thousand an English lord!
  Egyptian Human: Oh, I apologize. Effendi, effendi! I accept nice blood brother!

• My Friends... and Zoidberg
• No Bookkeeping for Taste: John and Mary, played by John Cleese and Jo Kendall. Unremarkably Mary is a Love Martyr, only sometimes she hates John equally much as he hates her.
• Punny Name: Many.
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: The show seems to accept gotten exponentially faster and funnier each serial.
• Refuge in Audacity: You amend believe it! They managed to get away with some staggeringly offensive jokes because of it (their 'Black and White Minstrel Show' went through various incarnations including the 'Yellow and White Minstrel Show' and the 'Red and White Minstrel Show' before settling on Tim performing solo as the 'Pink and White Minstrel Show').
• Reunion Show: The 25th Ceremony show in 1988.
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: The final episode of the Professor Prune And The Electrical Time Trousers serial opens with all the characters dying. They get better.
• Running Gag: Many, such equally Tim Brooke-Taylor playing all women'southward parts, the phrase "promises, promises" to signify a Double Entendre, David Hatch playing all wearisome bits, ferrets, gibbons, OBEs, and John Davidson (who?).
• Show Stopper:
  • One time she becomes an established recurring grapheme, Lady Constance's first appearance in any given episode always causes a prolonged audience reaction. (Inevitably, several episodes deliberately subvert the audience's expectation of an impending entrance by Lady Constance... for a infinitesimal or two, anyway.)
  • From the serial Professor Clip And The Electric Fourth dimension Trousers, at every appearance of Spot the Domestic dog (played by Tim Brooke-Taylor, who had previously not been given a role in the series), there's huge audience applause, fifty-fifty though his only line is "Woof!". Somewhen, John Cleese gets jealous.

  David: Oh, come up now, John — you lot've got a sports auto, a mansion, a career—all Tim's got is his woof! You don't begrudge him that, do y'all?
  John: Yes.

• Shout-Out: In the 25th Anniversary episode, the chief of police calls in "Hercule Parrot". Who is promptly shot, making him Hercule ex-Parrot.
  • Professor Prune And His Electric Fourth dimension Trousers
• Show Inside a Show: All the time, since the setting of the show was a radio station. Near notable is the weekly Prune Play Of The Week and the two serials, Curse Of The Flying Wombat and Professor Clip And His Electric Time Trousers, which featured an eccentric erstwhile buffer and his intrepid young administration, travelling through space and fourth dimension in the aforementioned Time Trousers.
• Sound-to-Screen Adaptation: As with so many other BBC radio comedy shows before and since, sketches which beginning aired on this testify, depending on who wrote them, migrated to television and took on a visual dimension. ISIRTA sketches went to Goggle box shows as diverse equally At Concluding the 1948 Show, The Goodies and Monty Python's Flying Circus.
• Spoonerism: The first episode of Series 5 ("Bunny and Claude") segues from the opening credits into "The David Hatch Bear witness", in which David passes himself off as a DJ. His DJ patter includes the following careful subversion of the obvious spoonerisms:

  David Hatch: Yes, it's Dave the Rave on the medium moving ridge, with another happy-go-go, ringing-dinging, bunky-futting, frunty-bucking, brunty-funking, funting-butting - that was close! (audience laughter) Funky-butting fun time of fun and frolics on Radio Hatch!

• Stage Wizard: One John and Mary sketch has John driving Mary round the bend with an incessant cord of magic tricks, including versions of Selection a Carte du jour (he gets the card wrong) and What Accept We Ear? (producing several remarkable objects, none of which is the one he intended).
• Straight Man: David Hatch, who claims he "only does the narration and wearisome bits". Occassionally he bemoans information technology, and occassionally he uses information technology to avoid taking part in the latest shenanigans. (He did ofttimes go his share of puns to deliver, though. Just not as many light-headed voices.)
• Take That!: Tony Blackburn, David Frost and many others.
• Take That, Us
• Translation: "Yes": In the "Schmurtot Yach Proxyl?" sketch, an episode of a program teaching a fictional Eastern European linguistic communication.

  "Did you notice that word 'apklaptischmurkschlagomfarawak'? Yes, it means 'with'."

• Travelling at the Speed of Plot: Utterly averted in an installment of Professor Prune and the Electric Fourth dimension Trousers.

  They built a boat and crossed the Atlantic in a record xvi years.

• Un Sound Effect: Oft.

  Narrator: They basked in the sun merrily.
  Crowd: Enjoy, enjoy, bask...
  Voice: Merrily!

• Weird Merchandise Union: In one episode a parody of "Song of the Due south" is held up by the representative of the division of Animals' Disinterestedness representing spiny anteaters, marsupials and other lower mammals, who demands that some of the parts should go to members of that division. Leading choruses of "B'rer Rabbit out! B'rer Platypus in!", he is successful, and when the production continues, not only does B'rer Platypus accept the leading office, in that location'due south too i for B'rer Bandicoot.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain

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