I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue

Last night we went to see the ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue‘ tour at Reading. This was a ‘not for radio’ show – probably best thought of as the ‘Tim Brooke-Taylor retirement fund’ (Humph isn’t likely to retire!)

As might be expected it was very entertaining (though, heretically, Mornington Crescent doesn’t do it for me).

I loved Jeremy Hardy singing (‘Thank you for the Music’… and as Abba fades out, Jeremy continues….), he also did one song to the tune of another – singing ‘I tawt I taw a puddy tat’ to… ack, can’t recall. It may have been ‘Jerusalem’.

In the ‘re-written nursery rhyme’ round, Graham Garden managed a nice reference to Bill Oddie… it’s frustrating. With comedy, I know if I enjoyed it, and at the time I think ‘I’ll remember that’ – but within a minute the next few gags have come along and it all becomes a blur.

The perfect audience member for ‘Clue’.

My favourite game had to be when the audience used the kazoo to play a song, and the panel had to guess. Hundreds of people trying to play ‘Feelings’ or ‘I like to go a-wandering The Lonely Goatherd’ was just chaos. (memory is such a fallible thing!)

The highlight of the evening, as always with ‘Clue’ was Humphrey Lyttleton. The man is a legend, with a sense of timing that’s superb. After a hilarious stint by the panel, Humph will pause, say ‘mmm’ in a resigned way… and move on. The best bit of the show was the finale – after the kazoo and swannie-whistle round, Humphrey’s trumpet came out, and we were treated to ‘We’ll meet again’. Accompanied of course, by kazoo and swannie-whistle.

After the show, I really wanted to wait by the stage door – mainly to meet Humphrey, but also to see the Goodies (sorry, Jeremy, Barry and Colin). Unfortunately we had a little drive to get home, and needed to get home safely with tiredness creeping up – so it wasn’t to be.

Update: Post from someone else who was there