After a Bank Holiday afternoon of snoozing between Meteor and snatched episodes from ITV3’s blissful Sherlock Holmes weekend, there it was, shining like a beacon of hope at 6.30 – I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue on erm… Radio 4.
Yes, yes, I know this is TV Today, but sometimes you just have to go off-piste, especially when you’re trying to quench the thirst of your excitement for the premiere of X Factor – Battle of the Stars (Simon Cowell versus Gillian McKeith? There is a God!). And it struck me that after 34 Years on air, the singular greatest achievement in television history is that no bright-eyed executive has ever sought to plunder this radio gem for the cathode ray…
Oh. Somebody did.
The BBC, in its wisdom, had clearly seen the folly in a TV version of “the antidote to panel games”, but in the early 90s, Granada thought that bringing chairman Humphrey Lyttleton and regular team members Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and the late Willie Rushton, to the small screen was something of a goer. What current ISIHAC producer John Naismith describes as “an inexpensive pilot” was duly recorded – the thought of a visual Mornington Crescent scarcely bears thinking about, let alone Sound Charades.
According to Tim Brooke Taylor, the reaction to the pilot from ITV was:
“Yes, great programme but could we have some younger people in it?”
Well, I’ve heard about having a face for radio, but an age..? Thankfully a series never materialised, so the charms of the lovely Samantha, the girl who scores everywhere, can be enjoyed where they belong…
Read what the teams have to say about their experiences recording the pilot here.
