Tim Brooke-Taylor

Archive, 11 July 1963: Cambridge Circus review

The latest revue from Cambridge University Footlights launches Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and John Cleese onto the comedy circuit.

5 things you might not know about the ISIHAC crew

Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Jeremy Hardy and Jack Dee are taking the beloved radio show on the road. Here's some facts about them.

There are the kind of jokes that often would make a Christmas cracker blush, but if you're in the right mood, it's hard not to find groans transformed into belly laughs by the relentless wordplay in I'm Sorry I Haven't Got A Clue. Tim Brooke-Taylor's contribution to this week's new dictionary definitions round helped wrap up the end of the 60th series (60th!) with a typically silly riff.

"Adamant: the very first male ant. Buoyant: Adam Ant's son. Descant: an ant with an office job. Distant: an ant who's been slagged off. Equidistant: an ant who's been slagged off by a horse. Hydrant: an ant with three heads. Mutant: an ant who's lost his voice. Tyrant: an ant who works for Kwik-fit. Incessant: an ant who's sleeping with his sister."

When are we going to call time on the panel-game format? Trawling through classic British sitcom clips and listening to Jo Brand, Rebbeca Front, Barry Cryer and this week's guest Tim Brooke-Taylor shooting the breeze is a jolly concept in itself; do we really have to pretend it's a quiz? Cryer and Brooke-Taylor should have spotted the danger given they've been playing "the antidote to panel games" since 1972 on Radio 4.

Dad's Army's Ian Lavender and dinnerladies' Anne Reid provide a vintage tint of comic triumphs past, but if this generation's trapped in squidgy sofas playing for points, who's going to be free to make the future comedy classics?

Tim Brooke-Taylor interview

From the Footlights to The Frost Report and The Goodies, Tim Brooke-Taylor's spent his career turning out madcap comedy. Now he's at it again...

Until the last syllable of recorded time, there will ALWAYS be something funny about watching camcorder footage of people falling off garden trampolines. There's one at the end of this Animal Antics that doesn't involve an animal, and it's a piece of pure visual and hubristic poetry.

Elsewhere in a daft pretend news bulletin presented by "anchor" Tim Brooke-Taylor and Sparky the dog (comedian Matthew Crosby) you can rejoice in a baton-twirling bear, dogs sitting like humans on sofas, a dancing poodle and, best of all, a man being attacked by a very angry and persistent goose. Oh, and there's a lot of film of cats doing silly things.

Harry Hill is the master of the camcorder clip show. No one comes close to his surreal majesty. Even dressing up snippets of animals doing daft things as a pretend news bulletin, with ex-Goodie Tim Brooke-Taylor and a man disguised as a dog as anchormen will never make Animal Antics into the BBC's version of You've Been Framed. That said, if you love an uncomplicated laugh (and if you don't, what's wrong with you?), there will be something here for you, whether it's a baby grizzly bear stuck up a tree, a pug trapped in a toilet, or a squirrel eating a bacon sandwich. And if you like cats doing silly things, prepare to laugh yourself to unconsciousness.

The main Radio 4 comedy celebrating Christmas was I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, broadcast as a 45-minute long extended edition. Stephen Fry was the guest, alongside host Jack Dee, panellists Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, and pianist Colin Sell - although sadly no Samantha (Sven took the place as scorer).

In the special there was the usual selection of rounds, from "Mornington Crescent" to "Sound Charades", and "Nativity Radio Times" to "One Song to the Tune of Another", which allows the listeners to hear Fry's version of Goodness Gracious Me to the tune of The First Noel, a sound which makes you wonder who would win a singing contest between Fry and Jeremy Hardy...

One of my main complaints about the BBC's comedy programming in 2012 was the lack of coverage it gave to the ISIHAC's 40th anniversary. This show was almost the only marker of the celebration, whereas the 45th anniversary of Just a Minute was given extensive coverage, including a TV adaptation (the third in its history) and episodes recorded in India.

JAM's a great comedy too, of course, but I do think that ISIHAC is the better of the two. And if the BBC aren't going to honour it then hopefully I can here. Here's to another 40 years of funnies - maybe...

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Humph told the filthiest jokes

Veteran comic broadcaster Tim Brooke-Taylor recalls his 40 years on Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue...