I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue

ITV wanted younger teams for ISIHAC TV pilot

Plans for a TV version of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue were dropped - because executives thought the teams were too old.

ISIHAC to drop Lionel Blair running joke

It is the end of an era: I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue is to lay off the jokes about Lionel Blair.

Tony Hawks sings Gangnam Style on ISIHAC

Tony Hawks, playing I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue sings Gangnam Style.

No disrespect to Eton schoolboys or Ai Weiwei ("Gangnam Style is YouTube's most-viewed", 26 November), but surely the highest accolade that can be bestowed on Psy's Gangnam Style is to have the viral dance track included on Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Last week's hilarious rendition by Tony Hawks as part of "pick up song" is a classic.

Barry Cryer: ISIHAC is best when it's falling apart

As the long-running Radio 4 show returns, the stalwart panelist celebrates the late Humphrey Lyttelton, his replacement Jack Dee - and the importance of silliness.

Gloriously groan-worthy gags from 40 years of ISIHAC

The late Humphrey Lyttelton once wrote: 'As we journey through life, discarding baggage along the way, we should keep an iron grip, to the very end, on the capacity for silliness. It preserves the soul from desiccation.' No radio show has aided that cause greater than I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

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...

Graeme Garden: I'm a bit like Mr Micawber, but luckier

Writer, comedian and former Goodie Graeme Garden, 68, lives in Oxfordshire with his second wife Emma.

There is no better place to seek out a little light relief than I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, now incredibly in its 55th series. Doubtless many long term fans of the show who still pine for Humphrey Lyttelton as chair, but Jack Dee does a fine job, especially when he throws in a few dry asides.

In the first instalment of the new series, recorded at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall, regulars Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor were joined by relative newcomer Marcus Brigstocke, the latter managing to impress his cohorts with a classy move during a round of Mornington Cresent. With Colin Sell at the piano and Samantha on the scoreboard, the endless nonsense and wit was still laugh out loud funny, my favourite moment on this occasion being Summertime sung to the theme from Jim'll Fix It.

The main problem I have with I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue as a reviewer is that it's impossible to review such a classic show, one which has been on the air for nearly 40 years. What can you say about it that hasn't been said already?

Well, let's start off with the guest panellist - first-timer Marcus Brigstocke. Out of the four panellists (the others being the three regulars, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden), he seemed to have the funniest bits. Maybe he was the funniest, maybe it's the show's view to make the guest look the funniest, I don't know. However, he did seem to have many high points in the episode I listened to - his rendition of "Common People" to the tune of "If You're Happy and Know It", for example, was great.

There was also the introduction of a new round in this show called "Heston's Services". This was akin to similar rounds such as "Book Club" and "Film Club", in this case coming up with meals that Heston Blumenthal would serve at a motorway service station.

The other main component of the show, of course, is host Jack Dee. I know that there are lot of people out there who won't accept him as host and won't be happy until Humphrey Lyttelton is exhumed, reanimated and blowing his trumpet in the chair for all eternity, but Dee does a good job as far as I'm concerned.