Take It From Here

Notes

G20 The 20th show of series 7, originally broadcast on 25 Mar 1954, was the programme’s 6th anniversary. Presumably to allow radio stations to use the show anywhere during re-runs, the BBC produced a re-edited version of this show, including segments from H5 and G23. For the final sketch, Cornish Smuggling, from G23, was substituted for the original Paul Grosgrain, Painter. This re-edited version is the one normally available now.

H12 The 12th show of series 8, originally broadcast on 24 Feb 1955, also only seems to be available in a “compilation” form, containing the final sketch from G15, The Old Tivoli, instead of Hollywood.

H25 The 25th show of series 8, originally broadcast on 26 May 1955, also only seems to be available in a “compilation” form, containing the Glums sketch from H26, Ron & Eth’s wedding day , instead of Ron considers his upbringing.

I5 Another “compilation” show! Series 9 show 5 in circulation, originally broadcast on 1 Nov 1955, has the opening sketch, The £1000 give-away quiz from I6, instead of Meeting Wal, Programme Controller.

J11 Scriptwriter Dennis Norden was ill when he should have been writing the 11th show in the 10th series, and so the programme, broadcast on 13 Mar 1957, was mainly made up of sketches from previous shows. The Glums segment had Ron deciding to emigrate to Australia (one of several sketches with this theme), and used the scripts originally broadcast in shows 12 and 13 from series 8 (H12 & H13).

K12 The 12th show of the 11th series was Take it from Here’s 10th anniversary show, and it featured classic sketches from the 10-year run. Included were: NHS song to the tune of Tico Tico [from 1948]; Old Wal from the Buildings: Alf and the moving staircase steps; Dick’s “Oh Mavis” character from the early shows; The Keynotes with Just One Of Those Things; Johnny Johnston from The Keynotes faces criticism of song choice; June joins the cast: Pygmalion [from G1]; Charles Maxwell introduces Operatic Weather Forecast [from D7]

Titles:

There are no “official” titles for Take it from Here shows, as far as I know. The first 6 series (“The Joy Nicholls years”) are usually identified by the Keynotes’ song, but sometimes by the title of the final sketch; I’ve included both in this list. Neither is completely unambiguous — the Keynotes sang several songs more than once (eg Easter Parade, Twelve Days Of Christmas, Let’s Do It), and the tradition developed of re-doing a favourite sketch from the previous series in the last show of the series (eg Egg-Bound was performed in A18 and B27).

It may come as a surprise to some, that Take it from Here’s best-known segment, the Glums, didn’t appear until the 7th series, when June Whitfield (who played Eth) and Alma Cogan (who was the inarticulate Mrs Glum) joined the programme. Initially the Glums appeared in the middle of the show as “an ordinary family” discussing (or rather, not discussing) this week’s “TIFH Talking Point”. From series 10, they occupied the final segment, and on two occasions they took up the entire show [L5, L16].

For series 7 - 9 I’ve used titles for both the Glums and the final sketch, and for the remainder, just the title of the Glums sketch. Again there is some ambiguity — Mrs Glum Leaves is used as a title for three (different, I think) sketches — I26, K3 & M17, Ron’s New Suit is used in K16 & M13, and you’ll see others as you go through the list. Where alternate titles are known to be used, I’ve tried to give those too.

First lines:

This is the main purpose of this list — to enable easy identification of already-known shows. I’ve given the first few words of the opening sketch, which is normally a routine with Dick Bentley and Jimmy Edwards. Hopefully, these are all unique.

From series 7 onward, after the Glums make their appearance, I’ve also given the opening of the Glums sketches. (The Glums sometimes appear on their own in postings, and this should help identify their original TIFH appearance.) For series 7 - 9, the sketches almost always start with Eth’s plaintive “Oh Ron!”. From series 10 onwards, the Glums sketches usually start in the pub, with Ted the landlord calling “Time”, and urging his customers to give him their glasses. He usually then starts talking to Mr Glum, who is propping up the corner of the bar, and it’s the start of this conversation that I’ve recorded here.

I hope this list will prove useful. Please let me know about any errors or omissions you find.

Acknowledgement:

Titles and broadcast dates taken from information compiled by the Global British Comedy Collaborative (GBCC), although any errors are mine and not theirs!

Links:
Global British Comedy Collaborative: http://home.attbi.com/~john.lucas/misc/ (thanks to Stephen Shaw for that link)
Whirligig: www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/radio/tifh.htm
British Comedy and Drama website: www.britishcomedy.org.uk/comedy/tifh.htm
Martin Hood's TIFH Page: http://martinsotr.dnsalias.com/TIFH/index.htm
Martin Hood's rough episode guides: http://martinsotr.dnsalias.com/

Compiled by Dave Brown, 5 April 2002. Last updated on 21 October 2005 at 00:41,
table produced from text document using T2T