When Humph got the hump
Lyttelton's reservations over Clue
Humphrey Lyttelton’s on-air complaints about the quality of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue might not have been quite as tongue-in-cheek as audiences thought.New posthumous memoirs reveal that the talented jazz trumpeter thought the programme was ‘nonsense’ and that he would be happy to see it cancelled.
In 1975, just three years after the popular Radio 4 ‘antidote to panel games’’ started, he wrote: ‘I'm not sure that this game show hasn't finally run its course.
‘This has been a good series with better games than before, but there have been moments when it floundered. I shan't be sorry if it expires.
‘I'm rather tired of people coming up and saying, “I enjoyed your programme the other day” and finding out they mean this bit of nonsense!’
However, it seems he had a change of heart, as he hosted the programme for another 33 years, up until his death in April this year at the age of 86.
At a live version of the show just three days before he died, a pre-recorded message from Lyttelton was played to the Bournemouth audience: ‘I'm sorry I can't be with you today as I am in hospital - I wish I'd thought of this sooner.’
The new revelations come in the memoir Last Chorus: An Autobiographical Medley, published yesterday. Click here to buy
Published: 26 Oct 2008
