h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

so nice to vader your jolly ol' eek!
And what stunning Lallies you have

('scuse spelling, I've never seen it written)

And from this you'll guess that I'm enjoying your shiny new tag.

Oh look, it's Sho How bona to vader your dolly old eek! What brings you trollin' in 'ere?

You've obviously never seen my lallies cos you wouldn't say that if you had

By the way, I believe we have a pretty decent Entry on Polari Yes, here it is A10357832

I remembered that right after I posted!
And I also remembered that my mum sent me a Round the Horne CD not long ago so I'm off to have a listen.

(and I'm sure your lallies are perfectly bona...)

They're okay, just a bit skinny.

I remember listening to Round the Horne on the radio, so I must have been around 10 at the time. I had no idea of the connotations, of course. I don't know whether or not my parents did but RtH was compulsory Saturday lunchtime listening whenever it was on. And if RtH wasn't on it'd be Ken Dodd. And if Ken Dodd wasn't on... couldn't be Men From the Ministry, that was a weekday programme. Couldn't be Jimmy Clitheroe or Navy Lark, they were on Sunday. Hmm, that's got me flummoxed now

I wonder what my parents would have said if they really knew what Kennth Williams meant by 'He's a bona player of the cottage upright'

I only got to listen to it in the 70s and 80s when we lived in Germany and it was broadcast on BFBS radio. And if it wasn't that it was Hello Cheeky or The Navy Lark ("MT officceeee")

And there was a BBC production called Injury Time which featured, among others, Rory McGrath and Emma Thompson.

Aside from Julian and Sandy I liked Rambling Sid Rumpole too - although apart from Jules 'n' Sands it's difficult really to pick something else over the other elements of the programme.

Every single part of Round the Horne was my favourite, right from "And here are the answers to last week's quiz", all the way through to "You have either been listening to or have just missed..." Quality comedy writing from beginning to end, and the perfect team. Whenever I listen to it I... wait, let me come at this from another direction.

When I was working in London as Man and a Van, I once did a little removal job for a woman whose father had been an architect and who had designed the house they grew up in. It might have been this one http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.538194,-0.178678&spn=0.011438,0.033023&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=6&layer=c&cbll=51.538509,-0.178621&panoid=O1i0jaL4F0FMBF6q7cX0LQ&cbp=12,93.8,,0,-0.23 I know for sure it was in Loudon Road, opposite another road). It doesn't look much from the outside, but the inside was pure 1960s and had hardly changed since then. I'm not sure I can describe exactly what I mean. It wasn't all psychedelic and hippy kind of sixties, more sort of open staircases, lots of mahogany, built-in aquariums used as room dividers... this doesn't really do it justice. You had to be there. If I ever find some pictures of what I'm thinking of I'll post them here. If I remember rightly the house was built around 63 or 64 and was at the cutting edge of interior decor for the time.

Any road up, whenever I listen Round the Horne it reminds me of that house and the general feel of the time