"Round The Horne" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Barry Took and Marty Feldman

Eric Merriman wrote "Beyond Our Ken", the predecessor of "Round The Horne", but after a disagreement with the BBC he decided not to continue. Barry Took and Marty Feldman were brought in, and together they wrote the first 50 episodes.Marty Feldman then left to go back to performing, although he was consulted on some of the sketches in the last series, in particular "Julian and Sandy". His place was taken by Johnnie Mortimer, Brian Cooke and Donald Webster.

Frank Muir and Denis Norden wrote for various radio and television shows including "Whack-O", "Take It From Here" and "The Glums".

Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan were members of "The Goons".

Answer: Betty Marsden

Betty Marsden put on a number of voices for the series, memorably Fanny Haddock, Zsa Zsa Poltergeist and Barbara Cartload. She did sexy sirens to old hags with equal ease. It was rumoured that she was going to leave at the end of the fourth series and be replaced by Joan Sims, but Kenneth Horne died very unexpectedly so Series Four proved to be the last made. Betty Marsden died in 1998 at the age of 79.

Answer: Kenneth Williams

Rambling Syd Rumpo was a parody of all the folk singers you have ever heard. He started his slot with "Ullo mi derios", then gave a description of the song, which was a complete masterpiece of the use of double entendres, before launching into the song itself. Titles such as "Green Grow My Nadgers O" and "The Ballad of The Wogglers Moulie" pushed the limits of acceptability for Sunday afternoon broadcasting. Brilliantly played by Kenneth Williams he was a staple ingredient of the programme.

Answer: J Peasmold Gruntfuttock

J Peasmold Gruntfuttock, played by Kenneth Williams, wanted nothing more than to get his hands on Judith Chalmers. He was also the self-styled King, and later Dictator, of Peasmoldia, a small area of London just off the Balls Pond Road.

Dr Cho En Ginsberg MA (Failed) and Spasm the butler, are also Kenneth Williams characters.

Binkie Huckaback, an aging juvenile lead, was played by Hugh Paddick.

Answer: Many, many times

Bea Clissold, Lady Counterblast, played by Betty Marsden, featured in "The Clissold Saga", a regular sketch in the first series. Said in a deep and husky voice "many, many times" had a distinct sexual overtone.

"Hello cheeky face" was Blossom, another Betty Marsden character.

"I need to be serviced" was Kenneth Williams complaining about the scripts, and "I got a touch of the dooms" was Williams again, as Spasm, Lady Counterblast's butler.

Answer: Douglas Smith

Sounding like a typical BBC serious announcer of the period made Douglas Smith even funnier. He announced the sketches first, and then which part he was going to play, which was always an unlikely object, such as a door, a castle, a lion or even the world. He then contributed verbal sound effects, saying "roar roar", "creak, clang, creak", etc.

Answer: Hugh Paddick

Julian and Sandy were two out of work, rather camp, actors who tried their hand at a variety of businesses. Their sketches were peppered with gay slang, which was virtually unknown to the rest of Britain at the time. Kenneth Horne always played their unknowing comic foil, and visited them in various establishments they had set up in Chelsea, such as "Bona Law", "Bona Florists", and "Bona Pets".

Answer: Kenneth Horne

Delivered in dead pan style this gave answers to questions that had not been asked so no-one knew what they actually were, and included, for example, "Where Do You Find It? - answer - wrapped around a sailors leg,
under a prize bull, floating in the bath".

Special events included such unlikely things as "Coat a Sheep in Raspberry Jam Week", "Floodlit Horse Massaging" or "Nark Fettering on Ice".

Answer: Dame Celia Molestrangler

"Fiona and Charles" spoke in Noel Coward type dialogue with impeccable upper class accents. Their conversations consisted of exchanges such as;

Fiona - "I know".
Charles - "I know you know".
Fiona - "I know you know I know".
Charles - "Oh Fiona".
Fiona - "I know".
Charles - "I know you know".

And on and on.

The other three characters did not exist.

Answer: Hugh Paddick

Hugh Paddick played the very cockney Lotus Blossom, concubine of Dr Chou En Ginsburg MA (failed), who was played by Kenneth Williams.

As a footnote to this quiz, for anyone who is interested repeats of "Round The Horne" can be regularly heard on digital radio, and a very successful stage show, "Round The Horne Revisited", based on actual scripts from the series
tours the UK from time to time.