My word radio program

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For a definition of the interjection «my word», see the Wiktionary entry my word.

My Word! is a British radio quiz panel game broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service (1956–67) and Radio 4 (1967–88). It was created by Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane, and featured the humorous writers Frank Muir and Denis Norden, known in Britain for the series Take It From Here. The show was piloted in June 1956 on the Midland Home Service and broadcast as a series on the national Home Service network from 1 January 1957. The series also ran on BBC Television for one series from July–September 1960.

For decades the programme was also broadcast worldwide via BBC World Service and was relayed to an international audience though the BBC Transcription Services. A companion programme, My Music, ran from 1967 to 1993.

Background and first broadcasts[edit]

In 1956, Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane, respectively the writer and producer of the popular radio soap opera The Archers, decided that by way of a change they would devise and produce what Frank Muir called «a new kind of not-very-academic literary quiz».^[2] The Aeolian Hall in London was booked for the recording of a pilot show, but at the last minute two of the four panellists were unexpectedly unavailable. Shryane sought the help of Muir and his writing partner Denis Norden, scriptwriters of the popular BBC comedy series Take It From Here, who were based in a nearby office. They thought of themselves as writers rather than performers, but at Shryane’s urgent request they agreed to stand in for the absentees.^[3] Muir was partnered by Isobel Barnett – a panel show regular – and Norden by the journalist Nancy Spain. Mason set the questions, and the chairman was the cricket commentator and poet John Arlott, who was billed as «umpire». The pilot was well received by the audience in the hall and by listeners to its first transmission. The BBC commissioned a series, which was transmitted in early 1957. Muir and Norden had no intention of becoming regular panellists, but Shyrane persuaded them.^[3]

Arlott did not return for the second series, which began in August 1957. He was succeeded by Jack Longland, known to BBC listeners as the chairman of the panel show Country Questions and a regular team member on Round Britain Quiz and panellist on Any Questions?^[4] Although, unlike Arlott, Longland had no particular association with cricket he too was billed as umpire until 1962, after which he was billed as «in the chair», as were his successors.^[5]

Later series[edit]

The programme ran for 38 series, until 1988. Muir and Norden were in every series, always on opposing teams. As Muir’s partner, Barnett was succeeded during the first series by the novelist and critic E. Arnot Robertson. On Robertson’s death in 1961 the film critic and Greek scholar Dilys Powell took her place until the show finished, when she was aged 87. Norden’s first partner was Nancy Spain; after her death in 1964 she was succeeded by the journalist Anne Scott-James, and then from 1979 by the historian Antonia Fraser. In the one season in which Fraser took the chair her place as Norden’s teammate was taken by Irene Thomas.^[6]

After 20 years in the chair, Longland retired from the programme at the end of the 1977 series. He was succeeded by John Julius Norwich for four series, followed by Fraser for a single series and finally Michael O’Donnell for the last five series, from late 1983 to 1988.^[6]

From time to time guests substituted for absent regulars. Neither Spain nor Powell ever missed a broadcast during their time as panellists, but Robertson and Scott-James missed one apiece, their absences covered respectively by Pamela Frankau and Katherine Whitehorn.^[6] Lionel Hale (one of the intended contestants in the pilot show)^[7] deputised for both Muir and Norden in 1967 as did John Wells in 1975 and Barry Took on four occasions between 1978 and 1982. Ted Kavanagh took Muir’s place for two programmes in 1957, and Edward Blishen stood in for Norden in two episodes in 1985. Fraser’s absences between 1986 and 1988 were covered by Joan Bakewell, Victoria Glendinning, P. D. James, Libby Purves and Gay Search.^[8]

After Mason’s death in 1971 Longland took over responsibility for compiling the questions, and was joined in that role by Peter Moore in 1972. After Longland’s retirement Moore continued to set the questions until 1987. For the final season, in 1988, O’Donnell combined the roles of chairman and question-setter.^[6]

Content[edit]

The two teams faced questions devised, for the first 21 series, by Mason, of whom Muir wrote:

One thing which Denis and I learned, and appreciated, during those early years of My Word! was how much the success of the show depended on the inconspicuous skill of the man who compiled it, Edward J. Mason. He had a gift for the common touch which is rare in areas like literary quizzes. He worked within the general awareness of listeners who had been to school; most of his poetic questions were to do with poems in Palgrave’s Golden Treasury, most quotations were semi-familiar and in most books of quotations. We reckoned that 80 per cent of listeners felt that, given a bit of time for thought, they could answer almost 80 per cent of the questions.^[9]

Mason and his successors provided word games and literary quizzes covering vocabulary, etymology, snippets of poetry, and the like. In many series the opening round consisted of obscure words for the panellists to define: examples ranged from such words as auscultation, bumblepuppy, cabless and crinkum-crankum to defenestration, hebetude, hobbledehoy and katydid to lallation, macaronic, palmiped and rahat lokum, or scrimshaw, tatterdemalion, unau and widdershins.^{[10][n 1]}

In the final round, each team was asked to give the origin of a famous phrase or quotation. In early shows, once the real answers were given, Muir and Norden were invited to explain the origin of the phrase less seriously, in the form of a feghoot. An early example was the quotation «Dead! And never called me mother!» from a stage adaptation of East Lynne, which became the exclamation of a youth coming out of a public telephone box which he had discovered to be out of order.^[11] Later the first part of the round was dropped in favour of having the chairman simply announce the accepted origin of each phrase, thus opening up new fields of phrases that would have been too well known or too obscure to be posed as questions. In later series Muir and Norden chose their own phrases in advance of each programme, and their stories became longer and more convoluted.^[11]

The stories became a popular segment of the quiz. Examples included Norden’s tale in which a young woman and a young man found themselves happily trapped in a sauna despite earlier assurances from the landlord that the faulty lock had been repaired: «Least said, soonest mended» became «Lease said sauna’s mended».^[12] In another, «There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip» became a story about Édouard Manet in a drunken doze in a beauty spot between a carp pond and Lover’s Leap – «There’s Manet asleep ‘twixt the carp and the leap».^[12] In another, Muir confessed to forging fan letters purportedly from Monica Dickens, Val Gielgud, Asa Briggs and Fay Compton, so that «I am monarch of all I survey» became «I am Monica, Val, Asa, Fay».^[13] A Norden story explaining «Charity shall cover the multitude of sins» became a lament for his diminishing capacity for alcohol and consequent need to enunciate extremely carefully after drinking spirits: «Clarity shall cover the multitude of gins».^[14]

Series history[edit]

A one-off pilot programme was broadcast by the Midland region of the BBC Home Service on 6 June 1956.^[15] When the series was launched on the national BBC network in January 1957, an edited edition of the pilot preceded the 14 new episodes.^[16]

Source: BBC Genome and Global British Comedy Collaborative.^[6][10]

Syndication and spin-offs[edit]

Over the years My Word! was syndicated through the BBC Transcription Services in more than 35 countries including not only Anglophone locations such as Australia and the US, but in countries including Chile, Germany and Russia.^[25] A televised version of the programme ran in Britain for a series of ten episodes on BBC Television from 10 July to 11 September 1960. The team and host were the same as for the radio series of that year; the producer was Barrie Edgar.^[26] A companion radio programme, My Music, ran from 1967 to 1993. When it was mooted, Muir and Norden told Shryane that they were too busy to take on another series, but they allowed themselves to be persuaded and became permanent features on the programme.^[27] In 1972 and 1973 the two shows joined forces to present Christmas specials, My Word! It’s My Music, with Longland and Steve Race as co-hosts and the regular My Word team joined by Ian Wallace and David Franklin (1972), and Wallace and John Amis (1973).^[28]

Between 1974 and 1989, Muir and Norden published five collections of their My Word! stories, and in 1991 an omnibus edition of the five volumes was issued:

• You Can’t Have Your Kayak and Heat It. Eyre Methuen. 1973. ISBN 978-0-41-330660-9.
• Upon My Word!. London: Eyre Methuen. 1974. ISBN 978-0-41-332660-7.
• Take My Word for It. London: Eyre Methuen. 1978. ISBN 978-0-41-706230-3.
• Oh, My Word!. London: Eyre Methuen. 1980. ISBN 978-0-41-347510-7.
• You Have My Word. London: Methuen. 1989. ISBN 978-0-41-361810-8.
• The Utterly Ultimate ‘My Word!’ Collection. London: Mandarin Paperbacks. 1991. ISBN 978-0-74-930824-7., a collection of all five volumes.

Notes, references and sources[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Lamb, Andrew (2006). British Light Music Classics. London: Hyperion Records. OCLC 294847217.
• Muir, Frank (1998). A Kentish Lad: The Autobiography of Frank Muir. London: Corgi. ISBN 978-0-55-214137-6.
• Muir, Frank; Denis Norden (1991). The Utterly Ultimate ‘My Word!’ Collection. London: Mandarin Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-74-930824-7.

External links[edit]

• BBC Ends US Distribution
• «My Word». London: RadioEchoes. 297 episodes.

My Word! was a radio panel game broadcast by the BBC on the Home Service (1956–67) and Radio 4 (1967–88).It was created by Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane, and featured comic writers Denis Norden and Frank Muir.

The two teams faced questions devised by Mason, primarily word games and literary quizzes covering vocabulary, etymology, snippets of
poetry, and the like. When stumped by a question, the contestants could
be sure of receiving generous partial credit for a humorous answer of
enough ingenuity. 

These home recordings were made from radio broadcasts between 1999 and 2006.

comment

Reviews

My Word! is a radio Panel Game that was broadcast on BBC Radio from 1956 to 1988. The chair for the first series was John Arlott; from the second series he was replaced by Jack Longland, who remained in the chair for most of the run. The team captains for the entire run were comedy writers Frank Muir and Denis Norden, with various others filling out the panel over the years.

The first four rounds of each episode were a regular quiz with challenges based on vocabulary and wordplay, such as defining obscure words, identifying the origins of famous sayings, and distinguishing between words with similar and often-confused meanings.

The feature of the programme was the final round. After the first round, Muir and Norden were each given a famous phrase or saying. In the final round, the derivation of each phrase was given, and then Muir and Norden would each tell fanciful stories purporting to be the true derivation, usually by way of a pun. As the series progressed, the explanations got longer and more convoluted, and the requirement that the story be an origin was relaxed, so the stories would more often be anecdotes from, supposedly, the raconteur’s own life.

A television incarnation aired for one series in 1960. A spin-off, My Music, aired on BBC Radio from 1967 to 1993. The series was an acknowledged influence on many later panel game shows, including the American Says You!.

My Word! contains examples of:

• Acting Unnatural: One of Frank Muir’s stories, involving a Naked People Trapped Outside scenario, includes the amazing line: «I crouched down by the side of the road and made a noise like a small hawthorn bush.»
• Blitz Evacuees: In one of Denis Norden’s stories, he reminisced about his own time as an evacuee (in 1935 for some reason), with the daughter of the couple he was billeted with teaching him the ways of the country. Although just how clueless the young Norden was about nature was taken up to eleven:

  «Oh look, Annie!» I’d cry joyously, «Is that what they call wild honeysuckle?»
  «Nay,» she’d answer.
  «Is it a climbing convolvulus?»
  «Nay, lad.»
  «What is it then?»
  «It’s a goat.»

• Bothering by the Book: One of Denis Norden’s stories explained how he worked his exit from the army with pedantically exact interpretations of his superior officers’ orders, often based on his Drill Sergeant Nasty’s pronunciation. For example, on being told to «quick march» (which came out as «Quick Hutch!»), he went AWOL and hid in a cupboard for several weeks, his argument being that «hutch» is a verb meaning «to put away in, or as in, a hutch».
• Cowboys and Indians: During his story on one episode, Frank Muir talked about playing cowboys and Indians at school, and how the toughest boys got to be the cowboys. He always ended up being the pregnant pioneer woman giving birth in the back of a wagon during an Indian raid.
• Curse Cut Short: In one episode, Denis Norden is given the phrase «splendour in the grass» as the key line for his story. Supposedly giving a lecture to the high brass of the British military, he talks about the various tribulations the soldiers in the Trojan Horse would have endured, before concluding that the one thing nobody considers is that the Ancient Greek military uniform is a short leather skirt. Which, coupled with unvarnished wooden seats, meant that their biggest problem would be «splinter in the gentlemen-I-thank-you-for-your-attention».
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: An extended gag in one of Denis Norden’s stories involves him finding an ex-girlfriend «walking the streets». Even after it becomes clear he means she’s a traffic warden, the metaphor continues.

  «If it wasn’t for men like you, there’d be no need for women like me!»
• Doom It Yourself: One of Denis Norden’s stories describes him repairing the light in the fridge himself, after he sees what the electician is charging. He’s adamant that this was a success: the light now works; the boiling ice cubes are just an unfortunate side-effect.
• Feghoot: The final-round stories are in the Feghoot format, a brief story culminating in an awful pun on a familiar phrase or saying.
• A Fool for a Client: In one of his stories, Denis Norden describes defending himself on a charge of assaulting his ballroom dancing partner (he was just trying to get his contact lens back). He lost, he thinks chiefly because he didn’t realize how short the lunch break was and gave himself hiccups by eating too fast when he saw they were starting again. «You can’t advocate and eat at two.»
• Learnt English from Watching Television: One of Denis Norden’s stories involved a Swedish au pair who talked in a broad Oop North accent due to learning English from Coronation Street.
• Literal-Minded: Denis Norden did a story about his struggles with «Literalism», a condition he suffered from, and which could lead to embarrassment, for example upon seeing a sign reading «Urinal out of order. Please use floor below.»
• Moustache de Plume:
  • In one of his stories, Frank Muir describes filling in for the Dear Deirdre advice column in the local paper, because «Deirdre» got his beard caught in the glass-washing machine in the pub after rugby practice. Again.
  • In another, Muir says he’s writing a romance novel under the name Deborah Horseland (which should keep him ahead of Barbara Cartland).
• Mustache Vandalism: In one of his stories, Frank Muir speculates on whether various artworks only achieved greatness by accident. One of his suggestions is that «The Laughing Cavalier» would have been exhibited as clean-shaven if Hals hadn’t left it unattended while he bought a ticket on The London Underground.
• Naked People Trapped Outside: One of Frank Muir’s stories involved him going to a laundromat in the early hours of the morning and, while he was there, deciding to wash the clothes he was wearing as well. Inevitably, he ends up locked out of the laundromat in the altogether.
• Nobody Here but Us Birds: One of Frank Muir’s stories involved him describing a Naked People Trapped Outside episode. During it, he attempted to conceal himself by crouching down by the side of the road and making a sound like a small hawthorn bush.
• Roman � Clef: Parodied in one of Frank Muir’s stories, where he explains he’s going to call a character Lafcadio Quilp to protect his anonymity, before adding «His mother is the dreadful Mrs Snaith who runs the school dinners at a Staines educational establishment, I have met her son Ron a few times.»
• Signs of Disrepair: One of Dennis Norden’s stories involved him having a job at a cinema. One night a storm blew one of the letters off the marquee and smashed it, resulting in them advertising a film called MY FAIR LAD. Not having a spare Y, he stole one from another nearby cinema, leaving them advertising a film called MOB DICK. (And giving him the realisation that «Where there’s a whale, there’s a Y».)
• Squirting Flower Gag: On one occasion, Frank Muir claimed to have bought a squirting flower for a novel purpose: to squirt cold water into his tea at the railway station café without drawing attention to himself, and thereby make it cool enough to drink before his train arrives.
• That Was Objectionable: In one of Denis Norden’s stories, he describes being in court for allegedly assaulting his ballroom dancing partner. At one point, the prosecutor dances with her in order to demonstrate how the ordeal has ruined her ability. Norden instantly jumps up.

  Norden: Your honour, I object!
  Judge: On what grounds?
  Norden: On the grounds that the counsel is leading the witness.

• They Just Don’t Get It: One of Frank Muir’s stories ends with him having to explain to a man that his fiancée and his best friend have just eloped. Frank attempts to explain this in several different ways, but the man’s mind is just incapable of grasping the concept. Finally Frank works out that the only way he can comprehend the message is if it is expressed as a nautical metaphor.
• We Sell Everything: In one of Denis Norden’s stories, he recalls being a Blitz Evacuee to a village with one shop that sold everything. He well remembers the proprietress going up and down the ladder to get a motorbike or piano from the shelves. She also sold ladders. And shelves.

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