The teams appeared, as if by magic.
Sunday night was rather excellent. We went to Sunderland to see a recording of cult Radio 4 show ISIHAC (I'm sorry I haven't a clue). They record two shows at each venue - and we certainly saw a couple of goodies.
In addition to Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor there was Barry Cryer and Tony Hawkes. There was also Coin at the piano. Sorry, I missed Colin's “L”.
Humph was gloriously saluted as “still alive”, and so the tone was set by the show's producer, Jon Naismith - whose funny intro had us all immediately in a good frame of mind. He told two rather awful jokes, and invited us in the unlikely event that something being said which may not be funny, to give them the benefit of the doubt and laugh anyway.
This, we were happy to do, and we laughed the entire evening away.
Humph was dry as ever, the jokes were often hilarious and, surprisingly, some of the scripted stuff was amongst the funniest of the night. It's hard to be funny about ISIHAC, because it will always be funnier back.
They are all too witty, too quick and far more experienced at making people laugh. On the way back, all our little jokes seemed somehow pale and rubbish.
The most exciting thing, other than the show itself, was getting stuck in the lift on the way out. I've never been stuck in a lift before and all those nightmare thoughts do start leaping around in the old grey matter. Thankfully, we were quickly rescued in time to get out to our waiting chariot. As Jason gently drove us home, it all started to feel like a surreal memory.
The hushed anticipation.
These pictures were all taken from the comfort of a box. Yes, a box. I was too much of a man for the theatre seating, so the world's kindest ever manager found us a spare box and we watched the show in the most wonderful comfort. There was even somewhere to hang our coats. Sweet.
The people sitting in the dress circle. Upstairs was the undress circle and no-one would let me in. I was forced to stay with TL in our luxurious and unexpected box.
In attendence were: Jason, Antonia, Tim, TL, Rebecca and me. It was an excellent outing, and I would encourage you to rush for tickets if you see the show on at a venue near you. someone will no doubt comment and tell you how to join the mailing list so you get tipped off early as to where the shows will be. Ours was the last recording of the series, but more are planned in the New Year.
One final fillet: The South Bank Show are profiling Humph and were filming the show we were at, so you may want to look out in the Spring for that. Should be a belter.
Really finally: “Our” shows go out on the 11th December and the week after. Quite a quick edit and broadcast - much quicker than TV. Apart from the news, of course, but that goes without saying.
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