RIP Humph

[Nemesis]

I knew we could rely on Hughes...

 

[Penners]

Apparently there's going to be a wake for Humph at his local pub, with a Pearly King in attendance. All the locals are saying they can't wait to see Samantha's knees up round the King's Head.

 

[chuckey]

Having been in broadcasting my whole working life, I am disgusted by the con trick being played by the politicians on saying digital is better. Its not better in terms of quality, there are more channels, so they should say its more numerous(?) or such like, but not better. It could be said that its more spectrum efficient, but as the quality being delivered is also worse this is not a valid argument. Enjoy analogue TV and radio while you can because soon you will loose it for the dubious pleasure of channels you will never use.
Frank

 

[Flyfisher]

Hear hear!
Digital could be much better quality but the powers that be have traded bandwidth (=quality) for more channels (=revenue).
Presumably they've reserved special landfill sites for all the perfectly good FM radios soon to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

 

[chuckey]

Yes FlyFisher, you make a good point, I still have my very first colour set, circa 1973(just before vat came in!) cost £150, have mended it twice, tube still bright but capacitors are growing old, have to switch it on for 1 Hr / 6 months to try and keep them going. Like wise my FM sets slightly younger (1976 ish), never gone wrong. I bought my Daughter a DAB receiver as a present, in pink retro style. Dreadful sound quality. Had a digital signal strength meter that only worked when you have a full strength decodeable signal. Had a grotty F connecter for the aerial attachment. What a pile of rubbish. :evil:
This digital thing is being pushed by the technical community to foist new kit on us.
Sigh, Oh for the days of the cats whisker!
Frank

 

[Nigel Watts]

I hear a collection has been organised in Humph's memory to endow a number of city churches. Samantha will be presenting the cheques. After doing the round of St Bride's, St Stephen Walbrook and St Magnus the Martyr the event will culminate with her giving one to the churchwardens of St Andrew by the Wardrobe.

 

[Penners]

Actually, I think there's probably as much good material around as there was 25 years ago. The problem nowadays is that it's diluted in a 200+ channel ocean of cr@p, so you have to search much harder to find it.

Personally, I find it easy to look back at the kind of material (particularly comedy) that was broadcast back then, and see it is far better than anything around today.

But of course, I'm compressing and cherry-picking a body of work that was built up over many decades. There's a lot of truth in the old adage that "you tend to remember the good things".

 

[Penners]

It's a little-known fact that Samantha is also a successful singing teacher. You'd be amazed what she can do for a tenor.

 

[MdB]

This digital thing is being pushed by the technical community to foist new kit on us.

Digital TV is being pushed onto us as it frees up bandwidth which the government can then sell for lots of dosh. It gives a better display for most people and gives far more channels. I'm a fan.

I'm not sure what the point of DAB is. The technology inside of it is out of date with a new significantly better standard called DAB+ being introduced in Europe. No chance of seeing it here due to the number of sets in the market place which can't be upgraded to it. The quality of the current DAB is worse the FM due to the number of channels squeezed into it and I can't see it lasting that long. Some DAB only radio stations have closed already and I can see more going the same way. A white elephant I think.

 

[Flyfisher]

I read somewhere that Graham Garden was all in favour of censorship as it made writers concentrate on finding ways around it.
Anyway, to continue the Samantha vein . . .

Samantha has to nip off to a Welsh Conservative Association dinner for their most senior MP, whose name is said to be almost impossible to pronounce. She's certainly found the longest standing Welsh member a bit of a mouthful.

After tasting the meat pies, Samantha said she liked Mr Dewhurst's beef in ale; although she preferred his tongue in cider.

 

[Nemesis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7374912.stm

There's more smut from Humph on the radio extract in that which I should be able to link to and post too but at this moment can't. He's there on a video clip too. As he says - people only have to read the scripts to see that it's only in our filthy minds that we see innuendo in perfectly harmless things...



From the article:

The presenter of the panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, who died last Friday, would get a roar from the audience every time he mentioned its most popular game, Mornington Crescent. But when he began: "Samantha tells me she has to nip out now..." there would be the silence of delicious anticipation. It felt like Lyttelton's solo.

What followed was often so smutty that the BBC felt it could only be heard on Sunday lunchtimes, weekday early evenings, and by millions of people who would otherwise claim not to know a single dirty joke.

Samantha is the show's fictional scorer, and has an active social life. She once trained opera singers - "having seen what she did to the baritone, the director is keen to see what she might do for a tenor," as Lyttelton put it - while her baking instructor "popped her bread rolls straight into his mouth and he's promised to try her muffin next week". Of a builder, "she was pleased to see his tender won, but was startled when it suddenly grew to twice its size".

You can comment under the article...

I remember Alan Davies on QI mentioning a pub which has a sign saying: "Liquor in the front, Poker in the rear". Innuendo is a wonderful thing,

 

[Nemesis]

The comments keep on coming;

don't think innuendo is quite as witty as the article makes out. Suggestions that it takes a great degree of intelligence to understand? Please... wind yr neck in. I remember dying of embarrassment sitting around the kitchen table on Sundays as a teenager while my parents cracked up to Humphrey Lyttelton's little comments. Did they honestly think a 13-year-old boy would not understand? Most of it was as subtle as a brick in the face and it got tired very quickly. Innuendo is not big, it's not hard, and nobody is impressed.
Chris W, Houston, Tx

Soft and flabby then. Oh well.

Age I suppose.

 

[Penners]

Oh tempora. Oh mores.