I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue developed from the long-running radio sketch show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, the writers of which were John Cleese, Jo Kendall, David Hatch, Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and especially Graeme Garden who suggested the idea of an unscripted show [11] which, it was decided, would take the form of a parody panel game. A panel game with no competition was not itself a new idea: the BBC had a history of successful quiz shows designed to allow witty celebrities to entertain where winning was not important. Examples include Ignorance Is Bliss, Just a Minute, My Word! and My Music on the radio and Call My Bluff on television. [ citation needed] Anniversary Special ( ISBN 0-563-52853-2) [ Collection of Three programmes: "30th Anniversary Special", "Sorry I Haven't A Desert Island", and the first episode broadcast (11 April 1972)] Iain Pattinson at Amanda Howard Associates" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2009 . Retrieved 6 July 2009. Naismith, Jon. "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue Mailout 17.9.08". "The Official I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Mailing List" (Mailing list). Southern, Keiran (15 February 2021). "Tributes paid to comedy writer Iain Pattinson following his death aged 68". Belfast Telegraph . Retrieved 16 February 2021.

Winners– The Comedy Award". (Gold Award). Sony Radio Academy Awards. 2002. Archived from the original on 30 December 2006 . Retrieved 19 November 2011. Musical games often involve incongruities such as singing "One Song to the Tune of Another" or playing a song using only a swanee whistle and a kazoo. In "Just a Minim" – a parody of Radio 4's Just a Minute – panellists must sing a specified song avoiding repetition, deviation, or hesitation: the chosen songs often have extremely repetitive lyrics. a b Dugan, Emily (24 August 2008). "I'm sorry, we haven't a clue: Who will replace Humphrey Lyttelton?". The Independent. London. Having got through a pandemic, the show may yet survive, in some form, an even greater global catastrophe. “Someone told me,” says Garden, “that the BBC has a vault of programmes to be played in the case of nuclear war and Clue is among them.” Kiss, Jemima (21 April 2008). "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue cancelled". The Guardian . Retrieved 5 February 2022.Davies, Caroline (17 November 2020). "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is greatest radio comedy, says panel". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 17 November 2020. In 2020 the programme was voted the greatest radio comedy of all time by a panel convened by Radio Times. [43] BBC Audiobook releases [ edit ] In rounds in which the panel must not see what the audience sees, there is the "advanced laser display-board" (in reality, a sign with the answer written on, held by Jon Naismith). These boards are sometimes described in more elaborate terms and as "so generously funded by our hosts". The names and phrases on them are conveyed to "listeners at home" by the "mystery voice", alluding to the 1960s radio programme Twenty Questions. Humphrey Lyttelton". 25 April 2008. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008 . Retrieved 25 April 2008. She said: 'Welcome home, darling. I have missed you. You must have jet lag. Come to bed.' He said: 'Oh that's beautiful. I'll just pop in the bathroom.'"

Like with most jokes, things took a turn for the ridiculous and the punchline always left the audience tearing up with joy. Langley, William (7 December 2014). "I'm sorry, but this satirical siren's best days are behind her". The Sunday Telegraph. p.29.

Randall, David (27 April 2008). "Millions haven't a clue what they'll do without Humph". The Independent. London: Independent News & Media. ISSN 0951-9467 . Retrieved 28 April 2008. A classic funny joke from the star was about a woman having an affair while her husband was away in Hong Kong. If plays on words do not move you, then this book is not for you. If plays on words are for you, then read this and weep...much like I did. Did anyone say Mornington Crescent? Harry Hill, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Colin Sell, Humphrey Lyttelton, Jon Naismith, Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer in Oxford for a recording of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue in 2005. Photograph: BBC

Naismith, Jon. "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue Mailout 17.10.08". The Official I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Mailing List (Mailing list). Naismith, Jon. "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue Mailout 18.4.08". "The Official I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue Mailing List" (Mailing list). Roberts, Jem. The Clue Bible: The Fully Authorised History of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue from Footlights to Mornington Crescent. Preface: London, 2009. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. According to Tim Brooke-Taylor, twenty per cent of the show is ad-libbed. According to Willie Rushton, it is more like fifty per cent, but he didn't think that a bad thing. [37] Time, destiny, fate and eternity [ edit ]Tim Brooke-Taylor was also part of the I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again team and was also with the show from the start until his death in April 2020. He was very popular with the crowd and adopted a vulnerable persona. [27] Garden and Brooke-Taylor had previously worked together on television in The Goodies and Brooke-Taylor in particular would occasionally drop references to that show into some of the games, eliciting cheers from the audience. The pilot episode (at that time titled I'm Sorry, They're At It Again) opened with Graeme Garden and Jo Kendall singing the words of " Three Blind Mice" to the tune of " Ol' Man River" followed by Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor performing the lyrics of " Sing a Song of Sixpence" to the melody of " These Foolish Things". Dave Lee, who was bandleader on I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, was at the piano and a number of rounds were introduced by a short phrase of music. Other rounds included "Dialogue Read in a Specific Accent" and "Songs Sung as Animals". [12] In 1974 Bill Oddie was replaced by Willie Rushton, with Barry Cryer as Graeme Garden's teammate, and Humphrey Lyttelton as chairman, and the personnel remained constant from this point until Rushton's death in 1996, although occasional guest panellists appeared in the 1980s and early 1990s (see below). Since then the panel has featured a variety of guest comedians. [13] Since 18 May 1985 (in the episode in which Kenny Everett made his debut), the show has included a fictional and completely silent scorer "whose job is eased by the fact no points are actually awarded". Usually this is "the lovely Samantha", who sits on Humph's left hand. There is a seat with a microphone next to the Chairman which is "used" by Samantha. During the introductory music, Humphrey Lyttelton would stand up and "help" Samantha into her seat. In practice, the seat and microphone were only used by the producer to welcome the audience, to introduce the participants and to give any other information to the audience such as the expected date of broadcasting, and to supervise re-recordings of fluffs made in the programme. Graeme Garden was a member of the I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again team from which the programme grew and has been a panellist since the first episode. Lyttelton described him as very dry, biding his time before stepping in with a perfect punchline. [27] Garden was absent from January 2016 for the whole of series 65, 66 and 67. [28] [29] [30] [31] On 12 October 2017, Garden announced that he would be rejoining the team, [32] but has only appeared infrequently since then. Following the death of Barry Cryer, Garden is the last surviving original panellist. Chittenden, Maurice (27 April 2008). "Humphrey Lyttelton delivers swansong with giant kazoo band". The Times. London . Retrieved 4 May 2010.

It’s an approach that has captured in the show’s single most celebrated one-liner. On 13 April 2002, during a round of Uxbridge English Dictionary – in which new definitions are given to old words – Stephen Fry offered: “Countryside – to kill Piers Morgan.” On 18 April 2008 the producer of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Jon Naismith, announced that, owing to hospitalisation to repair an aortic aneurysm, Humphrey Lyttelton would be unable to record the scheduled shows and that they would have to be postponed. The final show of the 2008 Best of tour on 22 April would be presented by Rob Brydon. [20] Following Lyttelton's death there was speculation that the series might be cancelled because replacing him would be extremely difficult if not impossible. [21] In a eulogy in The Guardian, Barry Cryer did not allude to the future of the programme but said that there's "got to be an agonising reappraisal" and that Lyttelton was the "very hub of the show". [22] Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden all ruled themselves out as hosts: Cryer did not think the programme would work if a panellist became chairman and it "would need somebody of stature to be parachuted in". [23] Jeremy Hardy also ruled himself out, saying "Humph had big shoes to fill and I wouldn't do it." [24] Humphrey Lyttelton, primarily known as a jazz trumpeter and bandleader, and known as Humph to his friends, was invited to be chairman because of the role played by improvisation in both comedy and jazz music. [15] In the first series Lyttelton shared the role of chairman with Barry Cryer [2] but he made it his own (especially once Cryer replaced Cleese as a regular panellist) and continued as chairman until his death on 25 April 2008. [16] [17] He read the script introducing the programme and segments in an utterly deadpan manner. He claimed the secret was just to read what was in front of him without understanding why it was funny. He adopted the grumpy persona of someone who would really rather be somewhere else, which he attributed to worrying that, surrounded by four professional comedians, he would have nothing worthwhile to chip in. He did occasionally depart from the script, however, often bringing the house down with an ad-lib. [18] He was credited by the regular panellists as being the chief reason for the show's longevity. [19]Lawson, Mark (11 April 2022). "I'm Sorry, I [Still] Haven't a Clue … how radio's smuttiest show has beaten the censors for 50 years". The Guardian . Retrieved 11 April 2022. Winners– The Comedy Award". (Gold Award). Sony Radio Academy Awards. 2004. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007 . Retrieved 23 March 2007. Lyttelton, Humphrey (17 December 2007). "Peterborough". I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Series 50. Episode 6. Event occurs at 26:40. BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved 15 September 2008. And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show. That Lyttelton did another 43 runs of a show marking five decades on air is due, Garden believes, to a change to its initial, completely improvised, approach which was “a bit too casual”. Producers Paul Mayhew-Archer (1982-86) and Jon Naismith – showrunner since 1991 – are generally credited with making Clue a super-format by introducing tight scripts that were a trampoline for ad-libs. How did Blair take this weekly misrepresentation of his sexuality? Garden says: “He told Barry Cryer that he loved those jokes; he relished the publicity. But there was a later communication that his wife and family were upset and would the BBC calm us down a bit. So I think the BBC leaned on us. But that was not long before he died [in 2021].”