Humphrey Lyttelton: A Celebration, Radio 4<br />Composer of the Week, Radio 3
No Humph, no 'ISIHAC'. But who's next?
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Humphrey Lyttelton's death came too late for last week's column, but I still haven't got over it, and won't for some time.
Although not exactly unexpected, it was wholly unwelcome, for it brings to a close the 36-year-long run of I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, and the show is unthinkable without him (although Barry Cryer did, in the show's early days, alternate the chairmanship with Lyttelton, if my Wikipedia-based research is accurate).
Plenty has already been said about his wit, not least in Humphrey Lyttelton: A Celebration, but still not enough yet, nor about the impact of ISIHAC on the internal life of the nation, because we have not yet fully felt its absence.
One looks anxiously at the birth date of Nicholas Parsons: only two years younger. When he bows out, an enormous chunk will have been taken out of our comic consciousness. In five years The News Quiz will attain equal longevity, but it's not quite the same, is it?
I've worked out how they organise the schedule of composers on Composer of the Week on Radio 3. One week they do someone I really like, then they have a couple of weeks of composers I don't like nearly as much. Fair enough, people with taste not as exquisite as mine have to be catered for. The week before last it was Debussy. I can listen to any amount of Debussy, and wouldn't mind if they played nothing but his music for an entire week.
Last week it was Richard Addinsell and Noël Coward. You only listened for the Coward, didn't you? Can't say I blame you. It was interesting to note that the BBC banned "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans", because it was actually a bit beastly to the Germans. Churchill, on the other hand, made Coward play it again and again until he was hoarse. Go and listen to Coward singing it again: it was at the beginning of last Wednesday's programme.
But I grudgingly concede Composer of the Week's duty to introduce us to composers we might not have known much about before. I knew nothing about Addinsell, and am not now the hugest fan of his Rachmaninovian orchestral work, but it was extraordinary to hear Joyce Grenfell singing "Three Brothers", a song about the joys of servitude, unthinkable today, and all the more charming for it.
"For anyone under 30, I won't need to add that that was sung by Joyce Grenfell," said presenter Donald McLeod, generously overestimating the range of cultural reference possessed by 30-year-olds, who would have been no more than two when Grenfell died.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments