My Word!

Last Edited: 16-Feb-2019 A Global British Comedy Collaborative document. Edited by John Lucas
Major research provided by Keith Wickham and Martin Hood with assistance from Alexander Lucas and others. My thanks to all who contributed.


Broadcast source is the BBC Home Service and BBC Radio Four unless otherwise indicated. Recording quality is considered good unless otherwise indicated.

Table of Contents

Pilot and Series 1-8 (1956, 1957-1961) The Robertson-Spain Era
Series 9-11 (1962-1964) The Powell-Spain Era
Series 12-28 (1964-1977) The Powell-James-Longland Era (next page)
Series 29-32 (1978-1982) John Julius Norwich and Series 33 (1982-1983) Antonia Fraser
 
Series 34-38 (1983-1988) Michael O'Donnell
Documentaries and Collateral Material 

Notes:
Panellists:
  • Alfred Marks
  • Antonia Fraser
  • Anne Scott-James
  • Barry Took
  • Denis Norden
  • Dilys Powell (1901-1995)
  • E. Arnot Robertson
  • Edward Blishen
  • Frank Muir (1920-1998)
  • Gay Search
  • Isobel Barnett
  • Irene Thomas
  • Joan Bakewell
  • John Wells
  • Katherine Whitehorn
  • Libby Purves
  • Lionel Hale
  • Nancy Spain
  • P D James
  • Pamela Frankau
  • Ted Kavanagh
  • Victoria Glendenning
Chairpersons:
  • John Arlott [1956-1957 only]
  • Jack Longland (b.1905-d.1993) [1957-1977]
  • John Julius Norwich [1978-1981]
  • Antonia Fraser [1982]
  • Michael O’Donnell [1983-1990]

Compilers:
  • Edward J. Mason (not credited) (1957-1971)
  • Jack Longland (1971-1977)
  • Peter Moore (1971-1990)
Producers:
  • Tony Shryane
  • Bobby Jaye
  • Pete Atkin
  • Neil Cargill

Pilot and Series 1-8 (1956, 1957-1961) The Robertson-Spain Era
Broadcast
Date
Series-
Episode
TS
number
Contents Cast Parameters
06-Jun-1956
Midland
Home Service
pilot --
 
Barnett, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
 
01-Jan-1957 1-1     Barnett, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
 
08-Jan-1957 1-2? TS3? Aeolian Hall
  • spikenard, internecine, gasconade, hammam, tautology, mordent, pinchbeck, mulligrubs
  • Quotations: Hail to thee blithe spirit, Each morning sees some task begun, And the muscles of his brawny arms, The time has come, Lay on MacDuff, And 15 arms went round her waist, Believe me young man, Breathes a man
  • Famous words: Madame Pompador, Henry Ford, Napoleon, Beau Brummel
  • Expressions: kick the bucket, bubble and squeak, I've got the old man of the sea on my back, to give short shrift
  • Initials: BTU, KCMG
  • Mythical situations: Guy Fawkes interrupted by King's Men, Raleigh laid his cloak over a puddle 3ft deep, Caesar/Cleopatra/Marc Anthony, Cromwell's bath occupied by a young lady
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
27:38, 25949, s
15-Jan-1957 1-3? TS2, 5
or 8
Aeolian Hall (?)
  • maverick, cornucopia, ethnology, suttee, metatarsis, teetotal, caryatid, swinge
  • Lines: thin red line, marriage lines, breadline, Mason-Dixon Line
  • Quotations: Childe Harold, The Brook, Elegy, To the Cuckoo
  • Misquotations:
  • Don't: put your daughter on the stage, go down into the mine, have any more, trust him
  • Derivations: to eat humble pie, give her the bells and let her fly, mind your Ps and Qs, sandwich
  • Cartoon captions
  • Who Will Free Me From This Turbulent Priest / Dead Dead and Never Called Me Mother
Barnett, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
28:12, 26254, s
22-Jan-1957 1-4? TS2, 5
or 8
Aeolian Hall (?)
  • syllabub, valetudinarian, thimblerig, eldritch, gazebo, samphire, stathe, cayman
  • Quotations: being kissed by a man..., the great grey greasy Limpopo..., a sophistical rhetorician..., it's more than a game...
  • Verses: John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the game, The curfew tolls the parting day, dirty British coaster, will you walk a little faster, if you lift a guinea pig up by the tail, by the living god that made you
  • Quickies mottos: Order of the Garter, BBC, Boy Scouts, RAF
  • Lines before: Twinkle little star, Jack Sprat, Twas brillig, I am the master of my fate, With silver bells, Oh to be in England
  • Quotes: Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Winston Churchill, Archimedes
  • Proverbs: beauty is skin deep, crime doesn't pay, practice what you preach, don't count your chickens before they hatch
  • Let Not Poor Nellie Starve / Kiss Me Hardy
Barnett, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:56, 28114, s
29-Jan-1957 1-5 TS2, 5
or 8
  • parsimony, kilderkin, isobar, fiddley, sacerdotal, consanguineous, polypod, shim, houdah/hookah, picarune/picador, tabor/tabard, misogamist/misogynist
  • Famous servants: Jeeves, Crichton, Sancho Panza, Charmian
  • Quotations: A wet sheet and a flowing sea, O what can ail thee, Not a drum not a funeral note, Match me such marble
  • Anatomical: Helen of Troy, the village blacksmith, Cyrano de Bergerac, Annie Laurie
  • Derivations: sirloin, with colours nailed to the mast, white elephant, green room, to have the lion's share, the baker's dozen, dumdum, Hobson's choice
  • Misquotations: Neither a borrower nor a lender, It was a summer evening, Abou ben Adam awoke one night, From the waterfall he named her,
  • Tis a Sharp Remedy but a sure one for all ills / I feel that I am reserved for some end or other
Barnett,  Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:30, 27699, s
05-Feb-1957 1-6 TS4 Great Yarmouth
  • demurrage, demijohn, clarence, clangour, punnet, messuage, mycelium, pinfold
  • Differences: mamba/marimba, caracol/caravelle, sarong/sari, cumberbund/sarabande
  • Derivations: Indian file, if you know a better hole go to it, catherine wheel, cold shoulder
  • Nicknames: Man of blood and iron, man of destiny, man in black, man in the iron mask
  • Misquotations: Come into the garden Maud, It is a far far better thing, My mother bid me bind my hair, I have have heard the mavis singing, Alas poor Yorick, In Flores in the Azores, Try not to pass, Up and down the city road
  • Famous horses: Pegasus, Rum Barbary, Black Bess, Rosinante
  • Of Whom: Jeeves, Shakespeare, Nero, Charles II
  • Quickies: sorrel, hobby, carp, jib
  • Hitch Your Wagon to A Star / I Hold Thee Fast Africa
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:23, 27603, s
12-Feb-1957 1-7 TS1 Spondon, Derby
  • prognathus, lamprey, rockambol, macular, ballistics, boskage, phalarope, onager, caitiff, fleshings, weft, woof
  • Initials: AWOL, SSAFA, VAD, DDT
  • Quotations: The Chilterns, Ye Banks and Braes, The Bells, Owl and the Pussycat
  • Origins: get the sack, when my ship comes home, outside the pale, to play gooseberry
  • Misquotations
  • A Little of What You Fancy Does You good / The Public Be Damned
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
30:00, 28170, s
19-Feb-1957 1-8 TS9 Winter Gardens, Malvern
  • biretta, larrikin, toccata, kumquat, dimity, flinders, stirk, larrop, coracle, vetch, frugiberous, sorghum, pinnacle/pinocle, rattiplan/ paradiddle, debauch/debouch, gremlin/kremlin
  • Initials: IDV, FANY, WLA, ENSA
  • Quotations: Once more into the breach, What is this life, Ye have wronged, We who are left
  • Derivations: nail to the counter, let the cat out of the bag, ring the changes, lock stock and barrel
  • Misquotations: The log was burning brightly, Cherry ripe, Land of hope and glory, The eleven men at Oxford
  • Latin terms: in loco parentis, in flagrante delicto, in toto, in situ
  • Nice customs curtsey to great kings, It must be a peace without victory
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:38, 27835, s
09-Apr-1957 1-9
Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
 
16-Apr-1957 1-10 perhaps
TS11
shown here?
Wymondham, Norfolk
  • cassowary, wiffle, gloze, glim, suzerain, megrim, shadrack, hyaloid, fizzgig, deglutition, winnow, bulbul
  • Quotations: My strength is the strength of ten, When Britain at first, The staggered eve, Tom Pearce
  • Real names: The Great Unknown, Little John, William the Silent, The Scarlet Pimpernel
  • Misquotations: Ye mariners of England, Come away Death, And out spake Horatius, Little brown brother, we are the music makers, kinds hearts are more than coronets, Say I'm weary, Man wants but little here below
  • Foreign expressions: corpus delicti, coup d'grace, hic jacet, casus belli
  • Derivations: Yarborough, Sold Down the River, yellow press, cherish a serpent in your bosom
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:15, 27473, s
23-Apr-1957 1-11 TS7 Stratford on Avon
  • prolix, mattamore, murrain, davenport, collywobbles, placket, gymnotus, lingulate, czarina/czarevna, quintin/quintan, microcosm/ macrocosm, plantain/plankton
  • Abbreviations: LSD, UNRRA, CB, OZ
  • Quotations: She dwelt among the untrodden ways, Oh Captain my captain, Was this the face, Is there anybody there?, when the hounds of spring, give to me the life I love, shall I compare thee to a summer's day, gather ye rosebuds while ye may
  • Classic characters: giant Despair, Moll Flanders, David Balfour, Daniel Quilp
  • Derivations: to bury the hatchet, red Indians, Mrs Grundy, put on one's thinking cap
  • Writers' Christian names: Shelley, Longfellow, Byron, Swinburne
  • Foreign phrases: impedimenta, alfresco, recherche, idee fixe
  • References: Bayard, Kipling, Whistler, Stevenson
  • Misquoted Poetry - It was a lover and his lass, The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, Oh to be in England, Ah what avails the sceptred race
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:33, 27759, s
30-Apr-1957 1-12 perhaps
TS13
shown here?
Sparrowsnest Theatre, Lowestoft
  • monandry, guest rope, maulstick, nubile, grimalkin, jalousie, novercal, stridulate
  • Wives: Marc Anthony, David Copperfield, Mister Rochester, Nero
  • Quotations: Drake he is in his hammock, Earth has not anything to show more fair, Where Alph the sacred river ran, Keeping time, time, time, Say not the struggle not availeth, When you are old and grey, If music be the food of love, Roll on thou deep blue ocean
  • Titles: Cry Havock, Perchance to Dream, A Many Splendoured Thing, The Painted Veil
  • Derivations: red tape, not my pidgin, be a toady, I haven't a clue
  • Writer's Names: Sheridan, Macaulay, Jerome, Wilde
  • Heraldry: gules, vert, sable, argent
  • References: Shaw, King George II about Wolfe, Macaulay about Johnson, Bertie Wooster about Jeeves
  • Brown Characters: Father Brown, Capability Brown, Brown Jones and Robertson, Brown Bess
  • Misquoted poetry: They Dined on mince and slices of quince, Of all the girls that are so smart, Tyger tyger buring bright, The kiss of the sun for pardon
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:20, 27552, s
07-May-1957 1-13 TS6 Oxford
  • oleo, cabbalistic, ophiolator, grazier, paronomasia, manumit, loblolly boy, guerdon, sanderling, pettitoes, fuliginous, trews
  • Ships: Drake, Jason, Grenfell, Jack Hawkins
  • Abrreviations: WEA, RYS, AFV, QED
  • quotes Poetry - Aflock of sheep..., The larks are on the wing, A bugle sang truce, Sweet Auburm loviliest village, I know a bank, I hear a sudden cry of pain, Mine be cot beside the hill, Look in my face
  • Novel titles: The Last Enemy, I Have Been Here Before, For Whom the Bell Tolls, This Happy Breed
  • Writers' Christian Names: Coleridge, Chesterton, Emerson, Yeats
  • Heraldry: dexter, sinister, sigeant, rampant
  • Of whom said: Japanese, Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Joshua Reynolds
  • Common roots: stereo-, omni-, tele-, -itis
  • Who said: Duke of Monmouth, Cromwell, Shaw, Roosevelt
  • Misquoted: Helen Thy Beauty is to me, Twas Brillig and the Slithy Toves, Sigh no more ladies, I must down to the seas
Frankau, Muir, Spain, Kavanaugh
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:12, 27426, s
14-May-1957 1-14 TS10 Bromyard, Hereford
  • inchoate, scutum, suttler, filibuster, gloriole, demiwrap, petronelle, atticate, ortiland, glanders, hominy, burdock
  • Abbreviations: KR, PGA, NATO, SHAPE
  • Quotations: This above all, Sing me a song of time gone by, Twould ring the bells of heaven, I am desolate, Oft in the stilly night, music when soft voices die, now sleeps the crimson petal, A garden is a lovesome thing
  • Little characters: Little Emily, Little Billy, Little Nell, Little Minister
  • Derivations: bunkum, bell book and candle, according to cocker, to fight with windmills
  • Christian names: Bentley, Wodehouse, Surtees, Flecker
  • Criminal Slang: dags, bird, pussies, touch of the seconds
  • Said of: Pitt the Younger, Gibbon, Mary Queen of Scots, Byron
  • Dogs: Flush, Cerberus, Crab, Bullseye
  • Women: Iago, Byron, Scott, Johnson
  • Last Words: Nero, More, Danton, William Rufus
  • Mis Quoted poetry - Out of the night that covers me Black as the pit from pole to pole / When Icicles hang by the wall
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Kavanaugh
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
29:40, 27858, s
21-May-1957 1-15 TS12 Aeolian?
  • lapicide, eider, glochidiate, friable, pudsy, mussock, antibody, poppernax, siriasis, succidinadium, badmash, poussette
  • Thriller heroes: Philip Marlowe, Maigret, Templar, Mike Hammer
  • Abbreviations: SJAB, IRHA, CPO, ACGB
  • Quotations: He did not wear his scarlet coat, I am monarch of all I survey, Standing with reluctant feet, Oh Mary go and call the cattle home, stands the church clock at three, my name is Ozymandias, She walks in beauty like the night, full fathom five thy father lies
  • Fictional characters: Fatima, Mr Everyman, Sir Roger de Coverley, The Artful Dodger
  • Derivations: blackmail, crocodile tears, haul over the coals, three sheets in the wind
  • Writers' Christian names: Peacock, Tolstoy, Wells, Luther
  • Criminal slang: stretch, blower, titfer, let your hair down
  • Quotes: Lord Burley, Teddy Roosevelt, Dr Johnson, Baedeker, Wilde, Shaw, Lamb, Dickens, Cleopatra, Cromwell, James I, Wellington
  • Misquoted poetry - Never was heard such a terrible curse, In Scarlet Town where I was born, a sweet disorder in the dress, some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Kavanaugh
Arlott/Mason/Shryane
28:40, 26918, s
05-Aug-1957 2-1
Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane

12-Aug-1957 2-2   Horton General Hospital
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
19-Aug-1957 2-3   Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
26-Aug-1957 2-4   Royal Midlands Counties Home, Leamington Spa
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
02-Sep-1957 2-5   Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
09-Sep-1957 2-6   National Radio Show, Earls Court
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
04-Oct-1957 2-7  
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane

11-Oct-1957 2-8  
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
possibly
18-Oct-1957
2-9 TS20
  • zombie, funambulist, eidolon, hinny
  • Characters: Adam Bede,  "and Co.", Rowena and Rebecca, Pyramus and Thisbe
  • Quotations: drink deep or taste not, it droppeth as the gentle rain, some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
  • Derivations: made a cat's paw of, o wear one's heart on one's sleeve, on the beam, in soaped pig fashion
  • Remarks about places: London, America, Rome, Germany
  • Shakespeare: Love's Labour Lost, Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Twelfth Night
  • Messing about in boats / We are not amused
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
30:07, 28278, s
25-Oct-1957 2-10 TS18
  • casurina, dolorite, morpork, carking, ormolu, kloof, miniver, pomander
  • People: Lydia Languish, Salvation Yeo, Sir Willoughby Patterne, Mary Rose
  • Quotations: I will make you broaches, Ben Battle was a soldier bold, You're wounded, Once a jolly swagman
  • Names: Mr Macawber, Mr Squares, Little Dorrit, Mr Pickwick
  • Derivations: Lucullus sups with Lucullus, Meredith we're in, kiss the Blarney Stone, he couldn't say boo to a goose
  • Swearing: damnition, off with his head, I gloat hear me gloat, By Timothy
  • References: Christopher Wren, Napoleon, Robert Peel, Wordsworth
  • Romantic Novels: Ouida, Ethel M Bell, Elinor Glyn, E M Hull
  • If you know of a better hole go to it / Nobly Nobly Cape St Vincent to the north west died away
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:55, 28102, s
probably
30-Apr-1958
3-1 TS14 Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
  • majolica, lobscouse, pruinose, hyperbole
  • Characters and authors: Eric, Umslopogaas, John Ridd, Yorick
  • Quotations: Longfellow, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Noyes, Tennyson
  • Childrens' stories: Huckleberry Finn, Tom Brown's Schoolday, Swiss Family Robinson, Black Beauty
  • Derivations: to catch a Tartar, carpet knights, coggleshill job, or I'm a Dutchman
  • Characters: Mrs Malprop, Hawkeye, the Gay Lothario, Inigo Goliphant
  • Writers' name: Milne, Priestley, Rossetti, Gibbon
  • Charity begins at home / Scratch the Russian you will find the Tartar
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:58, 28145, s
07-May-1958 3-2 TS15 Brotherhood House, Rugby
  • harpy, nyctalopia, joseph, plumbago
  • Plays: The Second Mrs Tanqueray, Hedda Gabler, The Alchemist, Barretts of Wimpole Street
  • Quotations: Thomas Huxley, de la Mare, Hood, Shakespeare
  • Legends: Medusa, King Midas, basilisk, Bottom by Puck
  • Derivations: his King Charles' head, too may irons in the fire, to chaff somebody, to get the bird
  • Titles: Ill Met by Moonlight, Sabrina Fair, From Here to Eternity, Of Mice and Men
  • Characters: Nathan Detroit, McTurk, Chirdles' Ash, Flashman
  • Riches are for Spending / Tis very warm weather when one is bed
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:27, 27655, s
14-May-1958 3-3 TS19 Northampton General Hospital
  • kobold, salmagundi, propolis, caveat
  • Authors: Harret Beecher Stowe, C J Hine, Marriott, Hardy
  • Quotations: Her manners have not that repose, twinkle twinkle little bat, if you have tears prepare to shed them now, the pig if I'm not mistaken, of birdsong at morning, I'm slain by a fair cruel maid, my lady tempted by a private whim, By thy long grey beard
  • Christian Names: Spenser, Proust, Strindberg, Peacock
  • Derivations: all my eye, as safe as houses, to be a brick, to be had for a mug
  • Who: three lilies in her hand and seven stars in her hair, Sir John Moore, life, a donkey
  • Creatures: leviathan/whale, elephant child, asp, snark
  • Patriotism is not enough / None but the brave deserves the fair
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:38, 27830, s
21-May-1958 3-4   Little Theatre, Leicester
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
possibly
28-May-1958
3-5 TS17
  • hodge, gonfalon, reebok, orc, scaramadge, jorum, wolfram, rammish
  • People: Mr Grimes, Edmund Dantes, Jude Forley, Paul Revere
  • Quotations: Cob was the strongest, Sir Christopher said I'm going to dine with some men, God I will pack and take a train, I shoot the hippopotamus
  • War stories: All Quiet on the Western Front, From Here to Eternity, The Naked and the Dead, The Young Lions
  • Derivations: fits him to a T, the seamy side, Phyrric victory, a thorn in the flesh
  • Quickies: Lizzie Borden, Wilhemine, Don Quixote, village blacksmith
  • People: Dr Temple, Longfellow, Shakespeare, Wordsworth
  • Honesty is the best policy / We have scotched the snake not killed it
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
30:04, 28240, s
04-Jun-1958 3-6 TS16 The Infirmary, Derby
  • shad, marmorial, quagga, caique, swarth, eukase, timbal, gobemouche
  • Threes: Three wise men, Three men in a boat, three graces, three in a wooden shoe
  • Quotations: Before the gods that made the gods, just for a handful of silver, and the night shall be filled by music, there was a little girl
  • Quickies: Paris/London, Montague/Capulet, Rhett/Charles /Frank, Jean Valjean
  • Familiar phrases: Limey, southpaw, Uncle Sam, A-1
  • References: Adonis, the Lobster, Washington, Kingsley
  • Initials: VAD, OR, NHS, SAA
  • You Can't have your cake and eat it / Where Mystery begins justice ends
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:23, 27599, s
groove noise
possibly
11-Jun-1958
3-7 TS21
  • arnot, bubblyjock, hoopoe, decorticate, dowser, grommet, skink, reardos
  • Quotations: the boast of heraldry the pomp of power, now is the winter of our discontent, Oh God that bread should be so dear, In the spring a livlier iris
  • People: Midsummer Night's Dream occupations
  • Derivations: When in Rome do as the Romans do, where the shoe pinches, to fork out, to tread the primrose path
  • Writer's character: John Halifax, Anna Karenina, Lord Fautleroy, Raffles
  • Who/what/where: the cat, Violet, the village schoolmaster, the Devil
  • Last words: Louis XVI, Pompador, Rabelais, Georges Sand
  • Where Lived: Little Nell, the Brontes, the Tollivers, Rebecca
  • Fifty Million Frenchmen can't be wrong / Twas for the good of my country I should be abroad
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
30:13, 28377, s
18-Jun-1958 3-8 TS23 Preliminary Training School, Addenbrooke Hospital, Cambridge
  • buhl, burnous, oubliette, parky, saponify, ness, to slubber, soliped
  • Quotations: take away that star and garter, season of mists, the moon on the one hand, this is my own my native land
  • Villians: Svengali, Simon Legree, Alec D'Urbervillle, Captain Hook
  • Derivations: midinette, a snake in the grass, to curry favour, strike while the iron is hot
  • French phrases: en rapport, billet doux, nobless oblige, Sauve qui peut
  • Characters: Hornblower, Forsyte, Whiteoaks, Wooster
  • All Our Geese are Swans / Sweet is revenge, especially to women
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
30:10, 28333, s
groove noise
possibly
25-Jun-1958
3-9 TS22
  • sophomore, pilliwinks, galingale, mammee, anopheles, ameliorate, goldilocks, shinty
  • People: Madame Sans-Gêne, Rudolf Rassendale, Le Tartouche, Dearest
  • Quotations: tis now the very witching time of night, her feet beneath her petticoat, I met a lady in the meads, Here's to the maid of bashful maid of 15
  • Quickies - Sea stories: Mody Dick, Lord Jim, Mister Midshipman Easy, Westward Ho!
  • Derivations: another course would have done it, not by a long chalk, roue, sub rosa
  • Old words: bosky, gorbellied, leman, codling
  • Places: land where the Bong-tree grows, Flores in the Azores, Reading Gaol, to fight the French
  • Writers' names: Smollett, Longfellow, Dostoevsky, Cervantes
  • A Carpenter's known by his chips / Butchered to make a Roman Holiday
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:44, 27916, s
possibly
02-Jul-1958
3-10 TS24
  • lithology, solder, halidom, pulpiteer, saliating, satrap, ostreophagist, wampum
  • Shakespeare's characters: Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Brutus, Autolochous, Bottom
  • Quotations: In the sweet shire of Cardigan, woodman spare that tree, when lovely woman stoops to folly, the friendly cow all red and white, from the center all round to the sea, how some have been deposed, his withered cheek and tresses gray, forever he has got him a she
  • Abbreviations: SHAPE, GP, cantua., KP
  • Derivations: take the wind out of your sails, a sword of Damocles, a crucial test, to eat crow
  • There's many a slip twixt cup and lip / Abstain from Beans
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:46, 27951, s
possibly
09-Jul-1958
3-11 TS25
  • bireme, quidnunc, ergot, nordenfeldt, porcine, hepatitis, tauromachy, nimbus
  • What bridge: Horatius, Capt. Queeg, Lord Byron, Alec Guiness
  • Quotations: Where ere you walk, the stately homes how beautiful they stand, there was a time when meadow grove and stream, but soft what light from yonder window breaks, I light my lamp in the evening, what that I cannot tell said he, and save his good broadsword, you've earned your little bit of corn
  • Derivations: a nest egg, devil take the hindmost, the naked truth, straight from the horse's mouth
  • Books of Historical Characters: Hereward the Wake, Guy Fawkes, Marlborough, Samuel Johnson
  • These are the times that try men's souls / The Word impossible is not in my dictionary
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:50, 28019, s
16-Jul-1958 3-12     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
23-Jul-1958 3-13     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
25-Dec-1958 special TS40 Christmas Edition
  • poetaster, cacography, denigation, poussette, latchet, rufescent, postprandial, gallimaufry
  • Food: turkey at Cratchets', great eater of beef, soup for evening, haggis
  • Quotations: Christmas is coming the geese are getting fat, it is Christmas Day in the workhouse, England was merry England when he brought his sports again, come landload fill the flowing bowl
  • Royalty: books of the four kings, the king's evil, king of the king, king's oak
  • Derivations: to hold a candle to the devil, Christmas box, to live the life of Riley, to get out of bed the wrong way
  • Dickens: Pickwick's friends, Ebenezer, Joe the fat boy, Jacob Marley
  • His Bark is Worse than his Bite / Two Heads are Better Than One
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:56, 28108, s
06-May-1959 4-1  
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
13-May-1959 4-2     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
20-May-1959 4-3     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
27-May-1959 4-4     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
03-Jun-1959 4-5 TS51 Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford
  • Moraine, shebeen, dottle, panache
  • Names and places: Apollyon,  Pandemonium, Natty Bumpo, Fortinbras
  • Quotations: Macbeth, Longfellow, Chesterton, Gray's Elegy
  • Difference: indigent/indigenous, cineria/cinerium, curee/curet, eulogy/elegy
  • Familar expressions: eavesdropper, like Caeser's wife, conscience money, post haste
  • Styles: Dickens, Pepys, Samuel Smiles, Dodgson/Alice Through
  • All Is Lost Except Honour / From the Sublime To The Ridiculous
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:43, 26932, s
10-Jun-1959 4-6 TS46
  • quern, Lettish, dacoit, beeswing, malfeasance, polemic, ombrometer, neophyte
  • Mythology: Lethe, Leda, Prometheus, Pan
  • Quotations: when the British warrior queen, beyond yon straggling fence, so Willie let you and me be wipers, one night as Dick lay half asleep
  • Animal stories: Tarka the Otter, White Fang, Black Beauty, Travels with a Donkey
  • Derivations: he's a Jonah, coup d'grace, curfew, Black Mariah
  • Too many cooks spoil the broth / A Fair exchange is no robbery
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:53, 27119, s
TS version
LP25981
17-Jun-1959 4-7     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
24-Jun-1959 4-8     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
01-Jul-1959 4-9     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
08-Jul-1959 4-10 TS52 St Andrews Hall, Cambridge
  • Daphne, motet, hartal, socage
  • Who/what/why: FOB, crossing the Rubicon, Scourge of God, bull/bear
  • Complete the Quotation
  • Food: crackers, hand, broiler, chow chow
  • Familiar expressions: carpetbagger, for a song, caviar to the general, haven't a shot in my locker
  • I Could Not Love Thee Dear So Much / Comparisons Are Odourous
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:05, 27279, s
15-Jul-1959 4-11 TS53 [Convocation Conversazione,] Senate House, University of London
  • Kulak, synoptic, luxate, softa
  • Who Said This? Diogenes, Euclid, Newton, Galileo
  • Literature: Cardinal Wolsey, Keats, Yeats, Thomas Hood
  • Historical Romances: Conan Doyle, Geoffrey Farnon, Raphael Sabbatini, Kathleen Windsor
  • Expressions: woolgathering, steeplechase, possession is nine points of the law, top brass
  • Time Is Money / Every Man over 40 Is a Scoundrel
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:48, 27002, s
22-Dec-1959 5-1 TS54 Christmas edition, [VHF Exhibition,] Corn Exchange, Brighton
  • Logan, opsimath, conchology, quondam
  • Brighton: Regency period, Brighton Rock, Beau Brummel, Pavilion and Mrs Fitzherbert
  • Christmas verses: Clement Moore, Thomas Tusser, Thomas Bailey, Anon
  • Expressions: swan song, honeymoon, harikiri, juggernaut
  • Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bowwow / Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:09, 26401, s
29-Dec-1959 5-2  
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
05-Jan-1960 5-3     Robertson, Muir, Powell, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
12-Jan-1960 5-4     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
19-Jan-1960 5-5     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
26-Jan-1960 5-6     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
02-Feb-1960? 5-7? TS39 London House:
  • emend, graminivirous, heliotherapy, galumph
  • Birds: Barnaby Rudge's Grip, Capt Flint the parrot, the albatross, the raven
  • Quotations: John Anderson my jo John, take oh take those lips away, oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness, there is a long long trail a winding
  • Shakespeareana: Burbidge, second best bed, Hamnet, no actresses
  • Derivations: posh, his teeth are drawn, living on tick, piping times of peace
  • The Course of True love never did run smooth / My pride fell with my fortunes
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:39, 27837, s
09-Feb-1960 5-8     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
16-Feb-1960 5-9     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
23-Feb-1960 5-10     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
08-Mar-1960 5-11 TS45
  • stratocracy, sylviculture, bechamel, shaveling
  • Nicknames: Father of Anglers, Poor Richard, the Rail Splitter, the Empire Builder
  • Quotations: For oft when on my couch I lie, John Stewart Mill by a mighty effort of will, Methought I heard a voice cry sleep no more, come lasses and lads get leave of your dads
  • Derivations: to catch a Tartar, to take the bull by the horns, halcyon days, good wine needs no bush
  • Who/what: the Dormouse, Hiawath's grandmother, Deadeye Dick, Fletcher Christian
  • East Is East and West Is West / It's a Long Lane That Has No Turning
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:47, 27034, s
TS version
LP25981

15-Mar-1960 5-12     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
22-Mar-1960 5-13  
VHF exhibition, Middlesborough
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
23-Sep-1960 6-1     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
30-Sep-1960 6-2     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
07-Oct-1960 6-3     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
14-Oct-1960 6-4     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
21-Oct-1960 6-5     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
28-Oct-1960 6-6     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
04-Nov-1960 6-7     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
11-Nov-1960 6-8     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
18-Nov-1960 6-9     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
25-Nov-1960 6-10     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
02-Dec-1960 6-11     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
09-Dec-1960 6-12     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
16-Dec-1960 6-13     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
04-Jun-1961 7-1     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
11-Jun-1961 7-2     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
18-Jun-1961 7-3     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
25-Jun-1961 7-4     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
02-Jul-1961 7-5     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
09-Jul-1961 7-6     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
16-Jul-1961 7-7     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
23-Jul-1961 7-8     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
30-Jul-1961 7-9     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
17-Sep-1961 8-1     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
24-Sep-1961 8-2     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
01-Oct-1961 8-3     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
08-Oct-1961 8-4     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
15-Oct-1961 8-5     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
22-Oct-1961 8-6     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
29-Oct-1961 8-7     Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
05-Nov-1961 8-8   last episode with E. Arnot Robertson Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 

Transcription Service episodes Believed to be from Series 3-8 but not assignable to a particular date:
Broadcast
Date
Series-
Episode
TS
number
Contents Cast Parameters
1958-1960   TS26
  • sib, inimical, shroff, notochord, sambur, prothalamium, fichu, doppelganger
  • Mountains: Olympus, Ararat, Helicon, Mourn
  • Quotations: how far that little candle shows his beams, beware the pine tree's withered branch, Where his rude hut by the Danube lay, Will you walk into my parlour
  • Ship Commanders: Drake, Jason, Grenfell, Shackleton
  • Derivations: by the skin of my teeth, to take a message to Garcia, if the mountain won't come to Mohammed..., it's all plain sailing
  • Fictional Captain: Captain Cuttle, Captain Stanhope, Captain Carvallo, Captain Blood
  • I have you on the hip / I won't quarrel with my bread and butter
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:23, 27586, s
1958-1960   TS27
  • amphora, filibeg, lapis lazuli, calisthenics, huckerback, camerlengo, screever, furcate
  • Fit to Print: The Well of Lonliness, Ulysses, Don Juan, Lady Chatterly's Lover
  • Quotations: Tennyson, Longfellow, Carroll, anon.
  • Occupations: beadle, servant, tea merchant/grocer, barber
  • Derivations: live like fighting cocks, gone to pot, to fly off the handle, out of sorts
  • Lasts: Last of the Barons, Last Enemy, Last of the Romans, Last of the Mohicans
  • Get Thee to a Nunnery / Better Late Than Never
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:26, 27646, s
1958-1960   TS28
  • lepidoptera, barology, interegnum, malison, smacksman, crannog, withershins, wayzgoose
  • Who Killed Whom: Laertes, Hamlet, MacDuff, Sparrow
  • Quotations: Grey, Carroll, Longfellow, Shakespeare
  • Detective Stories: Maltese Falcon, Lady in the Lake, Trent's Last Case, The Red House Mystery
  • Derivations: a fool's paradise, not worth a tinker's dam, to make bricks without straw, to be dead set on something
  • Who/what: Emily Bronte/Wuthering Heights, March Hare/Mad Hatter, Sign of Four, Micawber/David Copperfield
  • There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle / People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:39, 26907, s
1958-1960   TS29
  • dissimilitude, rigadoon, nescience, rinderpest, snew, foulard, gossoon, probity
  • Books: Das Kapital, Erewhon, Terese Raquin, Four Horseman of the Apocalypse
  • Quotations: Keats, Stevenson, Wordsworth, Burns
  • Pseudonyms: James Bridie, George Eliot, Voltaire, George Sand
  • Derivations: don't count your chickens before they are hatched, small beer, to be taken aback, dead as a doornail
  • Literary geography: Land of the Rising Sun, Land of the Midnight Sun, Bride of the Sea, Eternal City
  • Edie was a lady / Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party
Robertson, Muir, Powell, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:25, 27619, s
1958-1960   TS30
  • refulgent, nautch, pavonine, pyromania
  • Habitats: tub, ferryboat, yongy-bongy bo, Clementine
  • Shakespeare: monarchs, his father's occupation, chief patron, mother's name
  • Derivations: to win hands down, roses roses all the way, to turn the tables, to slip someone a Mickey Finn
  • Sequels: 20 Years After, Tom Brown at Oxford, Rupert of Hentzel, Good Wives
  • Braden: Robert Service, Stephen Leacock, parrot, The Roving I, sourdough, Oliver Goldsmith
  • I feel no pain dear Mother now / The Game is not worth a  candle
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Guest: Bernard Braden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:22, 27583, s
1958-1960   TS31
  • forfend, khamsin, peen, kharkhan, icthyophagist, nympholept, skua, grobian
  • Women: Shakespeare/Hamlet, Goldsmith, Wilde, Barrie
  • Quotations: I waited for the train at Coventry, Glory be to God for dappled things, You know we French stormed Ratisbon, There is a garden in her face
  • Who/what/where: loud bassoon, oh for a draught, ogle London, eel on the end of his nose
  • Mythology: hunting, corn, poetry and music, hell
  • Characters: Mrs Malaprop, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Dick Barton, Solomon Eagle
  • One Good Turn deserves another / A miss is as good as a mile
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:40, 27859, s
1958-1960   TS32
  • brackish, charlock, bicephalous, hidalgo, intaglio, epigraph, diaphoretic, lenity
  • Harps: on a weeping willow tree, Tara's halls, blow the spirit sterling harp, a wild harp
  • Quotations: Toll for the brave, O fat white woman, There go my heart's abhorrence, There is a willow that grows aslant a brook
  • Relationships in Shakespeare: Jessica, Sebastian, Malcolm and Donaldbane, Emilia
  • Derivations: to refuse to kowtow, hamburger, according to Hoyle, Homer or sometimes not
  • John: Writer of Innocence, calypso singers, bossyback, Moon on a Rainbow Shore
  • Sailors: Johnson in Boswell, Macaulay, Thackeray, Shylock
  • Famous last words: I shall hear in heaven, What? Do they run already, then I die happy, wait till I finish my problem, I don't what I may seem to the world
Robertson, Hale, Spain, Norden
Guest: Errol John
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:34, 27761, s
1958-1960   TS33
  • somniloquy, edentate, auriform, poncho, belvidere, woodchuck, porbeagle, sniggle
  • Headgear: Green Hat, Tam O'Shanter, Hatter's Castle, Trilby
  • Quotations: To see a world in a grain of sand, In such a night stood Dido, The isles of Greece, The animals went in two by two
  • Bestsellers: Gigi, The Horse's Mouth, Gone with the Wind, Bible
  • Derivations: to sigh for the fleshpots, a one horse town, in the limelight, let George do it
  • Art is not a handicraft / Dressed in a little brief authority
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:51, 28021, s
1958-1960   TS34
  • gunny, cockileekie, plantar, fleer, homunculus, chibouk, ergotocracy, flanker
  • Giants: Despair, John Ridd, Gargantua, Gulliver
  • Quotations: There are certain things as a spider, Let me not to the marriage of true minds, For I dipped into the future, Oh my poor Nellie Gray
  • Style: Churchill, Surtees, Shaw, Coward
  • Derivations: wash your hands of the matter, he's on his hobby horse, the writing is on the wall, to play old harry
  • Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all / Marriage is a lottery
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:44, 27925, m
1958-1960   TS35
  • suspire, parcenary, supernal, bashi-bazouk, bridoon, barmecide, brunch, barbate
  • Codes: Mulberry, Fido, Overlord, Pluto
  • Quotations: What is truth, Twas on a lofty vase's side, sunset of the evening star, If I ever become a rich man
  • Lunar: The Moonstone, Moon and Sixpence, First Men in the Moon, Waters of the Moon
  • Derivations: to lay by the heels, hard lines, hard up, not at home
  • Thank you madam, the agony is abated / Eric that's the first time I ever heard you swear
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:36, 27789, s
1958-1960   TS36
  • egregious, amatol, clinometer, epiphyte, Lollard, pubsy, isabel, polygastric, heterodoxy, pied, galloon, bulocity
  • Doctors: Doctor Fu Manchu, Doctor Thorndyke, Doctor Faustus, Doctor's Dilemma
  • Quotations: Matilda told such dreadful lies, I am a kind of farthing gib, True ease in writing, Tis the last rose of summer
  • Shakespeare: Falstaff's followers, Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona, twin brothers in Comedy of Errors
  • Derivations: to broach the matter, off the cuff, to run the gauntlet, sour grapes
  • Names together: Hero/Leander, Dante/Beatrice, Frankie/Johnny, Daphnis/Chloe
  • Ask the question master - Irks care the cropfall bird frets doubt the more crammed beast, The only way to combat an injustice , ...
Robertson, Hale, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:32, 27728, s
1958-1960   TS37
  • quean, saltigrade, potable, backstays, natatorial, cumshaw, impassible, ameliorate
  • Women's names: Rebecca, Marjorie Morningstar, Love for Lydia, Anne Veronica
  • Quotations: And everybody praised the duke, O give me a home where the buffalo roam, Augustus was a chubby lad, A street there is in Paris
  • Derivations: heap Pelion on Ossa, he's got the pip, to read the riot act, he's had his chips
  • Style: Daisy Ashford, Wilde, Mark Twain, Carroll
  • Thomas: Adam Lindsay Gordon, Neville Shute and Lawrence, Darcy Nyland, Peter Finch, Summer of the Seventeenth Dog
  • Ask the guest - Why do you call Australia Australia, Wilmot, NSW and NT, Captain Cook
Robertson, Hale, Spain, Norden
Guest: Wilfred Thomas
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:32, 27725, s
1958-1960   TS38
  • narcosis, decibel, encomium, koumiss, proptosis, grume, bonanza, pediculous
  • Villiains: Carl Peterson, Coumt Dracula, The bald archeologist, Rosa Klem
  • Quotations: my lord Tomnoddy is 34, we don't want to fight, Oh say can you see by the dawn's early light, And this is law I will maintain
  • Domestic servants: Cleopatra's maids, Rebecca's housekeeper, Death the butler, Don Quixote's servant
  • Derivations: not worth a continental, cock a hoop, eager beaver, red letter day
  • I smell a device / You must take the will for the deed
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:38, 27826, s
1958-1960 possibly
5-7?
TS39 London House
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
see series
25-Dec-1958 special TS40  
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
see series
1958-1960   TS41
  • chapman, exophagy, caterplasm, thole
  • Deaths: Henry I, Francis Bacon, St. Lawrence, Aeschylus
  • Quotations: Oh I have passed a miserable night, Oh teach the orphan boy to read, Oh wild west wind, In a village in the country
  • Famous Last Words: Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, Cardinal Wolsey, Beethoven
  • Derivations: to badger someone, a flash in the pan, slapstick, Adam's apple
  • Carve a little bit off the top for me / Life is Short and Art is Long
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:21, 27557, s
1958-1960   TS43
  • bugaboo, oubit, mnemonics, pipkin
  • Quotations: How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot, the voice I hear this passing night, and unto the bow the cord is, Greensleeves was all my joy
  • Names Together: Mutt/Jeff, Cupid/Psyche, Cerab/Rustum, Pygmalion/Galatea
  • Derivations: a little bird told me, to get the wind up, he's on his beam end, a broken reed
  • Styles: Macaulay, Wilde, Barrie, Marx
  • Up Guards and At 'em / Give Me Back My Legions
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:01, 27246, s
1958-1960   TS43
  • springe, biltong, hispid, lordosis
  • Love: Love for Love, Love in a Cold Climate, The Wilder Shores of Love, Love from a Stranger
  • Quotations: Had I plenty of money, Come cuddle your head on my shoulder, I hate that Andrew Jones, Twas on a Monday morning
  • Shakespeare: pound of flesh = 3000 ducats, pickled herrings, Pyramus/Thisbe, ravishers in the pie
  • Derivations: it goes against the grain, hear hear, there's method in his madness, a free lance
  • Out Vile Jelly / The Play's The Thing
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:01, 27241, s
1958-1960   TS44
  • medicaster, phossy-jaw, nard, samovar, hunkers, incubus, pleonasm, corf
  • Who: Nimrod, the Little Endians, Little Englander, Stephen Daedalus
  • Quotations: when the present has latched its postern, yet each man kills the things he loves, give me my scallop shell of quiet, and slowly answered Arthur from the barge
  • Derivations: to blow hot and cold, I have a bone to pick with you, pussy foot, the ghost walks
  • Westminster Abbey or Victory / Envy Has No Holidays
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:48, 27049, s
08-Mar-1960 5-11 TS45   Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
see series
10-Jun-1959 4-6 TS46   Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
see series
1958-1960   TS47
  • exculpate, eftsoons, fearnought, peachick, carapace, dragonnade, nepotism, moider
  • Shakepeare ranks: Prince of Tyre, General, Duke, King
  • Quotations, Victorian: and though the fields look rough, and out again I curve and flow, I lent upon a coppice gate, oh wherefore come you forth in triumph
  • Legend and Mythology: Morpheus, Vulcan, St Crispin, Minerva
  • Derivations: to play box and cox, bellwether of the flock, king log, to run amok
  • Oh Mr Porter What Shall I do / Brevity is the soul of wit
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:46, 27012, s
1958-1960   TS48
  • sackbutt, nutant, prescience, sarcophagus, peccable, farouche, cuspidor, ouch
  • Quotations: build me straight o worthy master, some ha' meat and canna eat, and when above the surges, golden slumbers kiss your eyes
  • Characters: Baron Munchausen, Brigadier Gerard, Topsy and Eva, Stalky and Co.
  • Derivations: gad about, guinea, son of a gun, to bell a cat
  • Shakespeare: Hermia/Helena, Gertrude, Trinckulo, Hubert
  • Wait and See / Workers of the World Unite
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:56, 27167, s
1958-1960   TS49
  • coruscate, cerements, calliope, oakum
  • Quotations: behold the child by Nature's kindly law, oh my offence is rank, it happened that a few weeks later, the moving finger writes
  • Who/what/why: Arms and the Man, PeepBo, Schubert, stagecoach
  • Derivations: a devil's advocate, in a nutshell, to go bankrupt, to bring home the bacon
  • Characters: Mrs Gamp, Bindle, Dandie Dinmont, Puff
  • Pity's A Kin to Love / J'accuse
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
28:48, 27041, s
1958-1960   TS50
  • finical, hokum, mawseed, graffito
  • Titles of books: The 39 Steps, The Darling Buds of May, Peyton Place, Old Man and the Sea
  • Quotations: comrades leave me here a little, as unto the bow the cord is, it is the cause my soul, in the fell clutch of circumstance
  • Derivations: to give a clean bill of health, the apple of someone's eye, to book one's seat, as big as bull beef
  • Characters: Lothario, Lucy Lockett, Boniface, Mr Dick
  • Kind Hearts Are More Than Coronets / Come Up And See Me Sometime
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
29:12, 27415, s
1960-1961? ? TS67
  • musette, fortalice, yegg, palaeology
  • Definitions: trepan, sestina/sextain, existentialism, uxorious
  • Quotations: Charge of the Light Brigade, Leisure, Hamlet, To Virgins
  • Expressions: star in the ascendant, turncoat, Parthian shot, hat trick
  • Let joy be unconfined / On our way awake beloved
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:39, 25934, s
1960-1961? ? TS68
  • lammergeier, euphoria, hypermetropia, camion
  • Definitions: epicenter, pudding, fugue, sepia
  • Quotations: Omar Khayyam, Hamlet, Fame and Friendship, Bret Harte
  • Expressions: spencer, derby, victoria, albert
  • Misquotations: pride goeth before a fall, tis a poor thing but mine own, gild the lily, money is the root of all evil
  • The superfluous is very necessary / And constancy lives in realms above
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:11, 25492, s
1960-1961? ? TS69
  • ekka, nosing, ineluctable, ylang-ylang
  • Definitions: neolithic, smile, enfant terrible, shimmy
  • Mythology: Calypso, Pluto, Orpheus, Laocoon
  • Expressions: bayonet, pantechnion, cabal, censor
  • Abbreviations: RCMP, DDT, BDST, Chas.
  • Stolen looks are nice in chapels / She was poor but she was honest
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:09, 25459, s
1960-1961? ? TS70
  • quirt, pleach, merle, chota hazri
  • Definitions: arabesque, haggis, raglan, agent provacateur
  • Quotations: John Drinkwater, Browning, Macbeth, John Gay
  • Expressions: alfresco, carte blanche, entente cordiale, pied a terre
  • American books: Cannery Row, From the Terrace, God's Little Acre, King's Row
  • Marry in haste and repent at leisure / A bit in the morning is better than nothing all day
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:38, 25919, s
1960-1961? ? TS71
  • ligar, myology, variola, glockenspiel, notochord, kedgeree, amen, welkin
  • Quotations: Walter Scott, A A Milne, Twelfth Night, Anon.
  • Expressions: benefit of clergy, Attic salt, cheese paring, amazon
  • Modern books: Peyton Place, Casino Royale, From Here to Eternity, Saturday Night Sunday Morning
  • Aspiring to be angels men rebel / There ain't a goin' to be no core
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:09, 25458, s
1960-1961? ? TS72
  • resipiscence, incondite, couscous, cocker bondy
  • Two meanings: eke, doxy, flemish, scupper
  • Names in the language: Lady Bountiful, Quintus Fabius, Captain Charles Boycott, Friedrich Mesmer
  • Quotations: Ralph Hodgson, Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare
  • French terms: faux pas, bon bouche, parvenu, denouement
  • For this relief much thanks / Sic transit gloria mundi
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:39, 25927, s
1960-1961? ? TS73
  • vinaigrette, wildebeast, thurible, gneiss
  • Quotations: Waterbabies, Thomas Brown, Gilbert, Bluebells of Scotland
  • Heroes: Westward Ho!, Jungle Book, Handley Cross, Treasure Island
  • Comments/sayings: Whistler, Dr Johnson, Nelson, Bonaparte
  • French expressions: marron glace, sans souci, franc-tireur, en bon point (embonpoint)
  • No sire it is a revolution / The female of the species is more deadly than the male
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:24, 25690, s
1960-1961?
? TS74
  • borscht, kelt, apodictic, excoriate
  • Definitions:  garibaldi, subcutaneous/hypodermic, misogamy, maverick
  • Quotations: Byron, Pope, Macaulay, Anon.
  • Style: Runyon, Rabelais, Mrs Beaton, Shaw
  • Characters: David Copperfield, Merry Wives of Windsor, Peter Jackson, Fu Man Chu
  • A rose by any other name would smell as sweet / The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:43, 25987, s
1960-1961?
? TS75
  • curare, spiracle, parturition, ophidians
  • Latin tag: de mortuis, dulce et decorum est, in vino veritas, per ardua ad astra
  • Leading characters: Heathcliff, Jim Dixon, Edward Malone, Salar
  • Quotations: Beloc, Shelley, Shakespeare, Shakespeare
  • Dickens: Tracy Tupman, Wackford Squares, Ebenezer Scrooge, Wilkins Macawber
  • The lamps are going out all over Europe / There is moderation even in excess
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:24, 25695, s
1960-1961? ? TS76
  • coble, echoism, coir, felicide
  • Commodities: vinegar and brown paper, sugar his hair, locusts and wild honey, good dry oats and bottle of hay
  • Quotations: Longfellow, Harry Lauder, Baring-Gould, Fielding
  • Style: Wodehouse, Dr Johnson, Shaw, Churchill
  • Initials: CPRE, E&OE, NSW, FM
  • Man wants but little here below / Absence makes the heart grow fonder
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:30, 25784, s
1960-1961? ? TS78
  • litotes, papaverous, ecclesiology, whit
  • Characters: Peer Gynt, Lord Jim, Pendenis, Jonathan Wilde
  • Quotations: Housman, Goldsmith, Grey, Fred W Lee
  • Names: joey, kominform, bren, pajamas
  • Horses: Marengo, Bucephalus, Pegasus, Copenhagen
  • Beggars can't be choosers / One, two and the third in your bosom
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:34, 25852, s
1960-1961? ? TS79
  • abnegation, withy, trachea, vade mecum
  • Dogs: Pope, Madame Roland, Mark Twain, Ogden Nash
  • Quotations: Bunyan, Byron, Wordsworth, Burns
  • Names: leopard, sten gun, tommy gun, swashbuckler
  • Appetite comes with eating / Oh, Oh, Antonio
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
26:58, 25293, s
1960-1961? ? TS82
Guys Hospital, London, a Christmas episode
  • wassail, cushat, yule, rupiginous
  • Abbreviations: RC, OP, PP, AC
  • Quotations: Othello, Macbeth, New Testament, Thomas Hood
  • Why and What: piano, dyspepsia, punch, booze
  • Doctors: Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, Romeo and Juliet, du Maurier
  • One good turn deserves another / The better part of valour is discretion
Robertson, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:38, 25920, s

Series 9-11 (1962-1964) The Powell-Spain Era
Broadcast
Date
Series-
Episode
TS
number
Contents Cast Parameters
25-Dec-1961 special TS96 Christmas Special
  • hyperphysical, luge, saturnalia, pipper
  • Party games: cranbow, loo, snapdragon, up Jenkins
  • Quotations: At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
    How blest how envied our life, Ring out wild bells,
    On the third day of Christmas
  • Christmas associations: pantomime, mistletoe, turkey,
    Christmas Tree
  • Wines: Chambertin, Liebfraumilch, Chateauneuf du
    Pape, Tokay
  • A new broom sweeps clean / He who laughs last
    laughs the longest
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
30:03, 28107, s
LP 27284
01-Jul-1962 9-1 TS84
  • henna, chiliad, huckle, penstock
  • Rhyming slang: sky, whistle, apples, Rosie
  • Quotations: Grey, Shakespeare, Keats, Coleridge
  • Origins and derivations: take my davy, dibs, darbies,
    Basic English
  • Seated one day at the organ / The old folks at home
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:44, 26005, s
TS extract
LP27503
1st story
5:21, 5006, s
08-Jul-1962 9-2 TS83
  • agoraphobia, lovage, logomachy, niton, nanesoup,
    pentastich, beadledom, friseur
  • Quotations: I had a little pony, The north wind doth
    blow, Solomon Grundy, As I was going b to St. Ives
  • Expressions: Bismarck, Death, Richelieu, Guillotine
    executioner
  • Origins and derivations: brains trust, bourgoisie, digs,
    breakers ahead
  • With all her faults, I love her still / He flies through
    the air with the greatest of ease
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:34, 25851, s
TS extract
LP27503
1st story
6:02, 5648, s
15-Jul-1962 9-3   these four are probably TS85-88 but the order is unknown Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
22-Jul-1962 9-4   these four are probably TS85-88 but the order is unknown Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
29-Jul-1962 9-5   these four are probably TS85-88 but the order is unknown Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
05-Aug-1962 9-6   these four are probably TS85-88 but the order is unknown Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
12-Aug-1962 9-7 TS89
  • irenic, bandicoot, neuroma, naze
  • Mythology: Hippolyta, Mercury, Hygeia, Hydra
  • Nursery Rhymes: Dr Foster went to Gloucester, Tom
    Tom the piper's son, Little Nancy Etticoat, See Saw
    Marjorie Daw
  • Origins and derivations: achilles tendon, horsepower,
    gamut, mews
  • Maybe it's Because I'm a Londoner / Oh Death Where
    is Thy Sting
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:41, 25960, s
TS extract
LP27503
both stories
10:23, 9710, s

19-Aug-1962 9-8   probably TS90 Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
26-Aug-1962 9-9 TS91
  • gibus, allotheism, pachyderm, bitterling
  • Who and what: Nautilus, four fairies in Midsummer
    Night's Dream, Tempest/Henry VIII, Peter Rabbit's
    sisters
  • Origins and derivations: jeroboam, cab, cue, atlas
  • Styles: Dickens, Saki, Austen, Wilde
  • When You Come To The End of a Perfect Day / The
    Age of Chivalry is Gone
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:37, 25903, s
TS extract
LP27503
2nd story
5:54, 5515, s

09-Sep-1962 9-10 TS92   '100th Edition'
  • tarantism, electrolier, scarab, flâner
  • Mythology: Calliope, Actaeon, Valkyries, Bacchante
  • Origins and derivations: scapegoat, to go haywire,
    scot free, costermonger
  • She Stoops to Conquer / A Thing of Beauty is a Joy
    Forever
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:41, 25968. s
TS extract
LP27503
both stories
11:51, 11084, s
16-Sep-1962 9-11 TS93
  • victorine, interlard, quant, tautology
  • Of whom by whom? Napoleon/Thackeray, Johnson/Shaw, Keats/Yeats, Byron/Macaulay
  • Verse: Keats, Anon., Wordsworth, Foster
  • Origins and derivations: ride roughshod, steal a
    march, deadline, logrolling
  • Britain's never never never will be slaves / Is your
    journey really necessary?
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:41, 25968. s
23-Sep-1962 9-12 TS94
  • gustation, fatidical, doolie, perse
  • Of whom by whom? Whistler/Wilde, Sheridan/Johnson,
    Walpole/Macaulay, Gladstone/Victoria
  • Origins and derivations: act of grace, days of grace,
    paraphenalia, robot
  • Who/Why/What: Harpy, claque, Eugen Marchbanks/Parson Morelle, Bluebeard
  • There Are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden / If
    you Have Tears Prepare to Shed Them Now
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:48, 26068, s
TS extract
LP27503
2nd story
4:57, 46244, s
30-Sep-1962 9-13 TS95
  • spurrier, trauma, diablerie, rotunda
  • Of what by whom? bed/Maupassant, tobacco/
    Kingsley, kiss/Rostand, critics/Johnson
  • Origins and derivations: down to bedrock, rift in the
    lute, put a spoke in someone's wheel, horn of plenty
  • Who/what/why: sinews of war, Torquemada, Dandy
    Dinmot, Jospeh Pulitzer
  • Always take Mother's advice / It's naughty but it's
    nice
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:43, 25993, s
25-Dec-1962 special TS110 prob   Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
02-Apr-1963 10-1 TS97?   Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
09-Apr-1963 10-2     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
16-Apr-1963 10-3     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
23-Apr-1963 10-4     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
30-Apr-1963 10-5     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
07-May-1963 10-6     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
14-May-1963 10-7     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
21-May-1963 10-8     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
28-May-1963 10-9     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
04-Jun-1963 10-10     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
11-Jun-1963 10-11     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
18-Jun-1963 10-12     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
25-Jun-1963 10-13     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
26-Nov-1963 11-1     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
03-Dec-1963 11-2     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
10-Dec-1963 11-3     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
17-Dec-1963 11-4     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
24-Dec-1963 11-5 TS 125 prob Xmas edition. From St.Peter's Hospital
  • valis
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
31-Dec-1963 11-6     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
07-Jan-1964 11-7     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
14-Jan-1964 11-8     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
21-Jan-1964 11-9     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
28-Jan-1964 11-10     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
04-Feb-1964 11-11     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
11-Feb-1964 11-12     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
18-Feb-1964 11-13     Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
25-Feb-1964 11-14 TS123?   Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
 
Nancy Spain was killed in a light aircraft accident on 21-Mar-1964 after the broadcast of the last episode of series 11. Two episodes had already been recorded for series 12 and these were broadcast posthumously as 12-1 and 12-2 (see following era).

Transcription Service episodes Believed to be from Series 9-11 but not assignable to a particular date:
Broadcast
Date
Series-
Episode
TS
number
Contents Cast Parameters
1962? 9-? TS77
  • hydropathy, pinguid, phaeton, porkling
  • Ships: Ancient Mariner, O Captain My Captain, Helen of Troy, Hunting of the Snark
  • Named after people: petersham, brougham, bowie, lord
  • Quotations: Longfellow, Pope, Shakespeare, Harry Lauder
  • French expressions: aplomb, amant honorable, haute ecole, lingerie
  • That blessed word Mesopotamia / A thing of beauty is a joy forever
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:40, 25951, s
probably
Jul-1962
9-? TS85
  • Ostreophagist, thews, invigilate, scaphoid
  • Initials: D.V., FSR, ibid., SAA
  • Quotations: Tempest, Hamlet, Scott, Byron
  • Origins and derivations: Aunt Sally, lick into shape, pagan, wild goose chase
  • Slang: minces, bird, chevvy, salmon
  • Honi soit qui mal y pense / Against the undivulged pretense I fight
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:28, 25760, s
probably
Jul-1962
9-? TS86
  • Rivière, hydroponics, Orcadian, nectary
  • Defintions: insectarium, nectarine, gnome, daunt
  • Quotations: Longfellow, Wordsworth, Burns, nursery rhyme
  • Origins and derivations: vaudeville, claptrap, concert pitch, bread and circuses
  • There never was a good war or a bad peace / Ring down the curtain the farce is over
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:48, 26067, s
probably
Aug-1962
9-? TS87
  • planchette, frondescence, brio, caoutchaouc
  • Quotations: Goldsmith, Keats, Tennyson, Hood
  • Characters: Monsieur Bocquere, Blind Pew, Modestine, Edward Murdstone
  • Origins and derivations: Little England, doily, IQ, comb out
  • Oh for the touch of a vanished hand / One flower makes no garland
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:25, 25711, s
probably
Aug-1962
9-? TS88
  • Walloon, lockage, kraken, urticate, trichosis, otology, miff, vedette
  • What's the Difference: ordnance/ordinance, pathos/bathos, antimony/antinomy, llama/lama
  • Quotations: Byron, Kingsley, Shakespeare, Macaulay
  • Characters: John Ridd, Mellors, Jean Valjean, Captain Ahab
  • Put not your trust in princes / Here lies one whose name was writ in water
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:31, 25801, s
probably
19-Aug-1962
9-8? TS90
  • mattoid, oleander, bogle, babouche
  • Who and what: Keats, Tennyson on Wellington, Abraham Lincoln, Wordsworth
  • Origins and derivations: alpha to omega, to hold aloof, printer's devil, knock knock who's there
  • The shape of things to come / Anything awful makes me laugh
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:47, 26058, S
25-Dec-1961
special TS96 Christmas Special:
  • hyperphysical, etc.
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
see series
possibly
02-Apr-1963
10-1? TS97
  • malemute, sinology, ovine, panification
  • Identifications: Lake Poets, William Hickey, Parson Lot, Dora Spendlow and Agnes Wickfield
  • Origins and Derivations: enthusiasm, tweed, padre, slogan
  • Marriage advice: Shakespeare, Punch, Fuller, Benjamin Franklin
  • There is no trusting to appearances / Neither a borrower nor a lender be
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:47, 26059, s
09-Apr-1963? 10-x? TS98
  • fossick, dromond, liana, randem
  • Who/Why/What? Fanny Braun, Annie Laurie, Jocasta, weepers
  • Origins and derivations: wet blanket, khaki, wideawake, cinch
  • Fashion: Wilde, Pepys, Mohammed, Franklin
  • A country fit for heroes to live in / Look not upon the wine when it is red
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:43, 25993, s
16-Apr-1963? 10-x? TS99
  • exuviate, fa, jemimas, dhoti
  • Who/Why/What? Hayde, Flying Dutchman, stylite, Sabine women
  • Poetry: Henley, Keats, Shakespeare, Tennyson
  • Origins and derivations: coast is clear, paradise, maquis. to eat salt
  • Dead men tell no tales / Appetite comes with eating
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:49, 26079, s
25-Apr-1963? 10-x? TS100
  • picaresque, smallage, tulipomania, theorbo
  • Who/What/Why? Dives, Dulcinea, helots, from Dan to Beersheba
  • Origins and derivations: kick over the traces, wolf in sheep's clothing, above board, penthouse
  • Those who are about to die salute you / The proof of the pudding is in the eating
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:55, 26183, s
trailer by
Edward J. Mason
1:00, 943m, s
1963? 10-x? TS101
  • Vocabularies: marginalia, roburite, Erse, paravane
  • Verse: Gray’s “…Distant view of Eton College”, Gilbert Bab Ballads, Milton “Lysidas”, Shakespeare “Richard II”
  • Origins and derivations: put the kibosh on, lay by the heels, Baedecker rains, cast sheep’s eyes
  • Two blacks do not make a white / My bonny lies over the ocean
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:47, 26055, s
1963? 10-x? TS102
  • Vocabularies: Janeite, about-sledge, dan, Wertherism
  • Books and characters: Smee, Mr. Goldfinger, Mr. Slope, Abel Mankwitch
  • Poetry and verse: Marlowe “The passionate shepherd and his love”, Carroll “Bruno and Sylvie”, Rossetti “The blessed damoiselle”, Shakespeare “Henry VIII”
  • French and Latin sayings: cherche la femme, sic transit Gloria muni, mens sana in corpose sano, dulcie et decorum est
  • The die is cast / Keep right on to the end of the road
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:24, 25693, s
1963? 10-x? TS103
  • Vocabularies: romaunt, furbish, animacule, tort
  • Descriptions: gorgons, Don Juan, Peter Pan, Shakespeare
  • French and Latin tags: QED, if youth only knew…, O tempore o mores, morituri te salutem
  • Origins and Derivations: haversack, a decent chap, delirium, checkmate
  • Sweet are the uses of adversity / The better part of valour is discretion
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:45, 26023, s
1963? 10-x? TS104
  • Vocabularies: emeritus, perigee, salacious, telearchics
  • Who or What Was: Alatlanta, Atlantis, Bucephalus, Calypso
  • Origins and Derivations: to lay it on with a trowel, to sail the high seas, to feel hipped, to browbeat
  • Shakespeare: What You Will, Shakespeare’s children, plays with more than one part, a wound
  • Here’s to the girl with the pair of blue eyes / I wonder who’s kissing her now
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:42, 25979, s
1963? 10-x? TS105
  • Vocabularies: desiderata, ruth, siffleur, rumtum
  • Origins and Derivations: hooligan, moonraker, namby-pamby, knickerbockers
  • Authors: George Eliot, Jack London, Harrison Amesworth, Thomas Hardy
  • Who/Why/Where: The bell in Edmonton, ate mince and quince with a runcible spoon, Walrus doubts the strand can be swept, Winnie the Pooh
  • Oh what a beautiful morning / Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:17, 12793, m
ABC RN
1963? 10-x? TS106
  • Vocabularies: gingival, floccinaucinihilipilification, meed, hymnody
  • Shakeperean first lines: Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Henry V, Merry Wives of Windsor
  • Verse and Poetry: Ode to a Nightingale by Keats, Time I’ve Lost in Wooing by Thomas More, Hamlet, Goldsmith about Garrick
  • Origins and Derivations: slough of despond, belfry, barracking, catchpole
  • Slow and steady wins the race / Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:37, 12951, m
ABC RN
1963? 10-x? TS107
  • Vocabularies: rahat lakum, jobation, Fleming, hoky poky
  • Court questions: court cupboard, court plaster, court
    of pied power, court of love
  • Origins and Derivations: out Herod Herod, Clerk known
    as Nobby, italics, to peach on someone
  • Who/Why/What/Where: rook as parson, Great Plague,
    Tennyson’s “The Revenge”, Herrick’s “Julia”
  • I will return / Should auld acquaintance be forgot
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:46, 26032, s
1963? 10-x? TS108
  • Vocabularies: hagiolatry, sabreur, indigene, gnosis
  • Verse and Poetry: Tennyson’s The Brook, Kingsley’s
    The Sands of Dee, Poe’s Annabelle Lee, Omar Khayaim
  • Origins and Derivations: for a song, backroom boys,
    to be made a cat’s paw, baggage
  • Call words: call a man out, call bird, call of the
    House, call day
  • All quiet on the western front / A llittle more than
    kin and less than kind
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:20, 25638, s
1963? 10-x? TS109
  • napoleon, solvo, palfrey, tubule
  • Quotations: Tennyson, Macaulay, Browning, Scott
  • Origins and derivations: ventriloquist, leave in the
    lurch, farce, by and large
  • Who/Why/What: the Jumblies, Lear/himself, people
    of the Midlands/Belloc, Peter Pan/fairies
  • Some Enchanted Evening / Marriage Is Nothing But
    a Civil Contract
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:34, 25846, s
possibly
1962
special TS110
Christmas Special
  • fairling, grog blossom, polyphagia, noel
  • Christmas: Kris Kringle, Mr Pickwick, three French
    hens, good cheer
  • Nicknames: Artful Dodger, Brandy Nan, Old Blood
    and Guts, Old Nick
  • Seasonal plays: Charlie's Aunt, Noddy in Toyland,
    Toad of Toad Hall, Wizard of Oz
  • How Doth The Little Busy Bee Improve Each Shining
    Hour / The Heart Out Of the Bosom Was Never Given
    in Vain
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:34, 25850, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS111
  • Haematic, parboil, spilth, raffish
  • Mythology: Vulcan, Dryads, Pluto and Persephone,
    Asclepius
  • Origins and Derivations: gargoyle, green-eyed
    monster, on the qui vive, to dun someone
  • Who/What/Why: sonnet, ampersand, Mr
    President/Excellency/Eminence, Midas and asses ears
  • She's my Sweetheart, I'm Her Beau / She Was only a
    Bird in a Gilded Cage
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:49, 26089, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS112
  • Blain, holocaust, caulk, bibliomania
  • Who/Why/What: Tanglewood Tales, wild animals,
    Tigger and Roo, dutch concert
  • Verse/Poetry: Omar Khaiyam, Wordsworth,
    Shakespeare, Jonson
  • Expressions: cheapjack, jackpot, jackrabbit, smokejack
  • Now Is The Winter of Our Discontent / Be It Ever So
    Humble There's no Place Like Home
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:49, 26084, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS113
  • Vocabularies: galantine, lamasery, miscibility,
    cucking stool
  • Nurseryland: Baa baa black sheep, Winken Blinken and
    Nod, straw sticks and bricks, Jack and the beanstalk
  • Origins and Derivations: to rat, dago, Catherine
    wheel, hussy
  • French or Latin expressions: in vino veritas, sans
    culotte, soi disant, pis allet
  • Revenge is a kind of wild justice / I’m getting married
    in the morning
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:45, 26028, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS114
  • Vocabularies: gharry, cryptaesthesia, shako, cuisse
  • Greek Mythology: Baucis and Philemon, Daedalus and
    Icarus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Jason and Medea
  • Origins and Derivations: a toast, pass the buck,
    skylarking, slewed
  • Literature and Drama: Anthony Trollope, Moliere,
    Dickens, George Eliot
  • I am a citizen of the world / I don’t want to play in
    your yard
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:39, 25935, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS115
  • Vocabularies: hydromel, ultimogeniture, nidification, opsimath
  • Gulliver’s Travels: Glumdalclitch, big Endians and little
    Endians, Huhnhnyms and yahoos, strulbrugs
  • Verse and Poetry: Rupert Brook Granchester, Kathleen
    O’Vorneen, Health unto his Majesty, Greensleeves
  • Who/What/When/Where: Mr. Rochester, de Winter,
    Study in Scarlet, David Copperfield
  • In the great right of an excessive wrong / I’m going to wash that man right out of my hair
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:37, 25899, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS116
  • Vocabularies: jacobus, herbarium, mavorneen, barbican
  • Literary references: Cooper on England, Shaw on marriage, Wordsworth on Westminster Bridge, Thackeray on Napoleon
  • Origins and Derivations: with a jaundiced eye, lantern jawed, to peg out, a dead heat
  • Ex words: ex gratia, ex officio, ex libris, ex partie
  • The bigger they come, the harder they fall / I have nothing to declare except my genius
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:46, 26035, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS117
  • Vocabularies: hebetude, scut, mezzanine, herby
  • Reason Why: feud in Lorna Doone, tortoise win the
    race, why did Rip van Winkle leave home, Caesar
    mistrust Cassius
  • Verse and Poetry: William Allingham Faeries, Dobson
    Rose Leaves, Herrick To Anthea, Browning Home
    Thoughts from Abroad
  • Origins and Derivations: penicillin, gout, to go
    through the mill, a man with no scruples
  • And so to bed / There is a happy land far far away
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:34, 25854, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS118
  • Vocabularies: dressage, barcarole, proponent, windage
  • Reason Why: Don Quixote tilts at windmills, Tom Jones is adopted and then dismissed, Jane Eyre finally marries Mr. Rochester, Queen Guinevere hie to a nunnery
  • Origins and Derivations: mealy mouthed, etiquette, mad as a hatter, to pay your footing
  • Definitions: marriage, music, applied science, women
  • Take a pair of sparkling eyes / It was roses, roses all the way
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:34, 25855, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS119
  • Vocabularies: burke, detinue, hecatomb, xylophagous
  • Who/what/why: Bunyan in jail, Rodolf Rusker, a slave, Casabianca
  • Quotations: AE Housman, Hamlet, Burns/Scott, Tennyson
  • Why and wherefore: Trilby's voice, why didn't take his family with him, 007, Dickens support of the poor
  • In the shade of the old apple tree / If you go down in the woods today you're sure to be in for a big suprise
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:45, 26028, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS120
  • Vocabularies: wiseacre, scroop, hartshorn, cross-buttock
  • Writers' first works: Hemingway, Thurber, HG Wells, Fitzgerald
  • Origins and derivations: in the doldrums, try it on the dog, bistro, coward
  • Who and what: Southey, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Tennyson, Belloc
  • Thrillers: Maltese Falcon, Lady in the Lake, Study in Scarlet, Postman Always Rings Twice
  • Save me Oh save me from the candied friend / All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:40, 25943, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS121
  • glossographer, twight, weasand, tympanitis
  • Origins and derivations: hoist the blue peter, catastrophe, you can whistle for it, preliminary canter
  • Who/why/what: Keats La Belle dame sans merci, Dowson, sob sister, lawyers
  • Heroes: David Balfour, Philip Carey, And Quiet Flows the Don, Waverly novels
  • Is it a world to hide virtues in? / You're the flower
    of my heart, sweet Adeline
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:45, 26026, s
1963-1964? 11-x? TS122
  • coven, wanderoo, piker, aloetic
  • Verse: Tennyson, Coleridge, Marvell, Shakespeare
  • Origins and derivations: sail under false colors, grand guignol, lampoon, wash out
  • Foreign phrases: à outrance, ballon d'essai, coup de main, femme de chambre'
  • Are you sick or are you sullen / It takes a great deal
    of history to a produce a little literature
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:44, 26003, s
1963-1964?
possibly
01-May-1964
and therefore
Nancy Spain's
last episode
11-x?
poss.
12-02
TS123 Beverage Hall/Beveridge?, London University
  • polyhistor, fusiform, hornbook, bear leader
  • Shakespeare: mumble-news, ear kissing, rooky, nit
  • Education: Mark Twain, Shaw, Shakespeare, Wilde
  • We've been together now for forty years / Shoot father I am not afraid
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:44, 26016, s
24-Apr-1964 12-01 TS124 My Bard! The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford on Avon
  • ticklebrain, leet, lifter, wannion
  • Who/what: thanes of Cawdor and Fife, Verona, Shylock's daughter, King Lear's three daughters
  • Songs: Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Tempest, Macbeth
  • Said about Shakespeare: Haslet, Johnson, Wilde, Olivier
  • The quality of mercy is not strained / Four
    lagging winters and four wanton springs
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:49, 26028, s
24-Dec-1963 11-05 TS125 Christmas edition. From St.Peter's Hospital
  • Christmas Crackers
  • vails, nixie, maffick, algidity
  • Traditional shows: Charlie's Aunt, Noddy in Toyland,
    Wind in the Willows/Toad of Toad Hall, Wizard of Oz
  • Verses: Come landlord fill the flowing bowl, Goodnight
    ladies, God bless the master of this house, Twas on
    a Monday morning
  • Cracker mottos
  • Joys like beauty are skin deep / She walks in beauty
    like the night
Powell, Muir, Spain, Norden
Longland/Mason/Shryane
27:42, 25977, s
Nancy Spain was killed in a light aircraft accident on 21-Mar-1964. Two episodes were broadcast posthumously, probably TS 123 and 124.

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