Humphrey Lyttelton

Apr 28 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

HUMPHREY LYTTELTON became legendary for his ability to deliver the smuttiest of innuendoes with apparent innocence as host of radio’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

But a sense of humour and the straightest of straight faces were far from being the only strings to his bow.

Over the course of more than six decades in public life, Lyttelton – or "Humph" – became a highly-respected jazz musician, a cartoonist, and a journalist, as well as a much-loved radio host.

He also found time to indulge his passion for calligraphy and write more than half-a-dozen books. However, despite all his success, he maintained a dogged attachment to a battered Volvo 200 series estate car in which he had reputedly clocked up more than 250,000 miles.

Lyttelton was born on May 23, 1921, at Eton College, where his father was a housemaster.

It was while at Eton that he developed a love for jazz and, in 1936, having taught himself the trumpet, formed his first quartet with schoolmates including journalist Ludovic Kennedy.

After leaving school he served with the Grenadier Guards during the war before going to Camberwell Art College in central London.

It was from here that the extent of Lyttelton’s versatility started to become clear.

He worked asIn 1949 he joined the Daily Mail as a cartoonist, and , working, among other projects, on the popular Flook strip, and stayed there until 1956.

He was also emerging as a key figure in the British revival of traditional jazz forms.

Lyttelton’s signed a contract with EMI, and produced a string of now much-sought after recordings, including original compositions and versions of classics.

His Bad Penny Blues became the first British jazz record to enter the top 20, in 1956. That same year, his bLyttelton Band supported jazz legend Louis Armstrong in London.

By the 1960s, his attention was turning to presenting, and he began a four-decade stint hosting Radio 2’s The Best Of Jazz in 1967. Perhaps the key moment in Lyttelton’s comedy career was becoming the surprise choice as chairman of Radio 4’s improvised show, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, in 1972.

It proved to be an inspired move by the producers, as his deadpan delivery supplied the perfect foil to the bizarre games being played by regular panellists including Graeme Garden, Willie Rushton and Tim Brooke-Taylor.

Over the years, he honed his grumpy on-air persona to perfection, although his pretence of long-suffering boredom could never disguise the delight he took in the anarchic scenes.

Samantha, the lovely assistant who sat "on his left hand", became the target for many of his best innuendo-laden comments, delivered with an apparent total innocence of their connotations.

It is hard to imagine any other BBC host in a Saturday morning slot getting away with lines such as: "In her spare time, Samantha likes nothing more than to peruse old record shops. She particularly enjoys a rewarding poke in the country section."

He would often pause to describe what his assistant, whose voice was never heard, had been up to recently.

"She’s looking forward to going out for an ice cream with her Italian gentleman friend. She says she’s looking forward to licking the nuts off a large Neapolitan."

The show’s resident pianist, Colin Sell, a distinguished head of music at Essex University, also came in for good-humoured abuse.

Once Lyttelton announced: "We’ve just heard some great news - I’m very pleased to announce that the BBC have arranged a special collection of Colin’s entire work... they’ve bagged it up and the council are sending some men round for it on Tuesday."

He was also more than capable of holding his own with the professional comedians in the ad-libbing stakes, and demonstrated an exquisite sense of comic timing.

The programme regularly attracted audiences of attracted 2m listeners.

Asked to explain I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue’s enduring popularity, Lyttelton said: "It’s chronically unpredictable. It doesn’t get stale because nobody knows what’s going to happen next, least of all us.

In 1993, Lyttelton was awarded the radio industry’s highest honour, the Sony Gold Award, and received lifetime achievement awards at the Post Office British Jazz Awards in 2000 and the BBC Jazz Awards in 2001.

He continued touring until well into his 80s, and made a special guest appearance on Radiohead’s track, Life In A Glass House, in 2000.

The collaboration culminated in a performance in front of 42,000 fans at the South Park concert in Oxford.

The father-of-four, who was long-standing president of the Society For Italic Handwriting, married twice, first in 1948 and then again following a divorce in 1952.

He used to end every edition of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue with typically surreal sign-off lines, such as.

One example was: "As the vanquished charwoman of time begins to Shake-n- Vac the shagpile of eternity, I notice that we have just run out of time."

Humphrey Lyttelton, broadcaster; born May 23, 1921, died April 25, 2008