Classic Radio Comedy (1964 - 72)

Billed as 'a radio custard pie' this show ran for 8 years and starred Greame Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, John 'Otto' Cleese, Jo Kendall and David Hatch (who later went on to produce the show). The show sprang from the undergraduate revues, with the pilot of the series being a recording of the West End show, Cambridge Circus. Originating at the Cambridge University Footlights Club, the group and idea in general, sprang from the revue entitled "A Clump of Plinths". The show was a melange of silly voices, awful puns, and mildly smutty humor, in no particular order, with the audience controlling most of the show in later series (no order at all.) If this sounds like Monty Python's Flying Circus, it should. Cleese was a Sorry old time radio cast member. In fact, ISIRTA, as it is known by the acronymically well endowed, is notable for the amount of talent that festered within the group. Oddie and Garden wrote the scripts with contributions from the others, and this team later, with Tim Brook-Taylor, formed the Goodies on TV. John Cleese became a founding member of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and is undoubtedly one of the best British comedy writers and actors in his own opinion. Basil Faulty would concur. David Hatch continued as a suit guy.