I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again - Regular Characters of The Radio Show

Regular Characters of The Radio Show

The Director General of the BBC

played by John Cleese. Continually sends memos to the ISIRTA team with the most ridiculous requests. One week, he decides that "Radio Prune" will become a music channel, a rival to Radio 1. His reason is "We at the BBC may be very, very silly, but we can write letters". He is also constantly offended by the contents of the show.

American Continuity Man

is a parody of Hughie Green usually played by Oddie, although on one occasion in the 3rd series, he's voiced by Garden. His catchphrases include "Thank-you, Thank-you" and "Wasn't that just great?" Invariably, when he hands over to Kendall for details of the Prune Play of the Week, she refers to him by another personality's name – Simon (Dee), Jimmy (Young, or possibly Savile), David (Frost) or Eamonn (Andrews). On one occasion, after Kendall announces the title of the Prune Play of the Week Jorrocks: The Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (or a man-hunting fox....), by Stanley Stamps, author of Stanley Stamps' Gibbon catalogue, Bill/Hughie says to the audience, "So will you please put your hands together ... and pray ...."

Angus Prune

is a character adopted by Bill Oddie to sing the playoff.

Grimbling

Voiced by Bill Oddie, Grimbling is a "dirty old man" who often appears as a groundsman, butler or some similar profession. Due to the limitations of an audio-only medium, the true nature of Grimbling is never revealed, however he is greeted with universal revulsion by all bar the audience. He memorably introduces himself in the 25th Anniversary Episode "I am Grimbling, but don't worry, I'll clean it up later." In the same episode, Cleese asks him "Aren't you a little past it, old man?", only to have Grimbling respond, "No, I'm a little dirty old man". And in the Robin Hood sketch in the 3rd series, Grimbling is in the employ of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Garden), who tells him, 'You have done well, Grimbling; take this tennis racquet for your services.'

Lady Constance de Coverlet

is a ridiculous female character played by Tim Brooke-Taylor. Lady Constance is usually introduced by a statement along the lines of "what is that coming towards us? – It's huge – It's a rhinoceros!" – "No, it's me!!!" Her size is legendary; in the Henry VIII sketch, Katharine of Aragon and Lady Constance (masquerading as Anne of Cleavage) fight a duel to decide who is to be Queen. Brooke-Taylor introduces her in the style of a boxing MC: "..and in the blue corner, at 15 hundredweight, your own, your very own – and there's enough to go round – twice -..." In the Dentisti sketch, a parody on the 1960s TV series Daktari, Lady Constance plays (appropriately) an elephant; and in Jack The Ripper, Lady Constance is invited to "please, sit down anywhere ... or in your case, everywhere". In the Radio Prune Greek Tragedy sketch, she plays the mother of Oedipus Rex – according to the Oracle, she was hoping for a dog – and she tells Oedipus "Now let me get on with my housework, I've got a little behind .." (pause for the double-entendre to register) ".. oh all right, I've got a colossal behind!!" In the Colditz sketch, the lads' escape route is through the plug hole of her bath, and Bill Oddie exclaims "She's like a ruddy great iceberg: one eighth above the water, 76 eighths below!". She also in her own way is a bit of a nymphomaniac – she's described in the 25th Anniversary show version of Jack The Ripper as a steaming volcano of eroticism – and there are frequent references to unfulfilled sexual desire: in the 3.17 to Cleethorpes sketch, she and the other players in the drama are adrift on a raft in the ocean; Lady Constance offers to take all her clothes off and use them for a sail, and when Hatch says, "Yes, and then what?", Lady Constance replies, "Well, that's rather up to you ...."

Mr Arnold Totteridge

Another famous recurring character, Arnold Totteridge (played by Garden) is a doddering old man who gets lost in the middle of his sentences. He invariably begins with: "How do you do, do you do, do you do...do you?" and after rambling incoherently for a few minutes returns to where he started. His most famous moment is in the 25th Anniversary Episode, where he has been appointed "The Dynamic new-de-oo-do-de-oo-do-de-oo Head of Radio-do-do-de-do Comedy"

John and Mary

John Cleese and Jo Kendall frequently performed poignant – almost romantic – dialogues as the respectable but dysfunctional couple "John and Mary", a forerunner of the relationship between Basil and Sybil later televised in Fawlty Towers. They bear a passing resemblance to Fiona and Charles of Round the Horne.

Masher Wilkins

A kind-hearted simpleton (played by John Cleese) who often appears as an unlikely villain or henchman. He is prone to malapropisms: "I've been trailing you through this impenetrable ferret-- I mean 'forest'" - but these are often the intro to clever running jokes. For instance in this case the line continues: "Oh no, not ferret, I mean stoat". "Stoat?" "Yes, 'stoatally impenetrable". In one show, the topic on The Money Programme is fiscal policy and other matters monetary, and Masher asks some very abstruse questions about the Bank of England and its role in the economy. His last question, however is: 'An' wot's the combination o' de safe: oooh wot a giveaway!!'