Abigoliah: Hello everyone. Welcome back to All British Comedy Explained, the podcast where I, a woman who does not know a lot about British comedy, am learning all about it from Tom Salinsky — most importantly, how to get to Mornington Crescent.
Tom: Yes, so this is the end of our first series on landmarks. I don’t know if you could really call I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue innovative or influential in the way that The Young Ones and The Goon Show and Monty Python are, but I felt it was really worth including because it’s such a piece of the comedy landscape. And Mornington Crescent, I think, is the apotheosis of that. It’s this wonderful in-joke. And of course, the thing about an in-joke is it’s delicious if you’re on the inside and somewhat alienating if you’re on the outside…
Agigoliah: Oh my gosh, infuriating.
Tom: So I was delighted to be able to welcome you over the threshold.
Abigoliah: Yes, it’s wonderful to be here. And in this episode, this very special interview, we have Pippa Evans, who has been on 26 episodes, I believe, of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. She is an amazing comedian and improviser, singer — she can do it all. The woman can do everything.
Tom: Yeah, and we’ve been asking Pippa if we can have a little peep behind the curtain. Some things she’s happy to talk about, and some things less so. If you want to peep behind our curtain, we should always record these episodes in the order that they go out. And next week you’ll hear a little surprise that I had for Abigoliah to wrap up our first season. There is a little mention of that. So if you hear Abigoliah referring to something that you think – that hasn’t happened yet, that’s why.
Abigoliah: And don’t worry — when you listen to what happens next week, you will unsubscribe quicker than you—
Tom: Instantaneously we will shed listeners.
Abigoliah: Oh. It’s going to be great. But guys — here’s Pippa.
Abigoliah: Hello everyone, welcome to All British Comedy Explained. We have a very special guest with us. As you’ve already, I’m sure, listened to our episode on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue a few weeks ago, I had never heard of it and I had such a good time listening to it. And I heard Pippa Evans, who’s an amazing comedian and improviser, actor, writer — and I’ve followed her work for a long time. She is on the podcast today. So welcome to the podcast, Pippa.
Pippa: Thank you so much. What a great introduction. And Abigoliah, I have such a great memory of you and me being in a lift doing stand-up in — I can’t even remember which country it was. Was it Norway? It was like a festival.
Abigoliah: Yes, in Norway.
Pippa: It was improv, doing improvised comedy to a double bassist. And then there was a gig in a lift, and you were just doing a set in a lift. It was — it was one of the best weekends of my life.
Abigoliah: And there was one in a toilet where I was — I was one of the comedians who had the privilege to perform in a toilet because I did really rude, sexy jokes, which is considered toilet humour. Yeah. That was so bizarre. Like, 40 of us descended on basically a dilapidated—
Pippa: Warehouse, yeah.
Abigoliah: Warehouse, and just did comedy for a bunch of Norwegian people in random places.
Pippa: Great. Yeah. Great times. And I remember also that weekend, for some reason, I didn’t have any — is it kroner in Norway? I didn’t have any money, and I don’t think we were getting any expenses, so I managed to do the whole weekend by just stealing from the breakfast buffet.
Abigoliah: That is a true comic right there. That is — that’s how you know someone’s done the work. Who’s worked the road. It’s when it’s like, listen, I can do it on a continental. I can do a whole weekend on croissants and yoghurts. Watch me.
Tom: Now, I understand that you’ve been inundated with a letter from Graeme Garden.
Pippa: That’s right, so when Tom first approached me to do this podcast, he said it’d be really nice to have somebody who’s been with the programme for, like, a thousand years. So our first port of call was Jon the producer. But Jon the producer is the busiest man in the world. And he said, “I’m not free, but why don’t you ask Graeme Garden?”
So I sent him an email — Graeme being, of course, the original, the originator, part of The Goodies. And he replied to my email, this…
Dear Pippa,
How lovely to hear from you. You’ve been doing some great work on Clue, and I hope you have many more appearances to come. You’ll find the first 30 years are the trickiest.
I’m not free, unfortunately, on Thursday to take part in the podcast. Also, I’ve always been a bit reluctant to discuss the secrets of Clue in case it spoils the magic. And in my experience, I rather agree with E. B. White, who Baz used to quote [being Barry Cryer], that analysing comedy is like dissecting a frog: you don’t learn much and the frog dies.
I hope you have fun doing the podcast, and do remind them that Mornington Crescent is like playing chess — but without the pieces or the board.
Love, Graeme.
So, from the horse’s mouth. Or laptop.
Tom: Indeed. Yes.
Abigoliah: When we watched, or listened to I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, Pippa, I had a breakdown at the Mornington Crescent game. Because my partner tried to play it with me when I first met him, and I thought he was just making something up. Because it was like, “How do you get to Mornington Crescent from where you live?” And I live in Camden, and I’m like, “You just get on the Camden line and go one stop.” And he’s like, “Oh no, that’ll never do. You can’t do that — it’s not on a diagonal.” And I thought he was making it up. And then when it was on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, I was like — it’s a real thing, but it’s also not a real thing. I still don’t understand it.
Pippa: Yeah. It’s such a great weird British game. My favourite thing about it is that the audience cheers so much when they say, “And now it’s time for Mornington Crescent.” Everyone gives a big cheer. And if you’ve got really regular audience members in, they get so involved with the game. Whatever you say, they’ll join in with it — “ooh”, or they’ll go “yeah, yeah, yeah.” They’ll cheer you on.
And so then Jack’s responses are based on their responses, and our responses are based on Jack’s responses. So it’s such a fun game to play. And the biggest treat is if it’s your first time on the show, you’re given permission to say “Mornington Crescent”, because you feel like, “Surely I can’t say the iconic Mornington Crescent” But they give you a pass.
Tom: So they explicitly say that you’re—
Pippa: Allowed to be the one who says it. Yeah. Because it feels like such a big thing to be the one who says it.
Tom: I remember how delighted Barry Cryer always sounded whenever he won. He was like, so triumphant — much more than the others, in my recollection. It’s such a joy. Such a joy.
Abigoliah: How long have you been doing—
Pippa: I actually — I’m not entirely sure. But I think six or seven years. It might be slightly more than that. I was offered to go on it because I did a gig with Jack Dee in Bristol as part of the Slapstick Comedy Festival. And I was being me — singing songs and telling jokes and being a bit ridiculous. And Jack very kindly wrote to Jon and said, “I think Pippa Evans would be quite good on our show, actually.”
So that was really just a great job through a recommendation. Because when I first did it, it was the original team. So it was Graeme and Barry and…
Abigoliah: Wow…
Pippa: Tim. Tim was my partner in the show. And I’ve never been so nervous in my life.
But I felt like I was brought up on old-time music hall. So I do have — the core of me is like an 1890s performer. So I do have the essence of an old man inside of me. And so there was something about being able to — me and Barry used to just sing old-time music hall songs together quite often. And I just understood all the older references as well as the newer references. And I think that’s a really important part of that kind of show, where you have to honour the origins of the show whilst bringing it up to date. Do you know what I mean?
Abigoliah: Yeah.
Tom: I believe I’m right in saying, Pippa, that your first show was in 2016.
Pippa: Which, of course, is the trend at the moment. Wow. Who knew?
Tom: Colchester. Charter Hall. Does that sound right?
Pippa: Where is it?
Tom: Colchester. Charter Hall. Colchester.
Pippa: In the good old days — the good old days of the BBC — you would go out for dinner the night before the show.
Abigoliah: Oh fun!
Pippa: And so the night before the show, I had to go out for dinner with all these legends of comedy and—
Tom: Old men.
Pippa: Old men.
And I remember I was sat opposite Barry, and Barry couldn’t hear very well. And I was just a bit overwhelmed by being at the table with all of these comedy legends slash old men — but also not being able to have a conversation because it was a restaurant, you know, so it was really loud — but feeling like I needed to make a really good impression because I was about to go on stage with these people.
Tom: You’re shouting across the table — “What was it like working with Kenny Everett?”
Pippa: Exactly that.
And Tim Brooke-Taylor — he was talking about his life, and then I don’t know why, but I brought up Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you know, Willy Wonka. And he said, “Oh yeah, well, of course I’m in that film.”
And I said, “What? What?”
And he said, “Yeah — you know the bit with the computer where he goes, ‘I’m just asking the computer to tell me exactly where the Wonka Bars might be situated.’”
Pippa: And the last line of the sketch — I think — is he says, “The computer has asked me what would you do with a lifetime supply of Wonka Bars. I’m now telling the computer exactly what I would do with a lifetime of Wonka Bars.”
And I thought that was the funniest scene in that film. As a kid, I thought it was so funny. And I just gushed at him for ages — “It’s amazing, I can’t believe you’re in that.”
And he just paused and said, “I mean, I’ve done so many things in my life. I’m a bit disappointed that’s the thing you’re most impressed by.”
So I was very sorry to disappoint him. But yeah — he was a lovely guy. He came and watched Showstopper! in the West End, actually, and was really supportive. So yeah, it was a great loss.
Also, he said on my first day — like I said, I was really nervous. I knew this was a big, epic show. It’s unlike any other Radio 4 show, in that it’s recorded in these huge venues, because when the BBC does those live radio shows, they’re free, ticketed, and people will book tickets and not show up. So you’ll sometimes have empty seats.
But for Clue recordings, everyone shows up — and then when people can’t get in, they lose their minds. Because they go, “Well, I’ve travelled so far — this is completely unfair,” even though it does say we have to oversubscribe because people don’t turn up.
So Clue is one of the only shows where you have to pay for a ticket — you know, a small fee, but you still have to pay to guarantee your seat because they can’t trust that people aren’t going to show up, if you see what I mean.
Abigoliah: Oh wow.
Pippa: Which means they have to use bigger venues. Which means they have to have bigger budgets for a bigger venue. Yeah, it’s really fascinating. So we do these massive – we just did the Royal Festival Hall in December. It’s huge.
But anyway — we were doing this big venue in Colchester, and Tim was saying, “Oh, are you okay? Is everything okay?”
And I said, “Yeah, yeah — I’m just a bit nervous.”
And he said, “Oh yeah, I’m a bit nervous too. This is my first show since I had heart surgery.”
And I was like—
Tom: Oh my God.
Pippa: You’ve got more reason to be nervous than me. But he was so kind — having just gone through a massive operation — worrying about little Pips on her first show.
Abigoliah: Awww…
Tom: So when did you first become aware of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue? Was it something you listened to when you were little? Was it part of your dad’s interest in music hall?
Pippa: My parents — yeah. Radio 4 was just on in the kitchen since I was a kid. So I’ve known that theme tune since I was a child. Completely aware of who Barry Cryer was from a young age. And you’ll know this when you’re performing — you have to have jobs that reassure parents that you’re doing okay. Even if you are. Because muggles don’t understand the world. So that was the ultimate: “She’s doing okay. She’s on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.”
Abigoliah: Awww…
Pippa: So it was really nice to do something that’s really sort of precious to them. And they came to that first recording in Colchester actually. And Tim Brooke-Taylor poured them a glass of wine. They couldn’t believe it. They were like, “Tim Brooke-Taylor is pouring us wine.” So really part of my childhood, completely.
Abigoliah: Wow.
Tom: For me, it was getting David Archer into one of my plays. In fact, Pippa, the same play that you were in in Edinburgh. Tim Bentinck is in The Archers. And for my mum, that was unbelievable. And they came to Edinburgh and insisted on meeting him backstage and shaking hands.
Pippa: What I remember from that time, though, was doing the play Brexit, which was so great, and therefore hanging out with Tim quite a lot. And often after the show there’d be all of these older Radio 4 ladies hanging about going, “Tim, Tim. Oh, I never understood what Mr Archer would look like in real life, and it’s even better than I imagined.”
And he’d go, “Ha ha!” And then lean to me and say, “Please don’t leave me.”
Tom: He’s a very sweet man.
Abigoliah: Oh, you were his buffer. That’s amazing.
Pippa: It’s really funny, isn’t it, when you meet someone who’s got a really niche world that they’re a huge star in. I had a friend whose husband was an ultimate frisbee champion. And in ultimate frisbee land, he was absolutely God. But in normal life, he was an accountant. So just seeing people suddenly become the ultimate sex symbol of Radio 4 — Mr Archer.
Abigoliah: Now that you’ve been doing the show for seven years, are you used to it now? Are you still kind of blown away by the legacy of it and the fact that you’re part of it? Or are you just kind of like, “Nah, this is the thing I do”?
Pippa: Oh, that’s a great question. Probably a bit of both. Because I think you have to have a sense of, “Okay, this is a thing I do. I’ve proven myself. I’m still here seven years later, so I must be doing something right.” So confident in that — but still amazed.
Tom: There are actually very few people who’ve made more appearances than you. I have a spreadsheet here.
Pippa: Of course you have a spreadsheet.
Tom: Of course I do. You’ve made more appearances on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue than Stephen Fry.
Abigoliah: Wow.
Tom: Than Paul Merton. Than Rachel Parris. Than Susan Calman. Than Jo Brand. There’s a lot of big names here that you exceed. Tony Hawks is the governor once you factor out the original line-up. But yeah — 26 shows, I think, including a Christmas special or a lockdown special.
Pippa: Yes, I’m sure it has nothing to do with availability, Tom. But no, it’s been an absolute joy. And, you know, actually the biggest joy has been doing the tours, the live tours, because it’s a different kettle of fish and you just get a bit more time together and actually hang out and sort of chat with each other. And that’s been really fun because, again, being on the road and the first time we did it, I think I was really pregnant. And so they all became like my uncles who would look after me and they would ferry me between gigs. And I remember being with Rory Bremner, driving through the countryside and stopping for like a scone and then finding this automatic milk bottle refilling machine, and then Rory just being like, fill me. Somewhere on my phone I’ve got a video of Rory doing an impression of a farmer, talking about how he’s got these new automatic cows. And so all these precious memories that have come from being on the road. And also that Jon Naismith, the producer, was so encouraging of me to come on tour after my daughter was born and I was like, oh, I just don’t know if I can do it. But he’s got two kids and was like, you know what? We’ll make it work. Like, we’ll figure out what you need. You just let us know how we support you on tour. And so my husband came with me with my daughter, and they just made sure we had a room we could all be in.
Pippa: And it was quite a wild ride. I’m not entirely sure it was the best idea, but it wasn’t the worst idea. And to sort of get straight back into the swing of things after you’ve had a baby. And so to suddenly be going from sleepless nights and breastfeeding to being in front of 700 people in, I don’t know where we were, in Oxford, I don’t know what any of the venues were. I couldn’t tell you. But you know, suddenly being in front of 700 people, doing the thing that you can do and going, oh, well, I must be able to do it because I’m sleep deprived and have no consciousness at all, but seem to be doing okay. So I’m really glad for that experience with the team and particularly I love hanging out with Colin Sell because we again have the same musical tastes, despite him being like a thousand. He’s… I don’t know how old he is. I don’t think he would ever tell us. It’s probably like a biblical age by now, but he’s so great and we have songs that we sing together just on our own in the warm up, you know? So it’s. Yeah, it’s really lovely to have a special relationship with the team.
Tom: Yeah. For all Humph and Jack’s insults towards him, the impression I get is that he’s actually a very good musician, and part of the skill is being able to make—because let’s be clear, Pippa, not everybody who appears on I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue has your level of musical ability. And so he has to be able to adjust to whatever someone else is singing and try and make them sound good.
Pippa: But also not make them sound good in the right way. So like support whether that—so I think particularly the One Song To A Tune Of Another, there’s I feel like there’s really only two ways to play that. You either do it amazing or you do it terrible. What doesn’t work so well is if someone sings okay, or if someone sings a little bit out of tune. So, for example, more recently Henning Wehn does an incredible of that round where he is completely out of tune, but enough in time for it to still make sort of a bit of sense. And so Colin’s just like really sort of holding him in that space. And then like when you—I don’t know if you saw the most recent one, which was Joe Lycett singing Teddy Bears Picnic to Wichita Lineman.
Tom: Yes, that was amazing.
Pippa: Absolutely gorgeous. So beautiful. Right. But. But funny.
Tom: Who knew?
Pippa: But beautiful. Yeah. Who knew he had that gorgeous voice? And that literally blew us all away. And then we had Richard Coles, didn’t we? Singing—
Tom: The Communards.
Pippa: No.
Tom: Oh, no. It was the.
Pippa: Words of Relax.
Tom: To. Oh. That’s right. Yes.
Pippa: I can’t remember whichever Gilbert and Sullivan it was. And again, so funny, but really funny because he was so in the time, the timing of the actual song. So, yeah, Colin’s fantastic at either supporting you to be brilliant or supporting you to be terrible.
Abigoliah: That’s one of my questions was how early before do you know what song and what tune you’re doing? Because Tom, for fun, sprung it on me during a podcast, and I had to sing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to the tune of Ode to Joy. And when I finished, I was like if I’d been given an hour, I could have nailed it. I could have really hit the vocals. But are you given it beforehand, or are you given it in that moment?
Pippa: Well, no, it depends on whether you want to practice it at all, so you can have it before. Generally what we do is have it a bit early, like on the day. And then you can practice it as much as you want. If you practice it too much, it’s less fun, I think. It has to have a sense of… You know what you’re doing, but also you could still go a bit wrong. Yeah. Does that make sense? There needs to be that jeopardy.
Abigoliah: Yeah. So you’re not like practicing for a week.
Pippa: No. It’s more like you—a bit like this podcast. We’ve known we’re going to do it for a while. You’ve told me what you want to talk about but I haven’t spent, I’ll be honest, a lot of time thinking about what I’m going to say.
Tom: Fair. But that does bring us to kind of the nub. And if you prefer not to answer, as Graeme Garden advised you, that’s fine. But this is one of those shows which has a very improvised feel. And yet clearly some bits of it are not entirely improvised. So how much are you comfortable talking about the level of preparation that goes into an episode of I’m Sorry?
Pippa: I just don’t think it’s of anyone’s benefit to like, dissect it like the frog, as Graeme says. However, what I will say is there’s jokes that you, you know, so you know what rounds are coming up. You know, you’re going to probably do a bedroom or something. And so you can pre-write jokes and most people will have a couple of pre-written jokes already. So you have the safety net of pre-written jokes, but there’s also some rounds that are completely improvised, such as Mornington Crescent, such as I can’t remember what it’s called, the one word at a time one. Chicken vs egg…? No…
I can’t remember what it’s called. It doesn’t matter. And other ones. And then there’s other ones where you do some prep because you’re having to work together. So like the Sound Charades, for example. So there’s as much prep as there would be for a panel show, but there’s also room for you to do whatever, say whatever you’re feeling at the time.
Tom: And you’re somebody, Pippa, you’re very comfortable with a completely scripted show, as I know you’re enormously capable as an improviser doing something like Showstopper!, where, despite what sceptical minds might suspect, there genuinely is no preparation. There is no recycling of existing material. So how do you feel about something like this, which sort of sits somewhere in the middle? Are you just as comfortable with that, or would you rather that it was a bit more one way or—
Pippa: Oh no, I think it’s perfect actually where it is, because I think it’s not ever advertised as a completely improvised show. So a bit like when everyone would get cross on Mock the Week when people would say, some of these jokes have been written before, you go, well, of course, because you’ve promised that it’s going to be a comedy show. And as much as we love to think we’re all instantly hilarious, we need to make sure we’ve got the nuts and bolts to deliver what we promised to deliver. And so I think having comedians be comfortable because you’re not going to get camaraderie, I don’t think, if you’ve got five people anxious that they don’t actually know if they’re going to be funny yet. Comedians are the worst for collaboration if they’re in danger of not being funny or being able to be their funniest. And so I think, yeah.
Abigoliah: Especially stand up comedians like, oh, because we have to get it right and it has to be our joke.
Pippa: And, you know, one of the best things I ever witnessed was I was on a celebrity 15 to 1. No, no, it wasn’t 15 to 1. Sorry. No, it was the one with the banker. What was that one? Deal or No Deal. Celebrity Deal or No Deal. I was not the celebrity. What it was was Jimmy Carr was the celebrity. And then there were 15 people from the circuit holding boxes. And as you can imagine, everybody was so nervous. And had to get on a coach to go to the recording studio and on the coach, you know, this poor runner had to do a register. And you can imagine like the—it’d be like, okay, John? “Here.” Bob? “Not here.” Jim? “Something funnier than that.” And it was just this—even just for that, everyone’s competitive, trying to be the funniest. And then the—
Tom: World’s worst sixth form.
Pippa: Oh my gosh. Literally. And then the worst thing—and then as soon as the camera started to roll everyone went silent and started to panic and you could feel the nervousness of everyone going, I don’t quite know what to say. But the most impressive person was Adam Bloom, who just kept throwing out hilarious—like constantly. Like gag gag gag gag gag gag gag. And he had no fear. And he was like, do you know what? If I throw out 15 gags, three of them might make it. And I thought, that is such brilliant intel into how these things work. So again, it’s like having the confidence on the show that in our records, if the show is usually 45 minutes, 50 minutes each side, because we record two shows in one day. You know, the bits that don’t work are going to get cut out. So it’s better to keep throwing out stuff. You’ve got your safety net of things that supposedly going to work because they’re the ones that have been written, but you don’t even know if that’s true, right? Because they’re just jokes that are there as safety. But actually, the spontaneous stuff might be funnier.
Abigoliah: Now that you’ve done it for so long, do you do less prep? Do you feel more comfortable being spontaneous on I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue?
Pippa: I don’t do less prep, but I probably don’t do it in a state of anxiety.
Abigoliah: Yeah, I mean, that’s that’ll make a difference right there.
Pippa: Yeah, I’ll do it because I’m like, oh, this will work. Oh, this is fun or this is funny, or this will make Tony laugh or you know, even we might go, oh, Tony, you should say this or oh, I’ve got this joke, but I don’t think it will work for me, you know? So there’s also a kind of generosity, spirit of generosity there as well.
Tom: Finding Jack as the replacement for Humph. I mean, you must remember listening to it with Humphrey Lyttelton?
Pippa: Yeah, yep.
Tom: That was so fortuitous. I remember that one series where they tried out three different hosts, three people who all could have been brilliant. It was Jack Dee, Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon, and listening to that first song with Stephen Fry was just like this is not quite right, but I think I remember—I could be just rewriting history a little bit in my mind, but I think I remember listening to the Jack Dee one and thinking, oh, that could work. And he’s done 200 shows now.
Pippa: Did they try Sandi Toksvig as well?
Tom: I don’t remember them trying Sandi Toksvig. No, although that would have been a very good shout. And obviously she’s done brilliantly as the host of QI.
Pippa: Well, I—
Tom: It is a very male show.
Pippa: Is it? I hadn’t…
Tom: I noticed that.
Pippa: Strange you picked up on that. Sandi is, I think would suffer the same as Stephen Fry is that there’s too much gentleness in her voice, you know? I think the fact is that Jack just sounds like he really doesn’t want to be there is so great, you know? And he’s so—still absolutely fan girl him hardcore because he was like one of my VHS. You know, we all—those of us born in the 90s who went into comedy, all have still have our comedy VHS people that were like, oh, I’m 15 when I see you.
Pippa: So I really just think he’s one of our best stand ups. You know, the fact he’s still—he just finished a 95-date tour. Yeah, he’s got—
Tom: A special out.
Pippa: I mean, can you imagine doing—who did I say that to? I said, can you imagine? I was talking to Nick Revell and I said, can you imagine doing 95 days on a tour? And he was like, don’t have to. Oh, yeah. Sorry. So it was quite funny. Yeah. So I think yeah, I think what I find he’s so brilliant and he’s so great at insulting you in a way that you feel honoured that he’s bothered to insult you.
Tom: He’s probably still doing this joke, but I remember when I saw, I think it was in Edinburgh during the festival, there was a Clue recording that I went to, and as some of the other panellists were singing us out, Jack Dee was putting the chairs on the table and getting the hoover out.
Pippa: Yes, we still do that on the—it is still funny. It’s still funny.
Tom: It’s brilliant.
Tom: Because Humph seemed irreplaceable, but he’s found a way to make it his own. And at the same time to honour—because when I was explaining how the show came about, I was like, so they needed somebody to be the chairman. And they picked a jazz trumpeter because that’s what you’d obviously pick.
Pippa: Right, right. Yeah. I think it’s a really interesting time for Clue, you know, because you say that, you know, how could you ever replace Humph. And then Jack’s come along, and then there was a time I was like, what’s going to happen when everybody’s gone, you know? So obviously we’ve lost Humph. We’ve lost Tim, we’ve lost Barry. Graeme doesn’t really perform anymore. He still writes, but he doesn’t perform. So we’re kind of down to the kind of—Tony’s become the old one. You know, he’s become the guy who’s been there forever. Which is funny because one time he was the new boy, which must be a strange transition for him, you know? And we’ve only got Colin on the piano who will all gather around asking questions about the old days, but so we’re in this new generation of Clue and it would be interesting to see how it develops actually now.
Tom: Because there aren’t there aren’t regulars anymore are there?
Pippa: Well, technically, me and Tony are regulars, and Rachel and Marcus as well are regulars, but it means that the guest spots are much more up for grabs, really. So yeah. So I think before it was like they were a band of brothers and occasionally they would have a guest, and now it’s like there’s going to be mostly guests, but there’ll probably be guests who become regular guests. Does that make sense?
Tom: So how do you feel now when there’s somebody else doing it for the first time? What’s your role?
Pippa: Yeah, really interesting question. Yeah, I thought that actually the last one, because we had Richard Coles who’d done it once before, and then Joe Lycett. It was his first show, so it felt like Tony and I were there to be, like, solid. But we were there so the other two could shine, if that makes sense. So yeah, you do feel a bit—I wouldn’t say I’m the old guard, but I would feel like sort of like an auntie, you know, sort of a safe pair of hands who’s gonna look after them and welcome them. Because that’s always been my thing anyway, you know, I’m big on community and all of that kind of soppy stuff, but I really think someone’s experience of a show is so down to how they’re welcomed into it. And we’ve all had experiences, I’m sure of turning up to do something and feeling like, oh, sorry, did you not actually want me here? You know? Or am I not allowed to be brilliant as well? I think is a really interesting one. So allowing someone who’s coming to show to be the best, be like, be the best you can be. Don’t worry about us. You outshine us as much as you can, you know? So I think that’s a really great thing.
Abigoliah: Now you’re the person checking in on the new guy after, you’re like, are you doing okay? Because I just had massive heart surgery. But how are you?
Pippa: That’s right. I’m now heart surgery guy.
Abigoliah: I mean, it’s such a fun show. As our listeners know, I’m woefully behind on all things British comedy. That’s why Tom had to start a podcast to make—
Tom: Desperate times.
Abigoliah: Yeah, give me an education in it. But after listening to it, you can feel the camaraderie on stage. It just—I want to be invited to that party. After we listened to it, I was like, my new goal is to get on that because also everything else we’ve covered, everyone’s dead. But I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, it’s still going. It is possible to be a part of that thing. But yeah, it seems like you guys are all there for each other. It just seems like a party and we all get to listen in on it.
Pippa: Yeah, I actually genuinely feel that’s true. And we, you know, we only record—if you’re only recording two episodes in a record—
Tom: Twice a year.
Pippa: Twice a year maybe. And sometimes you’re not available. So it might just be once a year. So you’re only seeing each other – unless we do a live tour – once a year. But you still turn up, like, hey. And also, we have several WhatsApp groups from various different tours and things, which occasionally someone posts something because they go, oh, I saw this and thought of you. And so, you know, so it’s really nice to sort of have that little extra part of it. And, you know, the thing about radio is it’s not—it’s not badly paid, but it’s not—no one’s in radio for the money at all ever. So you can only keep doing it if you love it. And I think that’s what’s great about radio is generally people who do it do it because they really love it. They love the medium and they love the sort of freedom that it gives. I find radio much more relaxing than anything else, because I don’t have to think about my face. I even find it more stressful now. Podcasts are making us film our faces.
Tom: Yeah, sorry about that.
Abigoliah: We also don’t like this. We got in this for the audio and now it’s like, no, you gotta film them.
Pippa: So it’s frustrating from that sense because also I think it does a disservice, I think – not podcast because it’s a different medium. You know, we’re still figuring out what it is, but in radio, I feel like the joy of it is you can say I’m on a boat and the audience just goes with it. You can do the biggest scale production ever on radio because there’s no cost involved. And I love the idea that you’re trusting the audience to do the work for you, and the same in comedy, you know. I remember when we did that—you mentioned the lockdown special one, and I think that was the one where we had three people on each panel. So me and Sandi were in that. So that one was two women. So…
Tom: Good Lord.
Pippa: Can you imagine? And it was great because Barry had his headphones on and then he took his headphones off. So then he couldn’t hear that we were calling him. And so we were going, Barry, Barry. I ended up writing Barry on a piece of paper like that. Harry Hill was just screaming. Barry! Got his trombone out playing his trombone, trying to get Barry. In the end, we had to call Barry’s landline to his wife to ask him to put his headphones back on.
Tom: And they cut all that out, which is the disappointing thing.
Pippa: Right? Yeah. Well, that might have been in the rehearsal. Either way, it was maybe one of the funniest moments of that time and maybe the only miserable clue I ever had, and I used the word miserable lightly, was during Covid, where we had to do it. So we were in the Radio Theatre and we were on separate tables, each of us really obviously really far away from each other. We had that—I don’t know if you did anything with these online audiences where they were listening to it on delay or it was just—it was just so miserable because of course, we just couldn’t. That’s when you noticed how important the camaraderie was and how actually real it was that you go, oh. And I remember because it was with Rob Brydon and he very nicely came over to say like, oh, hello. You know, I’m Rob Brydon. It’s really nice to meet you. Which is always nice when someone who’s like, mega famous does that because it just puts people at ease, doesn’t it? Rather than, oh, am I allowed to speak to the super famous person? And he was immediately told to go and sit back down, you know. So it was just really—it was just one of the sad things about Covid, wasn’t it?
Abigoliah: Yeah. Well, especially as you were saying with like Mornington Crescent, if Jack Dee is getting all the clues off the audience, and you guys are like, the whole thing is actually improvised with the audience leading it, and then they’re on a delay. During Covid, I so deeply appreciate everyone who was like, trying to like, figure out how to make it work. And, guys, we’re going to keep comedy alive. But every time I did any type of event over Covid, I was like, we could all just not for a while. Like, is anyone actually having fun? Or we all just pretending it’s okay.
Pippa: We could actually just allow ourselves to miss it for a bit.
Abigoliah: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pippa: I did a great online conference for a jam company. And the only reason this comes to mind is because—
Abigoliah: That’s how I know radio doesn’t pay well at all. You’re like, it doesn’t pay much. No, it pays nothing. You work for Big Jam.
Pippa: I work for Big Jam. Because my husband found the song. He was like, what’s this? And I’d obviously forwarded him the song about jam I’d written and we’re listening to it. But that was because it was online on Zoom, and I was going, I’m never going to be able to do this. This is going to be awful. And then, of course, it was like their office manager was hosting the whole thing and just couldn’t even speak. Very, you know, just because they’re not used to talking out loud to people. And I went, oh, this is my contribution to society at the moment, is that I’m not embarrassed to talk out loud. So that was our gift, I think to the world was people who are happy to just keep talking and look into a camera and have some sort of semblance of communication through a screen. You know.
Abigoliah: That is true. I forget that people can’t just talk in front of groups until I see someone not able to do the most basic, like an introduction of just like today, we have so and so on, and I’m like, why are—speak louder, look up, be confident. I’m like, oh, people don’t. People just can’t do that.
Pippa: Yeah. Not everyone’s had their 10,000 hours of standing on a stage saying, hello, my name’s blah blah. Here’s a funny observation about myself and you. I mean, I suppose I bring this, like, weird back catalogue of musicality, improvisation and stand up. I mean, I do sometimes think I was designed for, like the early 20th century, late 19th century. Like, I would have been amazing in the old time music halls. That is my jam. And I really am very surprised, actually, that my school—I went to a like a posh girls school and they should have told me to go and be a redcoat, actually. That’s what they should have definitely told me to do. That would have been the best training for me. But of course, no one in the obsession of league tables in the UK. No school is going to say, and we’ve sent four girls—four of our girls have gone to Butlins. It’s not going to—you don’t realise this kind of weird class divide in, in comedy and performing that exists even in where did you train, where did you learn, what did you study? Did you go to, did you go to Butlins or did you go to Cambridge and be in the Footlights? You know, those are the two main big entry points for the big stars. If you look back. And so I feel like I bring Butlins energy in a kind of Oxbridge outfit.
Tom: Nice.
Abigoliah: I feel like that’s somehow a title to something, but I’m not quite sure how, but I just love Butlins energy in an Oxbridge outfit. It’s just the most beautiful description of anyone I’ve ever heard.
Pippa: When I used to have short hair, I used to say I’m Jane McDonald, trapped in the body of Clare Balding. Doesn’t work with this haircut, though, so we’ll have to think of something else.
Tom: Yeah, it’s probably about time we should let you go, but we have a couple of questions that we’d like to finish on. One is I’m taking Abigoliah on this tour of British comedy. There are some big hitters which we’re going to try and include, so we don’t need anyone to tell us that we have to watch Blackadder or Fawlty Towers or Absolutely Fabulous. But are there any favourite shows that you can think of which we might have overlooked?
Abigoliah: And it can be your own.
Tom: Oh yes, you are allowed to cite your own work.
Pippa: Yes, my big history of sitcom writing. Have you done Desmond’s yet?
Abigoliah: No, no. What’s Desmond’s?
Pippa: Oh my gosh, Desmond’s is—
Tom: It’s brilliant.
Pippa: It was my favourite sitcom. I still watch it. It’s on—it’s on 4 On Demand. I still watch it if I’m feeling a bit blue. It’s set in a in a barber’s, in a hairdressers in Peckham in the early 90s. And it’s just a fantastically hilarious sitcom of a black London, basically. It’s so funny and it’s got the best theme tune of any sitcom ever.
Abigoliah: Really?
Tom: Those are fighting words.
Pippa: Yeah, I would put that up against One Foot in the Grave any day.
Tom: I’ve been rewatching Marshall and Renwick’s Hot Metal, and that theme tune by Alan Price is now permanently in my head.
Pippa: Oh, I don’t know that one.
Tom: Hot Metal. Yes, it was a spoof of the newspaper industry with Robert Hardy, Geoffrey Palmer and Robert Hardy.
Pippa: Wow. Okay. Hot Metal.
Tom: Yeah.
Pippa: I’m sorry. You are getting a bit of—sounds like an obscure education, but—
Abigoliah: No, I love it, I love it.
Tom: Hot Metal isn’t in the cards yet, but if we do satire for season three, then I might do Hot Metal then.
Abigoliah: Just theme tunes that people have forgotten. Mary Tyler Moore theme tune is beautiful, and sometimes I listen to it just to cheer myself up during the day. It is one of the best theme tunes ever, so check that one out too, kids.
Pippa: This has been some great recommendations.
Tom: And lastly, just as a sort of thank you to you, is there a charity that you support which you would like our listeners to go and look at and maybe give some money to?
Abigoliah: Because we’re not going to pay you for this because there’s even less money in podcasting than radio.
Pippa: I know, don’t I have to pay you? Yeah. There is. Well, do you know what? I am the chair of Holy Corner Community Playgroup here in Edinburgh. And we try to keep it affordable for parents. So if you wanted to make a little donation, doesn’t have to be big to Holy Corner Community Playgroup, that would be fantastic. And it is a registered charity.
Tom: Lovely. We’ll put a link in the show notes.
Abigoliah: Thank you so much for sharing that.
Pippa: Thank you.
Tom: Oh, she’s such a delight, isn’t she?
Abigoliah: You know, I haven’t seen Pippa probably since Norway, but she’s one of those people that whenever you see her, you’re like, oh, we’re best friends.
Tom: She’s just—she typifies, she was talking about the warm atmosphere of camaraderie on that show. And it’s so different from a show like Mock the Week, which I’ve heard other comedians refer to as a sharp elbows show. Now you’re constantly getting someone else’s elbow as soon as you open your mouth, because they want to be the one jumping in with the punch line. But on I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, everyone just wants everyone else to do well. And it was great to hear that that’s not just a feeling, that is a conscious ethos from Pippa at least, and I imagine from everybody else as well.
Abigoliah: And how cool is it to be on such a landmark staple British show? And then when new people come in, you’re like, oh, my job is to elevate you because I’m already here, so I’m going to bring you with me as opposed to like, make sure I still have the best joke so I stay here. It’s like, no, no, no. Now you get to be part of the family.
Tom: It’s beautiful. Did you listen to the most recent series?
Abigoliah: I haven’t yet, that is also on my list of things to do.
Tom: Yeah, the two episodes with Joe Lycett. It’s always good, but Joe and Pippa and Richard Coles from The Communards. That’s a that’s a fine team. And yeah.
Abigoliah: Joe’s a freaking star.
Tom: So, yeah. Lovely hearing about Joe’s first appearance on the show.
Abigoliah: Yeah. I can’t wait to catch up. I can’t wait to catch up. Guys, thank you so much for listening to All British Comedy Explained. This is the last episode of season one, right, Tom?
Tom: So we’ll have a wrap up episode next, and then we’re done for season one.
Abigoliah: Right. So next week we have a wrap up episode and then we’ll take a couple weeks off. But if you want to support the show, please give us a five-star review in your podcatcher app. That helps more people find the show. And as always, recommend it to a friend. Hey, is someone else really into I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue? Share the episode with them. Or if they’re like me and they’ve never heard of it, share the episode with them so they can know all about it.
Tom: Lovely stuff. All right, we’ll see you next week.
Abigoliah: Have a good one, guys.