''The News Huddlines'' was a

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

topical

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

sketch show Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

starring

Roy Hudd Roy Hudd, OBE (16 May 1936 – 15 March 2020) was an English comedian, actor, presenter, radio host, author and authority on the history of music hall entertainment. Early life Hudd was born in Croydon on 16 May 1936 to Evalina "Evie" (née ...

that ran for fifty one series from 1975 until 2001. Each episode lasted for half an hour and consisted of topical sketches, songs and one-liners.

Performers

The regular cast consisted of comedy performers

June Whitfield Dame June Rosemary Whitfield (11 November 1925 – 29 December 2018) was an English radio, television, and film actress. Her big break was a lead in the radio comedy ''Take It from Here'', which aired on the BBC Light Programme in 1953. ...

, and

Chris Emmett Christopher Roderick Emmett (born 13 December 1938 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire) is a British actor and comedian best known for his work in the late 1970s on the BBC Radio 4 comedies ''The Burkiss Way'' and '' Alison and Maud''. He was a regular o ...

. The announcer was Richard Clegg, and the music was directed and performed by Peter Moss and The Huddliners, taking over from The Nic Rowley Quintet. Hudd and Emmett were with the show since its inception and Whitfield joined the show in 1984, taking over from

Alison Steadman Alison Steadman (born 26 August 1946) is an English actress. She received the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film '' Life Is Sweet'' and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Ma ...

, who in turn had replaced original cast member

Janet Brown Janet McLuckie Brown (14 December 192327 May 2011) was a Scottish actress, comedian and impressionist who gained considerable fame in the 1970s and 1980s for her impersonations of Margaret Thatcher. Brown was the wife of Peter Butterworth, who ...

. For the recording on 29 October 1975

was stuck abroad and could not make the recording so

Ray Alan Ray Alan (18 September 1930 – 24 May 2010) was an English ventriloquist and television entertainer from the 1950s until the 1980s. He was associated primarily with the dummies Lord Charles and Ali Kat and later with the puppets Tich and Quack ...

was asked at very short notice to present the show. The show became British radio’s longest-running audience comedy in 1994 and became the second longest-running overall behind ''

Week Ending ''Week Ending'' was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1970 and 1998. It was devised by writer-producers Simon Brett and David Hatch and was originally hosted by '' Nationwide'' presenter Michael Ba ...

'', which ended in 1998.

Writers

Many and varied writers added to the success of the show over the years. A feature of the show was its aim to let the public send in gags which they used and gave credit to those authors at the end of the show. It was hoped that this policy would help develop inexperienced writers. Major contributors included: *

Andy Hamilton Andrew Neil Hamilton (born 28 May 1954) is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, radio dramatist, novelist and actor. Early life and education Hamilton was born in Fulham, southwest London. He ...

* Terry Ravenscroft * Laurie Rowley *

David Renwick David Peter Renwick (; born 4 September 1951) is an English author, television writer, actor, director and executive producer, best known for creation of the sitcom ''One Foot in the Grave'' and the mystery series ''Jonathan Creek''. He was awar ...

* Marc Blakewill *Terence Dackombe *

Paul Kerensa Paul Kerensa (born 1979 in Truro, Cornwall) is an English comedy writer and stand-up comedian. He studied at Royal Grammar School, Guildford and the Guildford School of Acting. In 2002 Kerensa won ITV's 'Take The Mike' Award, and was a finalist i ...

* Terry Newman *Ryan Gough *Mark Griffiths *Ged Parsons *Clive Coleman *Alan Stafford *Richard Quick *Jeremy Browne *

Iain Pattinson Iain Pattinson (2 January 1953 – 14 February 2021) was a British scriptwriter. His work included writing the chairman's script for the long-running BBC Radio 4 panel game ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'', delivered by the programme's veteran cha ...

Sarah J Price Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pi ...

* D. A. Barham *

Julian Dutton Julian Dutton is an English comedy writer and performer, principally for television and radio, whose work has won a British Comedy Award, a BAFTA, and a Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Comedy. He is the author of five books. He is the co-cr ...

Malcolm Needs Malcolm Richard Needs (19 December 1957, Edmonton, North London) is an English writer and filmmaker. He is the owner of TheMovieWorks and is an avid Tottenham Hotspur supporter. Early life Malcolm Needs was born on 19 December 1957, the fourt ...

*Tony Hare *Peter Hickey *

Colin Gilbert Colin Gilbert, born 1954, is a Glasgow-born television producer and former senior creative director of The Comedy Unit. Career Gilbert began his career in comedy writing jokes for the radio shows ''Week Ending'' and ''The News Huddlines''. He j ...

*Nick R. Thomas *Paul Plumb *Gerry Goddin *David Semple

History

''The News Huddlines'' was established in 1975 as Radio 2’s answer to the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

current affairs sketch show ''

'', albeit with a distinctive style, much of it involving the stage persona of lead performer Hudd. On the 8th October 1993 the show provided the Grand Final on

The Generation Game ''The Generation Game'' is a British game show produced by the BBC in which four teams of two people from the same family, but different generations, compete to win prizes. The game There are eight competitors, hence the catchphrase "Let's me ...

with Hudd, Whitfield and Emmett all appearing. The episode was repeated on BBC 4 on the 30th July 2022 as part of a series of programmes exploring Saturday night television programming. ''Huddlines'' ended in 2001 with a Christmas special show.Paul Kerensa – Comedian & Writer
/ref> In January 2002, Hudd accepted the role of

Archie Shuttleworth The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' in 2002, by order of first appearance. Hazel Wilding Hazel Wilding first appears on 23 January 2002 when cab driver Vikram Desai (Chris ...

in the long-running

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

soap opera

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

and felt he could not continue in both capacities.Huddlines cancelled : News 2002 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide
Retrieved 15 April 2017

Broadcasts

As of November 2018, ''The News Huddlines'' has started to be repeated on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

, and can also be found on internet radio stations, including ROK British Comedy Channe

(under the ambiguous title "Roy Hudd shows").

Content and style

The material of ''Huddlines'' was in a traditional

British comedy Throughout film, television, and radio, British comedy has become known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots, and settings, and has produced some of the most renowned comedians and characters in the world. History British comedy history ...

style, usually aimed at an older audience, with every gag ending on a recognisable punchline. Each show is loosely based around a series of ‘news items’ — usually convenient pegs on which to hang one-liners of greater or lesser topicality — and sketches about events in the week’s news. The sketches are usually about public figures, many of whom reappear regularly and have distinctively exaggerated or fanciful characterisations. For instance, the ex-prime minister’s wife

Norma Major Dame Norma Christina Elizabeth, Lady Major, (, formerly Johnson; born 12 February 1942) is an English philanthropist who is the wife of former British prime minister Sir John Major. Early life Norma Christina Elizabeth Wagstaff is the daught ...

, as voiced by Whitfield, seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to Eth, her character in ''

The Glums ''The Glums'' is a British television sitcom which first aired on ITV in 1979. It had its origins in a segment of the 1950s radio show ''Take It from Here''.Morgan-Russell p.3 The characters were revived as part of '' Bruce Forsyth's Big Night' ...

'', a widely remembered segment in the 1950s series ''

Take It From Here ''Take It from Here'' (often referred to as ''TIFH'', pronounced – and sometimes humorously spelt – "TIFE") is a British radio comedy programme broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audie ...

''. Certain members of the royal family (a Huddlines staple) are likewise not copied from life, such as The

Queen Mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also used to describe a number of ...

, who was portrayed with a

Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...

accent.

References

External links

''The News Huddlines'' at Radiohaha
{{DEFAULTSORT:News Huddlines Satirical radio programmes BBC Radio comedy programmes British satirical radio programmes 1975 radio programme debuts