‘Purveyor of Blue-Chip Filth’ |

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‘Purveyor of Blue-Chip Filth’

Humphrey Lyttleton - 'Purveyor of Blue Chip Filth to Middle England'

Vale, the (as Barry Cryer says) “Old-Etonian/Guards/trumpet-playing/jazz-band- leader/radio-panel-game-chairman”, Humphrey Lyttleton, who died on Anzac Day, aged almost 87.

We first discovered Humphrey as the Chairman of the BBC’s hilariously shambolic panel game, I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue, which ran for over 30 years. Comedians on the ISIHAC panel included Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie [The Goodies!], Barry Cryer, Kenny Everett, Stephen Fry, Bill Bailey, Willie Rushton, John Cleese, Jo Kendall and David Hatch.

While he may be best-known world-wide for his anarchic “chairmanship” of the radio show his true calling was as a jazz trumpeter, one of Britain’s greatest. He was still playing at the age of 86.

Nevertheless it was on account of the schemozzle over which he presided that – to his great delight and pride – Humphrey was once described in the British press as the “purveyor of blue-chip filth to Middle England”.

Here are a couple of reasons why:

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And here is Humphrey gloriously at work on George Bush
^{(thanks for the link to WIIIAI):}