ITV wanted younger teams for ISIHAC TV pilot

Plans for a TV version of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue were dropped - because executives thought the teams were too old.

Chortle, 27th January 2013

ISIHAC to drop Lionel Blair running joke

It is the end of an era: I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue is to lay off the jokes about Lionel Blair.

Chortle, 18th December 2012

Tony Hawks sings Gangnam Style on ISIHAC

Tony Hawks, playing I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue sings Gangnam Style.

Audio Boo, 27th November 2012

No disrespect to Eton schoolboys or Ai Weiwei ("Gangnam Style is YouTube's most-viewed", 26 November), but surely the highest accolade that can be bestowed on Psy's Gangnam Style is to have the viral dance track included on Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Last week's hilarious rendition by Tony Hawks as part of "pick up song" is a classic.

Gordon Williams, The Guardian, 26th November 2012

Barry Cryer: ISIHAC is best when it's falling apart

As the long-running Radio 4 show returns, the stalwart panelist celebrates the late Humphrey Lyttelton, his replacement Jack Dee - and the importance of silliness.

Written by Barry Cryer. The Radio Times, 12th November 2012

Gloriously groan-worthy gags from 40 years of ISIHAC

The late Humphrey Lyttelton once wrote: 'As we journey through life, discarding baggage along the way, we should keep an iron grip, to the very end, on the capacity for silliness. It preserves the soul from desiccation.' No radio show has aided that cause greater than I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

The Daily Mail, 24th September 2012

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Humph told the filthiest jokes

Veteran comic broadcaster Tim Brooke-Taylor recalls his 40 years on Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue...

Written by Neil Tweedie. The Telegraph, 9th January 2012

Graeme Garden: I'm a bit like Mr Micawber, but luckier

Writer, comedian and former Goodie Graeme Garden, 68, lives in Oxfordshire with his second wife Emma.

The Telegraph, 14th August 2011

There is no better place to seek out a little light relief than I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, now incredibly in its 55th series. Doubtless many long term fans of the show who still pine for Humphrey Lyttelton as chair, but Jack Dee does a fine job, especially when he throws in a few dry asides.

In the first instalment of the new series, recorded at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall, regulars Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer and Tim Brooke-Taylor were joined by relative newcomer Marcus Brigstocke, the latter managing to impress his cohorts with a classy move during a round of Mornington Cresent. With Colin Sell at the piano and Samantha on the scoreboard, the endless nonsense and wit was still laugh out loud funny, my favourite moment on this occasion being Summertime sung to the theme from Jim'll Fix It.

Lisa Martland, The Stage, 6th July 2011

The main problem I have with I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue as a reviewer is that it's impossible to review such a classic show, one which has been on the air for nearly 40 years. What can you say about it that hasn't been said already?

Well, let's start off with the guest panellist - first-timer Marcus Brigstocke. Out of the four panellists (the others being the three regulars, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden), he seemed to have the funniest bits. Maybe he was the funniest, maybe it's the show's view to make the guest look the funniest, I don't know. However, he did seem to have many high points in the episode I listened to - his rendition of "Common People" to the tune of "If You're Happy and Know It", for example, was great.

There was also the introduction of a new round in this show called "Heston's Services". This was akin to similar rounds such as "Book Club" and "Film Club", in this case coming up with meals that Heston Blumenthal would serve at a motorway service station.

The other main component of the show, of course, is host Jack Dee. I know that there are lot of people out there who won't accept him as host and won't be happy until Humphrey Lyttelton is exhumed, reanimated and blowing his trumpet in the chair for all eternity, but Dee does a good job as far as I'm concerned.

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 4th July 2011

Nicholas Parsons joins Radio Academy Hall of Fame

Video of Nicholas Parsons being inducted into the Radio Academy Hall of Fame.

Written by Steve Bowbrick. BBC Radio 4 Blog, 29th October 2010

The regeneration of the host of I'm Sorry I Haven't Got A Clue is complete: Jack Dee has finally fully transformed into the grouch we know and ... the grouch we know. Just A Minute returns next week, a handover Jack celebrated with a game entitled Just A Minim - "the teams' musical version of the longrunning wireless favourite hosted by Nicholas Parsons. I never miss him."

Earlier the teams had supplied us with some new definitions - internet is what the England team didn't do at the World Cup, asterisk is the chances of being hit by an asteroid and fallacy is "like a penis". The last gag was from David Mitchell - brilliant panel guest as ever, but I'm beginning to worry about him. Hasn't he got a home to go to? And if he has, does it contain a panel show in every room?

Johnny Dee, The Guardian, 29th July 2010

Jack Dee has been winning hearts and minds as the new host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Enough words have been spoken about the totemic Humphrey Lyttelton, so I'll not weigh them up here. But on the self-titled "antidote to panel games", Dee is the perfect antidote to the cloying comfiness of the audience clapping along to "one song to the tune of another". You're left with the distinct impression that he's flashing them a trademark pitying sneer, and it's like a palate cleanser, allowing you to enjoy the craftsmanship of panelists Cryer, Garden, Brooke-Taylor and, this week, Toksvig.

Celine Bijleveld, The Guardian, 8th July 2010

Jack Dee is perfect host for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

The grumpy comic has taken over from the late Humphrey Lyttleton and proved a hit. But are some presenters simply irreplaceable?

Written by Ryan Gilbey. The Guardian, 5th July 2010

ISIHAC raises just a single snigger

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue is a sad show now, the ghost of what it was. I never thought the day would come, and I really wish it hadn't, but I sat through last night's start to the new run with one smile and a single snigger.

Written by Gillian Reynolds. The Telegraph, 22nd June 2010

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue returns with Jack Dee in the chair solemnly reading his script and distributing questions. The audience (in Cheltenham) roar their appreciation throughout. In fact, the Clue participants seem under the dangerous delusion that they're at some private party rather than doing a radio show.

Gillian Reynolds, The Daily Telegraph, 19th June 2010

Here's to Humph!

Pub close to I Haven't Got A Clue Tube station is renamed after jazz musician.

Written by Dan Carrier. The Camden New Journal, 27th May 2010

Modern comedy is 'cruel and cynical', says Barry Cryer

Barry Cryer, stalwart of BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, has attacked modern comedians for being "cynical" and "cruel".

Written by Stephen Adams. The Telegraph, 19th November 2009

By chance, John Humphrys asking "Would you like a turn?" featured as one of the Questions That Are Never Asked on the new series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The choice of Jack Dee to take over from the lamented Humphrey Lyttleton was an inspired one, even if his first joke about Jacqui Smith's husband destroying her career "single-handed" did sound a lot like [c]The News Quiz[/x]. Fortunately, with the help of panellists like Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden, the programme's unique flavour remains. Like Wogan's world, the "antidote to panel games" depends a lot on the surreal, the in-joke, and the trick of being risqué without being offensive. New games like Pensioners Film Club ("Death in Fenwicks" "The Postman Always Has to Knock Twice") mixed with old favourites like One Song to the Tune of Another. The sound of Rob Brydon singing the words of Jim'll Fix it to tune of "Mad World" made me choke with laughter. The problem with in-jokes though, is that people get them too quickly. At one point Jack Dee had to issue the howling audience with a plaintive reprimand. "I have got punch lines... please wait."

Jane Thynne, The Independent, 19th November 2009

After Humph - Humphrey Lyttelton's Wise Words

British Comedy Guide columnist Si Hawkins ponders Jack Dee's promotion to the I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue hotseat, and harks back to some unheard Humphrey Lyttelton for a few words of wisdom.

Written by Si Hawkins. Circuit Training, 29th October 2009

Jack Dee to host Radio 4's Clue

Comedian Jack Dee will host the next series of long-running BBC Radio 4 show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

BBC News, 16th October 2009

Comedy preview: I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, on tour

Like Private Eye, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue is one of those comic institutions where the idiosyncrasies and familiar jokes are glorious fun for the initiated, but mildly baffling to the outsider.

Written by James Kettle. The Guardian, 26th September 2009

These are my final radio thoughts, and I've decided to mark the occasion with a round-up of all the things I've got wrong in the period between now and the last time I did a round-up of everything I'd got wrong.

Just a Minim is not a dark new round of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, invented with the sick-minded genius of grief to give the show some pzazz after Humphrey Lyttelton died. In fact, it has run since the early 80s. One reader claimed the late 70s. Nobody truly knows.

Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 15th July 2009

Any radio show that's just started its 51st series has to be considered a national treasure. Described as an antidote to panel games, Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue may be mainly cosy, middle class comedy fare, but it's impossible not to warm to the panel's total enthusiasm - including Barry Cryer and Victoria Wood - and eagerness with which the live audience boos and claps at every opportunity. Now using rotating chairmen, after the death of Humphrey Lyttelton last year, Stephen Fry sets the bar high here for those following, clearly relishing the banter he has with his quick-witted colleagues. Criticising such an institution may be tantamount to heresy, but adding 15 minutes to the 30 wouldn't do any harm.

Derek Smith, The Stage, 22nd June 2009

No Humph, no Samantha, but plenty of quality smut

After a decent interval following the death of Humphrey Lyttelton a year ago, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue returned with a knowing wink and a helpless giggle. It's taken three men to replace the great man, and on Monday Stephen Fry was in the Humph seat. (He'll rotate with Rob Brydon and Jack Dee, though I'd like to have seen Bill Bailey given a shot, too.) There was a fear that reconvening without the show's spiritual leader might be like The Beatles re-forming after John Lennon died. But though Fry was berated in some quarters after his debut, the essence of the complaints was that he's not Lyttelton. He probably can't play the trumpet, either. The Lyttelton lacuna apart, it was business as usual, with the innuendo quotient maintained at its traditionally ferocious level. The lovely Samantha has been given a rest (for newcomers, she's the non-existent scorer) in favour of "the rippling Sven", who's had the builders round: "Whenever they ask for cheese and chutney, he always palms them off with relish."

Written by Chris Maume. The Independent on Sunday, 21st June 2009