British comedy (1964 - 72)
Billed as 'a radio custard pie' this show ran for
8 years and starred Greame Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor,
Bill Oddie, John 'Otto' Cleese, Jo Kendall and David
Hatch (who later went on to produce the show). The
show sprang from the undergraduate revues, with the
pilot of the series being a recording of the West
End show, Cambridge Circus. Originating at the Cambridge
University Footlights Club, the group and idea in
general, sprang from the revue entitled "A Clump
of Plinths".
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2007 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved-Reproduction is prohibited. The show was a melange of silly voices, awful puns,
and mildly smutty humor, in no particular order, with
the audience controlling most of the show in later
series (no order at all.) If this sounds like Monty
Python's Flying Circus, it should. Cleese was a Sorry
cast member.
In fact, ISIRTA, as it is known by the acronymically
well endowed, is notable for the amount of talent
that festered within the group. Oddie and Garden wrote
the scripts with contributions from the others, and
this team later, with Tim Brook-Taylor, formed the
Goodies on TV. John Cleese became a founding member
of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and is undoubtedly
one of the best British comedy writers and actors
in his own opinion. Basil Faulty would concur. David
Hatch continued as a suit guy.
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