The News Huddlines was a long-running
BBC Radio 2BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the UK. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
topical
comedyRadio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches, and many other forms of comedy found on other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some...
sketch show starring
Roy HuddRoy Hudd, OBE is an English radio and television actor. He is also a playwright, author and music hall singer.- Early life :...
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.
The regular cast consisted of comedy performers
Roy HuddRoy Hudd, OBE is an English radio and television actor. He is also a playwright, author and music hall singer.- Early life :...
,
June WhitfieldJune Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
, and
Chris EmmettChris Emmett is a British actor and comedian, best known for his work on the radio comedies The Burkiss Way and The News Huddlines. He was also a regular on Week Ending, and appeared in a number of sketches in the television game show 3-2-1....
. The announcer was Richard Clegg, and the music was directed and performed by
Peter MossPeter Moss is an English composer, musician, arranger and musical director who might be best known for the previous theme tune of Grange Hill which was composed in 1990.-Early days:...
and The Huddliners.
Hudd and Emmett were with the show since its inception while Whitfield joined the show in 1984, taking over from
Alison SteadmanAlison Steadman OBE is an award-winning English actress.- Personal life :Steadman was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, the daughter of Marjorie and George Percival Steadman, who worked for an electronics firm as a production controller...
, who in her turn had replaced original cast member
Janet BrownJanet Brown is a Scottish actress, comedienne and impressionist.She presented Picture Book on BBC Television in the 1950s and was celebrated in the 1980s for her impersonation of Margaret Thatcher on television, in radio show The News Huddlines, on record, and on film in the 1981 James Bond film...
.
The show became British radio’s longest-running audience comedy in 1994 and became the second longest-running overall behind
Week EndingWeek Ending... was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett and David Hatch, and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.The show's title was always announced as...
, which was terminated in 1998.
The News Huddlines was a long-running
BBC Radio 2BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the UK. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
topical
comedyRadio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches, and many other forms of comedy found on other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some...
sketch show starring
Roy HuddRoy Hudd, OBE is an English radio and television actor. He is also a playwright, author and music hall singer.- Early life :...
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
Roy HuddRoy Hudd, OBE is an English radio and television actor. He is also a playwright, author and music hall singer.- Early life :...
,
June WhitfieldJune Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
, and
Chris EmmettChris Emmett is a British actor and comedian, best known for his work on the radio comedies The Burkiss Way and The News Huddlines. He was also a regular on Week Ending, and appeared in a number of sketches in the television game show 3-2-1....
. The announcer was Richard Clegg, and the music was directed and performed by
Peter MossPeter Moss is an English composer, musician, arranger and musical director who might be best known for the previous theme tune of Grange Hill which was composed in 1990.-Early days:...
and The Huddliners.
Hudd and Emmett were with the show since its inception while Whitfield joined the show in 1984, taking over from
Alison SteadmanAlison Steadman OBE is an award-winning English actress.- Personal life :Steadman was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, the daughter of Marjorie and George Percival Steadman, who worked for an electronics firm as a production controller...
, who in her turn had replaced original cast member
Janet BrownJanet Brown is a Scottish actress, comedienne and impressionist.She presented Picture Book on BBC Television in the 1950s and was celebrated in the 1980s for her impersonation of Margaret Thatcher on television, in radio show The News Huddlines, on record, and on film in the 1981 James Bond film...
.
The show became British radio’s longest-running audience comedy in 1994 and became the second longest-running overall behind
Week EndingWeek Ending... was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett and David Hatch, and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.The show's title was always announced as...
, which was terminated in 1998.
Huddlines would have overtaken it in 2003 had it not been terminated with a Christmas special in 2001.
Writers
Many and varied writers added to the success of the show over the years. Major contributors included:
- Andy Hamilton
Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:...
- Terry Ravenscroft
- Laurie Rowley
Laurence Peter Rowley, better known as Laurie Rowley was an English comedy writer from Leeds, Yorkshire. He is most famous for a sketch writer, working on shows such as The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News, for which he wrote the "Darts" sketch, which satirised the heavy drinking habits...
- David Renwick
David Peter Renwick is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek....
- Marc Blakewill
Blakewill & Harris are a UK-based comedy writing partnership, with credits on television, radio and the stage....
- Terence Dackombe
- Paul Kerensa
- Terry Newman
- Mark Griffiths
- Ged Parsons
- Alan Stafford
- Richard Quick
- Jeremy Browne
- D. A. Barham
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Barham was an English comedy writer who died at the age of 26 of heart failure caused by a long struggle with anorexia....
- Julian Dutton
Julian Dutton is an English comedy writer and performer, principally for television and radio, whose work has won a British Comedy Award and a BAFTA....
- Malcolm Needs
Malcolm Richard Needs is an English writer and filmmaker.He is the owner of TheMovieWorks and is an avid Tottenham Hotspur supporter.-Early life:...
History
The News Huddlines was established in 1975 as Radio 2’s answer to the
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
current affairs sketch show
Week EndingWeek Ending... was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett and David Hatch, and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.The show's title was always announced as...
, albeit with a distinctive style, much of it based around the stage persona of lead performer Hudd.
Huddlines ended in 2001 with a Christmas special show. In January 2002, Hudd accepted the role of Archie Shuttleworth in the long-running
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
soap opera
Coronation StreetCoronation Street is an award-winning prime time soap opera set and produced in Manchester created by Tony Warren...
and felt he could not continue in both capacities.
Content and style
The material of
Huddlines was in a traditional
British comedyBritish Comedy, in film, radio and television, is known for its consistently quirky characters, plots and settings, and has produced some of the most famous and memorable comic actors and characters in the last fifty years.-Film comedy:...
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 MajorDame Norma Christina Elizabeth Major, Lady Major, DBE is the wife of Sir John Major, the former British Prime Minister....
, as voiced by Whitfield, seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to Eth, her character in
The Glums, a widely-remembered segment in the 1950s series
Take It From HereTake It From Here was a British radio comedy programme broadcast by the BBC between 1948 and 1960. It was written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and starred Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and Joy Nichols...
. Certain members of the royal family (a Huddlines staple) are likewise not copied from life, such as The
Queen MotherElizabeth Bowes-Lyon was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 1936 until 1952 as the wife of King George VI. After her husband's death, she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
, who was portrayed with a
CockneyThe term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
accent.
See also
- Roy Hudd
Roy Hudd, OBE is an English radio and television actor. He is also a playwright, author and music hall singer.- Early life :...
- June Whitfield
June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
- Radio comedy
Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve sitcom elements, sketches, and many other forms of comedy found on other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be conveyed on a small budget with just a few sound effects or some...
- Week Ending
Week Ending... was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett and David Hatch, and was originally hosted by Nationwide presenter Michael Barratt.The show's title was always announced as...
- BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the UK. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
External links