You can download most episodes of On the Hour in Real Audio format here:

http://cabinessence.cream.org/oth/

Oops! I've only just clocked your ban on swearing. Won't happen again (unless it's integral to the plot). Apologies to any darling kiddies who may have been irredeemably corrupted.

>Is there any chance that all the offended parties involved in the 'On The Hour' legal wrangles could get together in a group hug and make up so the fing thing can maybe finally be released? Or is the show destined to languish in the vaults while Armando's horrendously butchered edit continues to be re-released? Is anyone pressing for all this to be sorted out?

What was deleted from the originals (and also how many were made? - the BBC Radio Collection has only 4 eps)

Another thing - in the opening titles it says 'On Radio 4' - did it say the same when it was broadcast on Radio 1?

>>Is there any chance that all the offended parties involved in the 'On The Hour' legal wrangles could get together in a group hug and make up so the fing thing can maybe finally be released? Or is the show destined to languish in the vaults while Armando's horrendously butchered edit continues to be re-released? Is anyone pressing for all this to be sorted out?
>
>What was deleted from the originals (and also how many were made? - the BBC Radio Collection has only 4 eps)

The BBC release was a two-hour compilation, with material taken from most of the 12 episodes (apart from the very last show - check Edit News for more info). A lot of what got cut was Lee & Herring's stuff - in the first series, (I think - please correct me if I'm wrong but...) they contributed a weekly section called the Pull-Out Section, as if it were an additional newspaper supplement.

These comprised:
Week 1: Get Hip & go!
Style guide very much parodying the Network 7/Def II-type of media nonsense.

Week 2: Colour Supplement
"Five glossy minutes of radio for you to keep all week". Included A Room Of My Own (by a prison inmate), a Peanuts spoof with the tag-line "Taken from the 517th Charles M. Schulz annual "You're NOt Funny Anymore, Charlie Brown!", and Keith Floyd's Questionnaire ("What is your favourite crop parasite?").

Week 3: Get A Life!
Very much the original home of Fist Of Fun, this gave you all sorts of stuff to do in your spare time - most of this section (Wormworld, Stylish Names Day in the Lake District, Maltings Texture Afternoon For Kids And Pensioners etc) can be found in the Fist Of Fun book.

There was also a God-bashing pull-out (mostly about trying to make religion groovy in some kind of doomed way), but I don't have show 5 on tape, so I can't remember the pull-out for that week, if there was one. This means I also don't have the wondrous Week Ending desecration called Thank God It's Satire Day (I suspect another L&H contribution - sounded like it was revenge).
I have got a fantastic documentary spoof (again probably by L&H) about Barton's Matches.

I'm not doing most of this stuff justice as most of it was easily as funny as the parts of the show that (justifiably) continue to be lauded. I also hope that everyone involved sorts it out, as it really would be a crime for the complete series to never be heard again.

>
>Another thing - in the opening titles it says 'On Radio 4' - did it say the same when it was broadcast on Radio 1?

I'm not sure about this - was it just a compilation show that Radio 1 broadcast anyway - I didn't hear it. It was New Year '92/93, so the original series was long gone. Anyone catch it?
>

The R1 compilation (December '92) was a 15-minute selection including a couple of brief exclusive links from Morris. It was billed as 'News Banger' and followed the real lunchtime Newsbeat. It also featured the Newsbeat spoof from the Series 2 Feedback parody, albeit without the man complaining about the use of U2 as a collective common noun.

Other sketches in the compilation were Partridge's look back at the sporting year, the 'Free or fried?' Barbara Wintergreen sketch, and the superb Steve Wright 'Talkie bit' parody about endangered animals (with Doon's bit cut for some reason).

Just a question about OTH..

In one of the "coming up on Radio 4" bits, there's a preview of Analysis with Mary Goldring. I don't know what episode it's from, but I think it's on side 1 of the tapes.

Anyway, the point is - the joke seems to be one of Morris' cut-up tapes with the sentances and words messed around (like the Call Nick Ross one, or far far funnier, the Archbishop of Canterbury in Blue Jam) but it sounds like Rebecca Front doing the voice. So, do they just sound similar or am I missing something?

>Just a question about OTH..
>
>In one of the "coming up on Radio 4" bits, there's a preview of Analysis with Mary Goldring. I don't know what episode it's from, but I think it's on side 1 of the tapes.
>
>Anyway, the point is - it sounds like Rebecca Front doing the voice. So, do they just sound similar or am I missing something?

I'm sure it is Rebecca Front. The item is (I suspect) a pisstake of the way in which current affairs items have a cliche-ridden way of matching event and consequence. This subverted it. Good item, though. ("Mary Goldring will be in a chair at 7.20", indeed.)

Lee and Herring wrote about a third of the first series and a bit less of the second. As the show was collaborative our contribution went right across the board. We wrote most of the green desks and sport desks (we were not asked to contribute to the Alan Partridge series despite writing much of his early material - though Steve did the work on creating the character which is perhaps most important)
I don't imagine they will re-release the full shows now, though everyone is back on reasonable terms.

>I don't imagine they will re-release the full shows now, though everyone is back on reasonable terms.

Who should we petition to get a full (or fuller re-release)? The BBC?

I must say I didn't realise how many episodes were made until this thread.

Petitioning won't make any difference.
The BBC will already consider that the tape is out and won't want to produce another one. Maybe in 20 years time.

>Petitioning won't make any difference.
Arse.

Re: Petitioning won't make any difference

Your dispondency is irritating, Rich. With a back catalogue as good as yours, you should be actively campaigning to get as much of it released as possible.

Taking the 'well that's just the way it is' attitude is a surefire way to ensure the comedy world is forever run by bland idiots, surely?

For the record, the woman in charge of the comedy releases at BBC Radio Collection (whose name I've forgotten at the moment, but I'll look it up - Mary something) is extremely helpful and friendly, and very sympathetic to fans of radio comedy. Unfortunately, she has to answer to others more boring than her, and she can only push for releases if she has a big bunch of letters from comedy fans in her hand. She says they're desperate for feedback from fans, but don't get nearly enough.

So petition away...

I'd love them to put the tapes out, because I get paid for doing nothing (and I spread pleasure blah blah blah). But long years of experience of the BBC's tape and repeat policy towards us has made me bitter and cynical. I don't think me saying they should release our stuff would help.

>I'd love them to put the tapes out, because I get paid for doing nothing (and I spread pleasure blah blah blah

That reminds me, in a trail for BBC comedy videos a few years back they showed a clip of 'Fist of Fun' but no video ever appeared, though the concert version did get released by the BBC. Was a video release ever in the pipeline?

The trailer was edited before the gig had been filmed - therefore a clip from FOF was used.

Surely half the reason the series won't get a full release/repeat is because of the PRS, as much as Iannucci's splicing equipment.

For example, consider the war sketch. During one of the reports, Morris says "Crawling from the wreckage" and a clip from a song with that lyric is played in. Just like in the 'Loose Ends' parody.

Could they ever clear Beatles music and all that business? Remember that 'Hitch Hikers' episode got the chop by BBC Radio Collection for the same reason.

By the way, what is that song which "crawling from the wreckage" comes from? I was listening to the original broadcast the other day, and I'm certain it's cut for the released version. Is it Steely Dan maybe?

Yeah but even leaving the PRS stuff out it seems like there's a whole heap of material that could go on release but isn't. This forces the fans to get the episodes off the net instead which denies the On The Hour team money for thier efforts.

Surely the words "The Day Today" alone would make it a commercial success. Well, if the BBC actually learned how to set about selling it's products, anyway.

>
>For example, consider the war sketch. During one of the reports, Morris says "Crawling from the wreckage" and a clip from a song with that lyric is played in. Just like in the 'Loose Ends' parody.
>
It's actually from the Train Trash Traj item at Big Street Station from show 1 (9/8/91), but you're right - Crawling has been cut.

>Could they ever clear Beatles music and all that business? Remember that 'Hitch Hikers' episode got the chop by BBC Radio Collection for the same reason.
>
Shame, though - that HOt Air parody's one of my favourite things in the whole series - that Richard Socks character (Robert Elms, I suspect?), and particularly the repetition of "paperpaperpaperpaperpaperpaperpaper cup" from Across The Universe. Some comedy you just can't analyse. Sorry - I know that's partly what this forum is here for, but this still makes me howl after eight years.

>By the way, what is that song which "crawling from the wreckage" comes from? I was listening to the original broadcast the other day, and I'm certain it's cut for the released version. Is it Steely Dan maybe?

Dave Edmunds, in fact - a minor hit in 1979, and recently covered by Status Quo.