ISIRTA stands for "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again", a radio comedy show that was originally broadcast from 1963 to 1973 (with a 25th Anniversary show broadcast in 1988).
The show evolved from the 1963 Cambridge Footlights revue entitled "Cambridge Circus". The cast of ISIRTA for most of its run was Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graeme Garden, David Hatch, Jo Kendall, and Bill Oddie. Graeme and Bill were the primary scriptwriters; Bill wrote and performed almost all the humorous songs that appeared in each episode.
Repeats of ISIRTA are occasionally broadcast on the radio. It will return to BBC 7's schedule on November 12, 2007; keep an eye on their listings (at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7) for the show's return.
Nineteen episodes of ISIRTA are available on CD (as Volumes 1-5) from the BBC Audiobooks collection. Further information about the sets can be found in the Goodies Illustrated Guide (www.goodiesillustratedguide.com).
See our Links section for pages with more detailed information about this show.
ISIHAC stands for "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue", a radio comedy series which started in 1972 and recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
While the show spun-off from the sketch comedy series "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again", ISIHAC is a comedy panel show consisting of a chairman (Humphrey Lyttleton) and two teams of two players each. The original teams consisted of combinations of ISIRTA cast members Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, Jo Kendall, and John Cleese. However, after a few years the regular teams became Tim Brooke-Taylor & Willie Rushton facing off against Graeme Garden & Barry Cryer. A guest would occasionally sit in when one of the regulars was unavailable. Since Willie Rushton's unfortunate death in 1986 the three regular team members have been joined by a guest for each episode. Frequent guests include Jeremy Hardy, Stephen Fry, Sandi Toksvig, Andy Hamilton and Tony Hawks.
ISIHAC records two series of 6 episodes each year; they are typically broadcast on BBC Radio 4 around May/June and October/November. The broadcasts can be heard over the internet (see www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 for details).
Older episodes of ISIHAC air on British satellite radio station BBC 7 every Monday; each episode is then available for the next six days via their Listen Again service. For details, or to listen to the station online, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7.
See our Links section for sites with more information about this show (such as The Officially Unofficial ISIHAC Web Pages at http://www.isihac.co.uk/). Information about the many ISIHAC CDs and books can be found in the Goodies Illustrated Guide (www.goodiesillustratedguide.com).
