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Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh was a comedy show broadcast from 1944 to 1950 and 1951 to 1954 by BBC Radio and in 1950–51 by Radio Luxembourg. It was written by and starred Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne as officers in a fictional RAF station coping with red tape and the inconveniences and incongruities of life in the Second World War. After the war the station became a country club and finally the show became the chronicle of a newspaper, The Weekly Bind. Among the supporting cast were Sam Costa as the officers' batman, Maurice Denham in a multitude of roles, Diana Morrison, Dora Bryan and Nicholas Parsons. Singers in the musical interludes in the show included Gwen Catley, Maudie Edwards. Binnie Hale and Doris Hare. Among those appearing as guest stars were Phyllis Calvert, Richard Dimbleby, Glynis Johns, Alan Ladd and Jean Simmons. The show followed ITMA as the most popular British radio comedy, and was succeeded by Take It From Here and The Goon Show. After the show ended, its two stars returned to radio in later long-running series. Background During the Second World War radio comedy was an important feature of British national life. The fledgling television service started by the BBC in 1936 was suspended for the duration of the war and radio was the sole broadcasting medium. The most prominent comedy show, It's That Man Again (ITMA), ran from 1939, and was reaching audiences of 16 million listeners by 1941. As well as broadcasting to the civilian population the BBC had to provide entertainment for the armed forces. From early 1940 the BBC's General Forces Programme broadcast a show called Merry-go-Round, originally a musical show to which comedy interludes were introduced. From this the BBC developed comedy shows aimed at each of the three branches of the armed forces: Eric Barker's HMS Waterlogged for the Royal Navy, Charlie Chester's Stand Easy for the Army and Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh for the Royal Air Force (RAF), all largely written and performed by serving members of the respective services. The shows were broadcast in turn on a three-weekly cycle under the overall Merry-go-Round banner. Much-Binding was written by and starred Kenneth Horne and Richard Murdoch, both RAF officers working together at the Air Ministry in London. Horne had been a contributor to an earlier BBC radio show for the Air Force, Ack-Ack, Beer-Beer; Murdoch was well known to listeners from his pre-war role as co-star with the comedian Arthur Askey in the show Band Waggon. As the established star, Murdoch was given top billing in the new show. 1944–1946: RAF station "Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh", a fictional RAF base in remote rural England, was the invention of Horne. It drew on the name of a real RAF station at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, along with the word "binding", Air Force slang for grumbling or complaining. The first broadcast was a one-off given by Horne and Murdoch on a BBC show for the armed forces, ENSA Half Hour, on 4 January 1944. Murdoch believed the idea could be developed into a series and the two men worked together on it. The producer of Merry-go-Round, Leslie Bridgemont, liked what they sent him and booked them to appear in the programme on 31 March 1944. Horne's biographer Norman Hackforth writes that the show "wasn't exactly an overnight sensation" but Bridgemont liked it enough to commission further episodes, and the show's popularity grew. In the first shows the only regular characters were Horne's ponderous but genial Air Officer Commanding and Murdoch's junior officer, intelligent, humorous and able to manipulate his dim-witted superior. They were joined for a few early programmes by Joyce Grenfell, and in October 1944 Sam Costa joined the cast, and became a permanent fixture as the OR aircraftsman. The original idea for the show's signature tune, which became one of the best-known on BBC radio, was Horne's. He suggested to Murdoch that it would be a good idea if they had a song that began: They worked out the shape of the rest of the tune and got their accompanist, Sidney Torch, to polish it and write it down in musical score. It consisted of an eight-line verse, of which a typical example is: Each week the closing music for the show consisted of four verses of the song, rising a semitone from one verse to the next. Over the years Horne and Murdoch wrote more than 500 verses for it, including topical material in the lyrics. In the early years they wrote in their office at the Air Ministry. Later they would meet either at Murdoch's house near Tunbridge Wells, Horne's flat in Kensington or the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall. They would toss ideas about and make notes of them; one of them would then turn the notes into a script to be transcribed by Bridgemont's secretary. Typically, on the day of broadcast, the show would be rehearsed from 1 p.m. to 2.30, with a full run-through at 5 p.m. The show would be given before a studio audience, broadcast live in the evening, and recorded for repeat transmission on home and forces networks later. In the early shows, under the Merry-go-Round banner, the first half, with comic dialogue and narrative, was set in Murdoch's office at Much-Binding, after which the scene moved to the canteen for a concert—a spoof of typical NAAFI entertainments. "Flight Officer Flannel"—played by Binnie Hale, Dorothy Carless or Doris Hare—according to availability, would sing, as would Costa. Murdoch would perform one of his nonsense lyrics to well-known classical tunes, Horne would play the saxophone, and the show would conclude with a lively piece from the orchestra. Later, the show followed the precedent of ITMA and other programmes by being divided into comedy sections interspersed with music. Much-Binding settled into a pattern of three comedy sections separated by two musical slots: the first for the orchestra alone and the second for orchestra with singer. 1947−1950: Country Club By the end of the war, Much-Binding, sharing the Merry-go-Round slot with other shows, had appeared for only 20 episodes, but was on its way to overtaking ITMA as the most popular British radio comedy. The BBC was anxious to continue the show with a new, civilian setting. A factory—"Much-Binding Enterprises Ltd"—and a crammer for backward schoolboys were considered, but it was finally agreed that the two former Much-Binding officers, discovering their old station up for sale, should buy it and turn it into the Much-Binding Country Club. After the signature tune (the "Much-Binding" tune, for orchestra only) and opening announcement, usually by Philip Slessor, "Much-Binding takes the air!", Horne would introduce "Your old friend, Richard Murdoch!", to deliver a monologue outlining the news—ranging from incongruous to bizarre—from Much-Binding over the past week. This would be followed by the first musical interlude, after which Horne would enter, greeted by Murdoch with, "Good morning, sir. It is good to see you", and then, as Barry Johns.... Discover the Charles Foster Phyllis Tickle popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Charles Foster Phyllis Tickle books.