On 23/03/2013 8:48 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:23:19 +0000, Stephen wrote:
>

>>
>> I never really took to Willie R. Too much of a middle class snob to my
>> mind. He was funny, though.
>
> I don't know much about Willie other than that I found him funny on
> Clue. :)  But he often had one-liners that would just bring the house
> down, and even the other guys who were on the team at the time just don't
> have the comedic sense of timing that he did.
>

I’m sorry, I thought that I had replied to you. I had a BSOD which wiped 
my own memory as well.

I grew up thinking Willie Rushton was the bee’s knees. Then, as I grew 
aware of the world, I found his right ling views unpalatable. I can’t 
hear recordings of him now without hearing a pompous, self regarding, 
smart arse, too full of his own self importance. But he was funny.

> About the closest they come now to that kind of timing is in the game
> Word for Word, when (almost always as the second word), Tim will say
> "Pardon?" and then the other player will repeat what he said previously,
> to which Tim says "No, that was my word."
>
> That one makes me chuckle every time, even though it's entirely
> predictable.
>

I thought that it was Graeme who did that.

>>> And Humph.  Jack's getting the 'curmudgeon' routine down well,
>>> but nobody does it the way Humph did.
>>>
>>>
>> That is Jack Dee's normal persona. He does well but Humph had years on
>> the rest of the team and could look on everyone with the contempt of an
>> adult with adolescents. He does very well but he is a youngster amongst
>> giants. I think that in the long run they would have done better picking
>> someone else as the chairman, someone with a different style. Maybe
>> supper nannie. ;-)
>
> Yeah, I've seen Jack on QI and a few other things (Kingdom, IIRC), and it
> does seem to be something even his characters have in common with him.
> But I don't know who else they could've picked - they couldn't "promote"
> any of the panelists because that just wouldn't work - that group of
> panelists works well together,

Indeed that is true.

> even with the floating guest spot (which
> they really should just let Rob Broydon fill full time),

I like the variety, one day they might get Nicolas Parsons.

> but putting
> Barry or Graeme in charge (I couldn't see Tim doing it) would change the
> entire dynamic.
>
> But I think Jack does his own thing - he doesn't try to be Humph, and
> that's a good thing.  I think if he did that, it wouldn't work at all.
> His demeanor is similar, but also distinctly different.
>

He does the best at an impossible job - filling Humph's boots.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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