My Word - Series 30 Omnibus

Five surviving episodes of the thirtieth series of the BBC Radio Four comedy panel show My Word, originally broadcast in autumn 1979, featuring Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Dilys Powell and Antonia Fraser with host John Julius Norwich.

0:00 - Series 30 Episode 1, 26th September 1979
Definitions: Allopath, Supererogation, Nepenthe, Blunge
Odd Man Out: Mars, Odin, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar; Ronald Colman, Che Guevara, Imperial, Toothbrush, Handlebar; Butcher, Electric, Navy, Sage, Oxford; James Joyce, Grass Snakes, Waterford Crystal, Guinness
Literary Addition: Days Thou Shalt Labour, Sherlock's Orange Pips, Grey Geese In A Green Field Grazing; Miles Meandering, Lords A-Leaping, Cornishmen Who'll Know The Reason Why; Blackbirds Baked In A Pie, Sheets In The Wind, Frenchmen Who Can't Be Wrong; Men On A Dead Man's Chest, Tailors Of Dorothy Sayers, Mileage From Wibbleton To Wobbleton
What Comes Before: "When the moon shone, we did not see the candle...", "Deny thy father and refuse thy name...", "Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind...", "That all with one consent praise newborn gawds..."
Double Definitions: Querulously Criticise & Jumbo Goldfish, Small Fishing Boat & Manual Rebuke, Set On Fire & Group Of Kittens, Harmoniously Agreeable & Alphabetical Element
Phrases: "Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand...", "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink..."

27:08 - Series 30 Episode 2, 3rd October 1979
Definitions: Charley Horse, Somniloquy, Beeswing, Godwottery
Who Is She: "She eats broken bottles and wears barbed wire next to the skin...", "She must have been a very little lady...", "She found me roots of relish sweet, and honey wild and manna dew...", "In a world that is supposed to be swayed by hunger and by love, she was an exception; her movements and motives were largely governed by a dislike of Loona Bimberton..."
Origins: Not On, Bogey, Deuce, Spinnaker
Dramatic Dialogue: [N/A]
Phrases: "As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool...", "Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew..."

54:10 - Series 30 Episode 3, 10th October 1979
Definitions: Cinerarium, Bingle, Antigropelos, Infundibula
Unlikely Connections: Major Wingfield & Wimbledon, Enoch Arden & William Crichton, Newt & Orange, Oliver Cromwell & Tom Sawyer
Differences: Rare & Scarce, Perturb & Disturb, Loose & Loosen, Bring & Fetch
Line At A Time: Ben Jonson's "To Celia"
Phrases: "I am monarch of all I survey...", "The stars and stripes forever..."

1:21:08 - Series 30 Episode 11, 5th December 1979
Definitions: Pseudoscope, Serinette, Vilipend, Pasquinade
Who Were They: "And when they get to feeling old, they up and shoot themselves, I'm told...", "They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose; nor spake, nor moved their eyes...", "Stretched in never-ending line along the margin of a bay...", "Which, when her lovely laughter shows, they look like rosebuds filled with snow..."
What's In Common: Yellow, Hay, Blackwater, Scarlet, Spring; Cotton, Paper, Tin, China, Diamond; Bounce, Etching, Booze, Hobble, Splint; Double Diamond, Pineapple, Monkey's Fist, Admiral Elliot's Eye
Origins: Iron Curtain, Caricature, Meringue, Hooch
Phrases: "Why so pale and wan, fond lover...", "Tess of the D’Urbervilles..."

1:48:08 - Series 30 Episode 12, 12th December 1979
Verbal Vagaries: Month, Silver, Spirit, Chimney; The United States Of America Attaineth Its Cause - Freedom; Are We Not Drawn Onward, We Few, Drawn Onward To New Era; Uncomplimentary
Origins: Cahoots, Swashbuckling, One Fell Swoop, Barmy
What Happened Next: Gentleman asks landlady if two can live for the price of one; beautiful wife sells her hair to buy husband a watch-fob, while he sells his watch to buy combs for her hair; son hears voice during argument with mother; hide in a country church and see a governess about to marry her employer
Suffixes: Drag, Ball, Cart, Buff; Cross, Like, Clock, Other; Flag, Fellow, Hard, Lady; Post, Plum, Pill, Stow
Phrases: "It's a long way to Tipperary...", "You can't have your cake and eat it too..."