N.p. [London]: N.p., N.d. [1950s]

3 3pp. handwritten sketches on loose leaves of foolscap ruled paper. One secured with split pin and a second with paper clip, the third with leaves loose. With an additional 2 pp. typed sketch, and 1 typed leaf (with holograph text to verso). Some browning and wear to edges, but a very well preserved collection.

THREE HANDWRITTEN SKETCHES FOR TAKE IT FROM HERE, HEAVILY REVISED.

'The first brand-new comedy to emerge from this [post-war] period was Take It From Here. Fast-paced and gag-fuelled, it owed something to revue and much to the American style of radio comedy. For half a decade no other show matched it for originality. In the overall picture of post-war radio comedy Take It From Here ranks alongside The Goon Show as one of the most influential post-war programmes.' (Andy Foster and Steve Furst, Radio Comedy 1933-1968, Virgin Publishing, 1966).

(Take It From Here also hosted the debut of one of British comedy's best-loved jokes. 'Infamy, infamy! They've all got it in for me!' was made famous when Kenneth Williams delivered it in Carry On Cleo (1964), but Cleo scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell had lifted it (with Norden's permission) from a Take It From Here sketch, written by Muir and Norden.)

There is no indication on the scripts to indicate in which episode, or in which series, these sketches appeared, but two of them can have been used no later than the fifth series (of twelve): Joy Nichols, who features in them, left the show in 1953 at the end of Series Five. She was replaced by June Whitfield and Alma Cogan; June Whitfield appears in the third sketch present here. In one sketch, Dick Bentley is on trial; in the second, he's being pursued for unpaid income tax; and in the third, Wallas Eaton has become a successful businessman and changed his name to Nigel Mayfair. All three sketches are heavily reworked by Norden, providing an intriguing insight into the working method of one of Britain's most prolific and influential comedy writers.

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