‘On the Hour’ free download

L&H agreed to their material being included when this release was first mooted five years ago, many years after a dispute which is water long since under the bridge. Series 1 is complete, but the cuts to Series 2 do undermine this release as a whole. Unfortunately someone at Warp settled for the revised repeats which lost about 90secs per show. A bit of basic research would have revealed that they were the wrong versions.

Linehan & Matthews (sic) did not write for OTH, incidentally. They joined for TDT along with Peter Baynham.

Thanks for the further info Ian.

Regarding Linehan and Mathews, I’m inclined to think you’re right on that although the BBC Comedy website lists them both as contributors http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/onthehour/

Who cares – The Day Today is brilliant!

No problem, Tom. The BBC Comedy Guide’s been a waste of space ever since they replaced the original Mark Lewisohn version, but I accept that you were using the Beeb as a trusted reference. Just don’t in future!

Arthur & Graham joined the team because Talkback ended up taking on the show as a production for television and they were in-house writers, having worked on the Smith & Jones show, so it was an obvious opportunity for them. Mel and Griff owned Talkback at the time, and Griff in particular was a big supporter of Linehan & Mathews.

Don’t let my grumbles about series 2 being cut put anyone off, by the way. Warp should be applauded for finally getting this out and any serious fan of alternative comedy should support the release.