I’ve just got in from watching a recording of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue (The Antidote to Panel Games). There are not enough superlatives for me to adequately describe to you just how much fun it was. The usual crew (TBT, GG and BC) were on top form, joined by the brilliant Linda Smith. The gags, puns and innuendo were so rapid fire that I’m sure I won’t remember most of it.
Humph got the giggles at one point, tripping up over the punch-line to an innuendo about the lovely Samantha. It starts with Samantha going to the local beauty parlour for a leg wax, and you’ll have to wait until November to find out what got him so worked up. 
The recording tonight will make up the first two episodes of the 44th series!
All my favourite bits were there, One Song to the Tune of Another, New Definitions and of course Mornington Crescent.
The show started with the producer (Jon Naismith) coming on and standing at a microphone in front of three desks. He told a few gags, and explained the process, once he was sure we were properly warmed up (and to be fair, we didn’t need much warming!) he brought on the team, starting with Colin Sell. As the show started, Jon sat next to Humph while “The Van” played in the opening titles - we were under instructions to cheer wildly as soon as Mr Announcer mention Humph. This we did - at that Jon wandered off stage, presumably to architect things from the van.
Then the show proceded much as you’ll hear on the radio, albeit slightly longer. It was interesting that at the end of recording the first episode, the producer came back from “The Van” (I assume the BBC send a van out so as to rely minimally on local theatre sound systems) to ask Humph to record a few of the introductions and interludes again. For some of these they don’t even record the entire part - just sentence fragments, or single words. So he goes through a few missing bits reading out things like “…Barry…” with just the right inflection. After an brief interval, they did it all over again for “the following week”. At the end of episode two, they had to do a few more pickups, including one from “last week”!
Barry Cryer was excellent, as were the entire team. Faultless. And all for a tenner. Bargain!
Next month: Have I Got News for You. We’ll see what a TV recording is like!
I attended a recording of ISIHAC back in 1996 at the (then) newly opened Cambridge Arts Theatre; it was the last season with Willy Rushton (who sadly died very shortly afterwards) and the panel was on top form. The format of the recording doesn’t seem to have varied much, with two weeks shows performed back-to-back. I’d forgotten about the re-recording of individual words though! What you don’t mention is the Laser Display Board! It truly is as amazing as it sounds on radio! Ha, some people think that it must be just a tatty bit of cardboard scribbled on with a marker pen or something, how wrong can they be!