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An English radio comedy series from the 1940s, starring Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne. With Sam Costa, Maurice Denham, and Maureen Riscoe. Songs and sketches written by Mr Murdoch and Mr Horne.


Note: Be aware that the in-page media player on this page does not properly display all the available recordings. Open this link to see a complete list of the recordings posted here : List of Broadcasts





This enormously popular radio show ran for nine years, from 1944 through to 1953, mainly on the BBC, although in 1951 the duo moved the series temporarily to the rival commercial station, Radio Luxembourg, for a year. The show originated in 1944 as one of the three Services shows that alternated each week on Merry Go Round on the BBC's Forces Network.


Much Binding represented the Airforce, as Murdoch and Horne were serving in it in the war, albeit they were only in the Entertainments branch. During the war Much Binding in the Marsh was set in a
fictitious RAF station, in the equally fictitious village of Much Binding. But the show was so popular it
continued until 1953. The immediate post-war period saw the RAF base
become a country club run by Murdoch and Horne, while the 1950s had them
running their own newspaper, 'The Weekly Bind', now assisted by comedian Dora Bryan, from offices in London.


The show was so popular that even the Royal family were fans, and this led to a Royal Command Performance in the presence of the King and Queen in 1948, a recording of which is included in this collection. In later years, when the show was re-run in the 1990s, its best known fan was, famously, prime minister John Major, who had grown up listening to the original broadcasts.



Richard Murdoch was the unquestioned star of the show, as he had co-starred with Arthur
Askey in the pre-war Band Waggon, which had made the two of them the biggest stars in the country.


Kenneth Horne's radio career began with Much Binding, but he ultimately became better remembered for his 1960s heyday in the two satirical successes Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne. Murdoch, too, continued in radio in the 1960s: in 1963 he too was given
a long running comedy show, The Men From the Ministry, a sitcom about the Civil Service which ran until 1980.







Barbara Leigh clip



This collection includes two brief unidentified clips from the show, but in fact we might make an educated guess as to which broadcasts these originate from.


The singer, Miss Leigh, who is referred to in the first Much Binding clip, would be Barbara Leigh, who sang on the show in the 1950 series on the BBC Light Programme -- she's listed in the Radio Times as guest singer on the show in all 27 broadcasts of series 4, aired between March and September 1950. So the 1st clip might be from any BBC episode transmitted between 15th March and 8th September 1950.

However, Richard Murdoch talks about doing the spring-cleaning, implying the episode is airing in the Spring, which would put it right at the beginning of the 1950 series, in March or April. Murdoch and Maurice Denham then talk about the weather being wet and windy, which also suggests the episode is airing in the Spring ("March winds and April showers").

Murdoch instructs Miss Leigh as to what her duties are on the show. This suggests the clip might be from the very first episode of the 1950 series, aired on 15th March, which was her very first broadcast for them. If it is episode 1, this would also make sense of Murdoch's remark about a new guest character who he hopes might stay with the show permanently.

Interesting that these clips are from acetate disc recordings, not a tape. They therefore could not be domestic recordings made off-air by a listener, but must be sourced from professional recordings, most likely made by either the BBC Transcription Service, or the BBC Engineering department, or the BBC Monitoring Service. The drop-outs are indicative of an off-air recording, since a studio recording (i.e. a recording made by the Engineering department) would be much clearer. This implies that it may be a disc sourced from the BBC Monitoring Service, which was the department tasked with recording material off-air.

It has been suggested, for other reasons, that the 2nd Much Binding clip (see note, below) is a recording of 11th February 1951, made off-air from Radio Luxembourg by the BBC's monitoring service. The nature of the disc recordings (of lesser quality than an Engineering recording) would seem to support that idea.

Festival of Britain clip, 1951

Much Binding clip 2 is certainly NOT a BBC broadcast! The reference to the orchestra's conductor being Paul Fenoulhet makes it impossible.

Until the end of the 1950 series of Much Binding, which ended in September 1950, the BBC Dance Orchestra on the show was conducted by Stanley Black (or occasionally Robert Busby). This is recorded in the Radio Times for 1950 (and in the BBC Genome online).

Paul Fenoulhet did not even work for the BBC in 1950 (he has no Radio Times credits that year). This clip thus has to be from a Luxembourg show, and it has to be from 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain, the period whilst Fenoulhet was working for Radio Luxembourg.

But the Luxembourg episodes of Much Binding would be made on commercial discs, by Towers of London Ltd (producer Harry Alan Towers) in his London studios, not at the BBC. And because the Festival of Britain was in 1951, this clip cannot be from 1950.

Much Binding originated in 1944, as a sketch contribution in a BBC show called ENSA Half-Hour. That show had been produced by Harry Alan Towers, so Towers was already known to and by Murdoch and Horne before they moved to Radio Luxembourg with him! All Luxembourg shows were recorded in London, at the studios of Harry's company, Towers of London.

In my opinion what we have here is a recording of the broadcast of 11th February 1951, made off-air from Radio Luxembourg by the BBC monitoring service, made because Horne and Murdoch were established BBC stars and the BBC was interested in luring them back from Luxembourg (which is what happened in 1952), and they wanted details of what type of show they were doing for Harry Towers.

Basically, Horne and Murdoch wanted a larger fee, and the only way to persuade the BBC to pay it was to defect to Luxembourg for a year, the equivalent (in later years) of defecting to ITV. The BBC had to agree new terms with them, and they came happily back.





High Quality recordings


These episodes include high quality iTunes m4a recordings at 320 Kbps.







The
50 year period of broadcast copyright under section 14(2) of the UK's
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
(www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/14) has expired for all
items included in this collection.

1. Much Binding in the Marsh - Clip 1 - Singer is Barbara Leigh - Possibly s04e01 1950-03-15 (4.3Mb)
2. Much Binding in the Marsh - Clip 2 - Festival of Britain 1951 - Radio Luxembourg 1951-02-11 Episode 16 (5.7Mb)
3. Much Binding in the Marsh - s02e02 - 1947-12-03 - Re-opening the club [Transcription Service disc] (27.6Mb)
4. Much Binding in the Marsh - s02e02 - 1947-12-03 (Clip) (Final 10'38'') (2.4Mb)
5. Much Binding in the Marsh - s03e10 - 1948-11-23 - Richard Bumblepuppy 'Up Your Alley' (6.6Mb)
6. Much Binding in the Marsh - s03e15 - 1948-12-28 - Royal Command Performance (6.2Mb)

MP3 files hosted by archive.org.