Stop Messing About

"Stop Messing About" is a BBC Radio series. Following "Round the Horne" after the death of Kenneth Horne, the cast was rearranged, keeping Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick, but dispensing with Betty Marsden and taking on Joan Sims. It was, however, short lived, running from 1969 to 1970 on BBC Radio 2 . Few episodes are held in the BBC Archives. During the summer of 2006, the digital radio station BBC 7 gave Stop Messing About a regular slot, as a break from Round the Horne. It was repeated again during spring 2008.

Performers

*Douglas Smith was a BBC announcer, who slowly began to work his way up to speaking parts in "Round the Horne", and soon took on several parts in "Stop Messing About".

*Hugh Paddick, who also appeared in "Round the Horne" and "Beyond Our Ken", was often a perfect co-star with Kenneth Williams. The Julian and Sandy routine in "Round the Horne" was a perfect example of this. Hugh also appeared in "Here and Now", "Winning Widows", "Pardon My Genie", and "Blackadder".

*Joan Sims is best known for her performances in the Carry On films, of which she starred in all but one of them. She played nearly all of the female characters. She previously appeared in "A Tribute To Greatness", also with Kenneth Williams.

*Kenneth Williams livened up "Round the Horne" and "Stop Messing" About with often unscripted interjections.

*Music was provided by the Max Harris Group

Writers

*Johnnie Mortimer

*Brian Cooke, one of the later contributors to Round the Horne (and writer of Round the Horne Revisited).

*Myles Rudge

The producer was John Simmonds

Regular features of the programme

*Crack-a-Jackanory with Mother Time was a parody of the children's programme "Jackanory". Joan Sims would read a story, which slowly developed more adult topics.

External links

* [http://www.stopmessinabout.co.uk/Car-Rad-69SMA.htm Stop Messing About at the Kenneth Williams Website]
* [http://www.britishcomedy.org.uk/kwas/sma.html Stop Messing About at the British Comedy Website]