Take It from Here

Broadcast between 1948 and 1960 and written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, Take It From Here starred Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and Joy Nichols.

When Nichols married an American and moved to New York in 1953, she was replaced by June Whitfield and Alma Cogan.

The show is best remembered for introducing an uncouth dysfunctional family called ‘The Glums’.

First appearing on 12 November 1953, the popularity of this sketch ensured The Glums became a regular part of Take It from Here and focussed on the long engagement between Ron Glum (Dick Bentley) and his long-term fiancée Eth (June Whitfield) – a plain girl for whom dimwitted Ron represented her only chance of marriage.

The family matriarch, Mrs Glum (voiced by Alma Cogan), was frequently heard offstage as a muffled noise.

The Glums were remembered sufficiently for the format to be revived in 1978 as part of the unsuccessful Bruce Forsyth’s Big Night programme. A single stand alone series of The Glums was produced and broadcast the following year by London Weekend Television, with Ron Glum played by Ian Lavender and Eth by Patricia Brake, while Jimmy Edwards reprised the role of Pa Glum.

Many of the jokes and comic exchanges from Take It from Here were recycled in the series of Carry On films when scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell ran out of time, and Muir and Norden gave him some old TIFH scripts – for instance, the line spoken by Julius Caesar (played by Kenneth Williams) in Carry on Cleo on facing some would-be assassins – “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”

Frank Muir and Denis Norden continued collaborating for nearly 50 years.

Cast
Jimmy Edwards
Dick Bentley
Joy Nichols
June Whitfield
Alma Cogan

Announcer
David “Dunners” Dunhill