My Word - Series 11 Omnibus (Part Two)

Five episodes concluding the eleventh series of the radio comedy panel show My Word, originally broadcast on the BBC Home Service in early 1964. All feature Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Nancy Spain and Dilys Powell, and host Jack Longland.

Due to the unchanging cast and paucity of info on recordings, it's difficult to determine the precise sequence of My Word episodes even with the help of contemporary radio listings, so some guesswork has been used in the arrangement of this omnibus.

0:00 - Series 11 Episode 9, 21st January 1964
Definitions: Dressage, Barcarolle, Proponent, Windage
Reason Why: Don Quixote tilts at windmills, Tom Jones is adopted then rejected, Jane Eyre is able to marry Mr Rochester, Guinevere hies herself to a nunnery
Origins: Mealy-Mouthed, Etiquette, Mad As A Hatter, Pay Your Footing
Descriptions: "Its one charm is that it makes a light deception absolutely necessary for both parties...", "It is the only sensual pleasure without vice...", "Why does this magnificent [thing], which saves work and makes life easier, bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs, because we have not yet learnt to make sensible use of it...", "Regard their society as a necessary unpleasantness of social life, and avoid it as much as possible..."
Phrases: "Take a pair of sparkling eyes...", "It was roses, roses all the way..."

27:32 - Series 11 Episode 10, 28th January 1964
Definitions: Burke, Detinue, Hecatomb, Xylophagous
Who, What & Where: Where Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress; Author of Baron Munchausen; What was Aesop; Who was the boy that stood on the burning deck?
Quotations: "The grizzly bear is huge and wild; he has devoured the infant child...", "For this relief much thanks...", "My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here; my heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer...", "Ring out old shapes of foul disease; ring out the narrowing lust of gold..."
Why & Wherefore: Why did Du Mourier's Trilby lose her voice and die; Why did Christian leave his city in The Pilgrim's Progress; What is the significance of 007; Why did Dickens support the poor?
Phrases: "In the shade of the old apple tree...", "If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise..."

55:15 - Series 11 Episode 11, 4th February 1964
Definitions: Wiseacre, Scroop, Hartshorn, Cross-Buttock
First Works By: Ernest Hemingway, James Thurber, HG Wells, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Origins: In The Doldrums, Try It On The Dog, Bistro, Coward
Quotations: "She saw her brother Peterkin roll something large and round, which he beside the rivulet in playing there had found...", "Her eyes were deeper than the depth of waters still'd at even...", "She is coming, my own, my sweet; were it ever so airy a tread, my heart would hear and beat, were it earth in an earthy bed...", "For every time she shouted 'fire', they only answered 'little liar'..."
Thriller Authors: The Maltese Falcon, The Lady In The Lake, A Study In Scarlet, The Postman Always Rings Twice
Phrases: "Save me, oh save me from the candied friend...", "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..."

1:22:56 - Series 11 Episode 12, 11th February 1964
Definitions: Glossographer, Twight, Weasand, Tympanitis
Origins: Hoist The Blue Peter, Catastrophe, You Can Whistle For It, Preliminary Canter
Who, Why & What: Why was the knight-at-arms alone, pale and loitering; To whom did the quoted character apologise and why; What is a sob sister; Who were the mountebanks of state and mastiffs of government?
Literature: Hero in Kidnapped, Hero in Of Human Bondage, A Mikhail Sholokhov novel, The Waverley novels
Phrases: "Is it a world to hide virtues in?", "You're the flower of my heart, sweet Adeline..."

1:50:40 - Series 11 Episode 13, 18th February 1964
Definitions: Coven, Wanderoo, Piker, Aloetic
Quotations: "I hold it true, whate'er befall; I feel it when I sorrow most..."; "A damsel with a dulcimer, in a vision once I saw..."; "The grave's a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace..."; "Fear no more the lightning flash, nor the all-dreaded thunder stone..."
Origins: Sail Under False Colours, Grand Guignol, Lampoon, Washout
Foreign Sayings: À Outrance, Ballon D'Essai, Coup De Main, Femme De Chambre
Phrases: "Are you sick or are you sullen?", "It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature..."