Melvyn Bragg pays tribute to Humphrey Lyttelton who died Friday at the age of 86:-
He was a very amiable, good-mannered and well-bred man and that is why he got away with all of the stuff he said on Radio 4 as chairman of the panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. His lines must surely be among the rudest jokes that have ever been broadcast anywhere on the radio, but I would be interested to know if he ever got a single complaint. His kind of self-deprecating humour is a very British thing and probably also came from being with musicians. It is a class thing too, of course, that kind of dry wit.The world just won't be the same without him.
It is very attractive to be so self-deprecating and the style, I think, comes from the importance of always being a gentleman.
