Murgatroyd and Winterbottom


The comedy act Mr Murgatroyd and Mr Winterbottom was a popular feature of BBC radio in the 1930s and 1940s. It was written and performed by Ronald Frankau and Tommy Handley.
Handley's biographer Barry Took describes the act as "a sophisticated crosstalk of quickfire word and idea association"; the combination of the Old Etonian Frankau's patrician tones as Murgatroyd and Handley's fast-talking Scouse patter as Winterbottom became one of the BBC's most popular comedy features. Took quotes a typical example of Murgatroyd and Winterbottom's rapid cross-talk:
Murgatroyd and Winterbottom became so popular that the performers' wives – Jean Allistone and Renee Roberts – were invited to make several broadcasts of their own as "Mrs Murgatroyd and Mrs Winterbottom". Frankau and Handley made more than 50 broadcasts as Murgatroyd and Winterbottom between 1935 and 1948.