Uxbridge English Dictionary

by Tim Brooke-Taylor

To mark the 31st anniversary of the birth of the antidote to the panel games, we present the pick of the Definitions Round, a quirky cross between the Collins dictionary and 'Call My Bluff' that has had audiences in stitches for over a decade. I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue - the antidote to panel games, has thrilled the nation for over thirty years. With listener figures now over 2 million each week, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue has become as firm a British institution as the Queen's lap-dancing club. For all those that have ever pondered the meaning of antidisestablishmentarianism (the wife of strangely named Northern uncle), bedlam (a very favourite sheep) or cenotaph (a Welsh laxative), this is the book for you. With cartoons by Graeme Garden and Humphrey Lyttleton and over 300 more definitions to push the boundaries of the English language and 'good clean family fun', I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue - Definitions is a must have for any fan of British comedy at its best.

Genres: Humor, Comedy, Reference, Nonfiction, Language

128 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE was an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footnights revue in 1964. Becoming wider known to the public for his work on BBC Radio with I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, he moved into television with At Last the 1948 Show working together with old Cambridge friends John Cleese and Graham Chapman. He is most well known as one member of The Goodies, starring in the TV series throughout the 1970s and picking up international recognition in Australia and New Zealand. He has also appeared as an actor in various sitcoms, and has been a panellist on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for nearly 40 years.

Brooke-Taylor studied at Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge. There he read Economics and Politics before changing to read Law, and mixed with other budding comedians, including John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn in the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club (of which Brooke-Taylor became President in 1963). The Footlights Club revue, A Clump of Plinths was so successful during its Edinburgh Festival Fringe run, that the show was renamed as Cambridge Circus and the revue transferred to the West End in London, and then later taken to both New Zealand and to Broadway in the United States in September 1964.

Brooke-Taylor moved swiftly into BBC Radio with the fast-paced comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again in which he performed and co-wrote. Other members of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again were John Cleese, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, David Hatch and Jo Kendall. In 1967, Brooke-Taylor became a writer/performer on the television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show, with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman. The famous "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was co-written by the four writers/performers of the series. In 1968–1969, Brooke-Taylor was also a cast member and writer on the television comedy series Marty starring Marty Feldman, with John Junkin and Roland MacLeod.

At around the same time, Brooke-Taylor made two series of Broaden Your Mind with Graeme Garden (and Bill Oddie joining the series for the second season). Describing itself as "An Encyclopedia of the Air", this series was a string of comedy sketches (often lifted from I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again), linked (loosely) by a weekly running theme. Its success led to the commissioning of The Goodies, also with Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden. First transmitted on BBC2 in November 1970, The Goodies was a huge television success, running for over a decade on both BBC TV and (in its final year) UK commercial channel London Weekend Television, spawning many spin-off books and successful records.

Brooke-Taylor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some excerpts from the comprehensively reviled 18th edition (precisely) of the Uxbridge English Dictionary:

Analogy — something that makes you itchy and sneezy
Barbecue — long wait for a haircut
Climate — first instruction at mountaineering school
Diphthong — fondue underwear
Exceed — a plant
Flabbergasted — appalled at your weight gain
Gastric — lighting a fart
Hoedown — agricultural strike
Infantry — a baby oak
Jacuzzi — Italian version of famous essay by Emile Zola
Kitsch — a small kitchen
Laplander — a clumsy private dancer
Miasma — the reason I have an inhaler
Nobleman — eunuch
Optical — to giggle during surgery
Parapet — an airborne cat
Quest— the Jonathan Ross family coat of arms
Rambling — jewellery for sheep
Semolina — a system of signalling with puddings
Tailback — post-operative Manx cat
Undeterred — a skidmark
Vigilant — an insect that stays up all night
Weeding —Scottish handbell
X-rated — no longer appreciated
Yo — a yoyo that only goes one way
Zucchini — animal park enthusiast

[Catherine Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of great puns and rib-tickling pictures.

[wychwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

My sister gave me this a year or so back. It's perfect bathroom reading - it's a "dictionary" of fake word-meanings derived from the sound of the word. So "problematic" is a dodgy loft conversion, and "codicil" is Buffalo Bill's window box. The definitions all come from a round on the radio comedy quiz show "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue", and some of them are distinctly reliant on cultural knowledge ("wink" - "where Jonathan Ross takes his children skating"; "killjoy" - "gloomy East Anglian antiques dealer") or the specific accent ("Porsche" - "really, really posh", "khaki" - "a device for starting an automobile") but mostly they should work for anyone decently fluent in English. And many of them are pretty funny; I was amused, anyway. Lightweight but entertaining.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the previous book (The Uxbridge English Dictionary), this is a must for any devotee of "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue". Some of the definitions had me laughing until I cried. There are a few definitions in here that appear in the first book but a lot more new ones. Everyone will have their own personal favourites but a few of mine were (as an example of what to expect!):

Argy-bargy - the owner of a narrow boat in Buenos Aires
Cormorants - good heavens! Extra insects
Damnation - Holland
Flatterer - a rolling pin
Inviolate - dressed in purple
Metatarsals - got together at Jeffrey Archer's
Scar Tissue - a problem attaching a DVD machine to a television

If you want to know more, read the book!

[Reds_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of answers to a round in the Radio 4 'antidote to panel games' show "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" in which panellists invent humorous new definitions of words. That round is one of my favourites in the show and I also found this book wonderfully funny.

My only criticism is that it isn't long enough!

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for I'M SORRY I HAVEN'T A CLUE fans. Uxbridge English Dictionary is one of my favorite rounds on the show and this collection of their screwball definition makes me laugh every time.

[Ross Whamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely bloody hilarious

[Squiff Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of some of the best alternative word definations from radio fours "I'm sorry I haven't a clue"