Much Binding in the Marsh
Horne and Murdoch met in the Air Ministry during the war, when Horne
was Wing Commander, and Murdoch a Squadron Leader. Sam Costa
joined them to represent the rank and file, and Maurice Denham played
the upper class Dudley Davenport, Ivy Clingbine and Winston the dog.
Following on from ITMA, which was a multitude of catchphrases, both
characters had their own - Costa with his batman's, 'Good morning
Sir, was there something?', Denham's 'Oh, I say, I am a fool!', and
Murdoch's 'Have you read any good books recently?' and were
always met with applause.
Costa also played Prudence Gush, the radio critic, when Much-Binding
became a weekly newspaper, The Weekly Bind, with Dora Bryan as
Gladys Plumb, its fashion editor. Much-Binding was said to be King
George VI's favourite show after the death of Tommy Handley put an
end to ITMA.
There followed a successor show to Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh under
the title of Over to You.The name was then changed again to simply
Much-Binding.
(With acknowlegements to The British Comedy website)
Typical Closing Lyrics:
There's an Airforce station, somewhere tucked away
Where it is exactly, we're not supposed to say.
The C.O. and the A.C.O. were always very kind
It's name is quite misleading, life never is a bind ...
At Much Binding in the Marsh, we've had some races of all sorts and sizes,
At Much Binding in the Marsh, we're giving several Waafs' away as prizes.
The quarter mile was not a race on which I will enlarge:
The Station Warrant Officer was beaten by the Sarge,
And now, of course, as you can guess,
The Sarge is on a Charge
At Much Binding in the Marsh. 
Much Binding Sheet MusicAt Much Binding in the Marsh -
The crime wave's come we must do something drastic,
At Much Binding in the Marsh
From one plane they've stolen the elastic,
We've twisted it and then let go,
Thro' space we used to swish:
We're stuck without elastic now, but have a shrewd 'suspish',
that 'flannels' using it, to keep her 'is-sues' in 'po-sish'
At Much Binding in the Marsh.
The Hangar has been made a trifle wider,
At Much Binding in the Marsh
We did it to accomodate our glider
Our pilot said he'd like to try it out as it was new,
We took him up ten thousand feet and then we waved a-dieu,
He came down six months later to the north of Katman-du from Much Binding in the Marsh.
At Much Binding in the Marsh
Our aerodrome defence is quite in-spiring,
At Much Binding in the Marsh
We feel as safe as houses when they're firing.
Our A.A. Bo -fors gunner is a man who never cowers,
Last Tuesday week he got the chance to demonstrate his powers,
He shot one Jer-ry aircraft down and eighty two of ours At Much Binding in the Marsh
( Cheerio, folks)
At Much Binding in the Marsh
( See you later)
At Much Binding in the Marsh.
Words and Music by
Richard' Stinker' Murdoch
Kenneth Horne
Sidney Torch
© 1946
____________________________________
47/01/02 1 Much Binding Takes to the Air
47/01/09 2 A Foggy Day
47/05/15 20 News About a Concert
47/05/22 21 Gardening Time
48/09/21 1 Holiday News
48/11/23 10 Touring the Christmas Holidays Factory
48/12/28 15 Christmas is over
49/02/08 21 Newspaper "The Weekly Bind"
50/05/03 8 From London
50/05/10 9 Enjoying London
50/05/17 10 London Postmen, etc.
50/05/24 11 Final week in London
50/05/31 12 Paying Cab Driver/Chess Game/Protest Meeting
50/12/03 5 Heading for the Circus
50/12/10 6 Circus today
50/12/17 7 Home From The Circus
50/12/24 8 Scripting and Casting the New Play
51/02/25 17 Nursing Horne
51/03/04 18 American Visiters
53/07/31 1 Job Applicants for The Weekly Bind
53/08/07 2 Launching The Weekly Bind
53/08/28 5 Down in the Basement
53/09/04 6 Typo in The Weekly Bind
_____________________________________