Mornington Crescent (game)
Encyclopedia
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
, which satirises complicated strategy games.
The game consists of each panellist in turn announcing a landmark or street, most often a tube station on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
system. The apparent aim is to be the first to announce "Mornington Crescent", a station on the Northern Line. Interspersed with the turns is humorous discussion amongst the panellists and host regarding the rules and legality of each move, as well as the strategy the panellists are using. Despite appearances, however, there are no rules to the game, and both the naming of stations and the specification of "rules" are based on stream-of-consciousness association and improvisation. Thus the game is intentionally incomprehensible.
Origins
Mornington Crescent first appeared in the opening episode of the sixth series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
, broadcast on 22 August 1978. Although five episodes transmitted in 1974–1975 are still lost, Mornington Crescent seems to have made no appearance before 1978. It was played in every surviving episode of the sixth series.
The origins of the game are not clear. One claim is that it was invented by Geoffrey Perkins
Geoffrey Perkins
Geoffrey Howard Perkins was a comedy producer, writer and performer, and an important figure in British comedy broadcasting. This was recognised in December 2008 when he was awarded with an Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award...
, who stated in an interview that Mornington Crescent was created as a non-game. According to chairman Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
, the game was invented to vex the series producer, who was unpopular with the panellists. One day, the team members were drinking, when they heard him coming. "Quick," said one, "Let's invent a game with rules he'll never understand."
Barry Cryer
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...
, on Radio 4's Today programme
Today programme
Today is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, now broadcast from 6.00 am to 9.00 am Monday to Friday, and 7.00 am to 9.00 am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and one of the BBC's most popular programmes across its radio networks...
, stated that Geoffrey Perkins had not invented the game, and that it had been around since the sixties. In The Guardian dated 6 September 2008, Bunny May, a contributor to the letters page, claims that he (along with John Junkin
John Junkin
John Francis Junkin was an English radio, television and film performer and scriptwriter.In 1960 Junkin joined Joan Littlewood's Stratford East Theatre Workshop, and played the lead in the original production of Sparrows Can't Sing...
and David Clime) invented the game in 1970, in an actors' club off Shaftesbury Avenue called "Gerry's" (which was run at the time by Gerald Campion
Gerald Campion
Gerald Theron Campion , was an English actor best-known for his role as Billy Bunter in a 1950s television adaptation of books by Frank Richards....
), in order to infuriate and bemuse patrons whom they found boring or boorish.
However, a "game" called "Finchley Central" was described in the Spring 1969 issue of the mathematical magazine manifold
Manifold (magazine)
Manifold was a mathematical magazine published at the University of Warwick. Its philosophy was "It is possible to be serious about mathematics, without being solemn." Its best known editor was the mathematician Ian Stewart who edited the magazine in the late 1960s.A 1969 edition of the magazine...
, edited by Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart (mathematician)
Ian Nicholas Stewart FRS is a professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick, England, and a widely known popular-science and science-fiction writer. He is the first recipient of the , awarded jointly by the LMS and the IMA for his work on promoting mathematics.-Biography:Stewart was born...
and John Jaworski at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
. Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Richard Hofstadter is an American academic whose research focuses on consciousness, analogy-making, artistic creation, literary translation, and discovery in mathematics and physics...
referred to the article in his book Metamagical Themas
Metamagical Themas
Metamagical Themas is a collection of eclectic articles written for Scientific American during the early 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter, and published together as a book in 1985 by Basic Books ....
. The game is referred to as an "English game" in an article on "non-games" as follows:
Two players alternate naming the stations of the London Underground. The first to say "Finchley CentralFinchley Central tube stationFinchley Central tube station is a London Underground station in the Church End area of Finchley, North London.The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, between West Finchley and East Finchley stations and is the junction for the short branch to Mill Hill East station...
" wins. It is clear that the "best" time to say "Finchley Central" is exactly before your opponent does. Failing that, it is good that he should be considering it. You could, of course, say "Finchley Central" on your second turn. In that case, your opponent puffs on his cigarette and says, "Well, shame on you".
"Gameplay" on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
The objective was to give the appearance of a game of skill and strategy, with complex and long-winded rules and strategies, in parody of certain games and sports in which similarly circuitous systems have evolved. In general, Humphrey LytteltonHumphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
would describe special rules to apply to that session, such as "Trumpington's Variations" or "Tudor Court Rules", so that almost every episode featuring Mornington Crescent introduced a variant.
There have been many supposed variations. In one of them, supposedly first introduced in North Yorkshire, a player whose movement is blocked is considered to be "in Nidd" (named after a Yorkshire river
River Nidd
The River Nidd is a tributary of the River Ouse in the English county of North Yorkshire. In its first few miles it is dammed three times to create Angram Reservoir, Scar House Reservoir and Gouthwaite Reservoir which attract around 150,000 visitors a year...
) and is forced to remain in place for the next three moves. This tends to block the other players, putting them into Nidd as well and causing a roadblock. In one episode of I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue, every player ended up in Nidd and the supposed rule had to be suspended so that the round could continue.
Over time, the destinations named by the panellists expanded beyond the Underground. ISIHAC was recorded around the United Kingdom, and the game was occasionally modified accordingly. There were versions in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
and Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, as well as one in Scotland, played during the Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...
arts festival (where the name was changed to "Morningside
Morningside, Edinburgh
Morningside is a district in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. It is south of the areas of Bruntsfield, Burghmuirhead ; south-west of Marchmont, and south-east of Merchiston...
Crescent"). In one episode, recorded in Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
, panellists named locations as far afield as the Place de l'Étoile
Place de l'Étoile
The Place Charles de Gaulle, , historically known as the Place de l'Étoile , is a large road junction in Paris, France, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues including the Champs-Élysées which continues to the east. It was renamed in 1970 following the death of General and President Charles...
in Paris, Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Nevsky Prospekt is a station on the Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro.The station was built on July 1, 1963. While the station inself was designed by Mayofis and Maximov, the interior was designed Getskin, Shuvalova and Andreyev...
in St. Petersburg, and Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
in Washington, DC. However, a move to Luton
Luton
Luton is a large town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000....
High Street was ruled invalid for being too remote. In other episodes, an attempt was supposedly made to expand the territory to Manhattan (via Heathrow and JFK) but there was some disagreement as to whether or not the New York subway system was suited to the game. References have been made in various episodes of ISIHAC to international versions of the game, including "Mornington Croissant", supposedly based on the Paris Metro, and "Mornington Peninsula
Mornington Peninsula
The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south-east of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geographically, the peninsula begins its protrusion...
", the Australian variant. At least one full game of Mornington Croissant was played on air.
Lyttelton joked that the game predated the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
. "Tudor Court Rules" were described as "A version of the game formerly adopted by Henry VIII and played by Shakespeare. At this time, the underground was far smaller than at present, and so the playing area also was more restricted, primarily due to plague
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
."
Those who asked for the rules were told "NF Stovold’s Mornington Crescent: Rules and Origins" was out of print. They were also advised that "your local bookshop might have a copy of The Little Book of Mornington Crescent by Tim, Graeme, Barry and Humph."
Further popularity
Finchley Central and Mornington Crescent became popular in the UK as a play-by-mail pastime, and in the 1980s were "played" by post in a number of play-by-mail magazines.Mornington Crescent is now played widely online, in the spirit of the radio series. Games are played by fans on Usenet, in diverse web forums, and on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
itself. Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
has its own version, Wikipedia:Wikington Crescent, and a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
application has also been produced.
Mornington Crescent occasionally appears on Internet message forums, since the nature of these forums seems to work well with the gameplay. Many on-line matches were started to commemorate Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
, who died in 2008.
Spin-offs and publications
During the early 1980s, Radio 4 broadcast a special programme, Everyman's Guide to Mornington Crescent, a "two-part documentary" on the history of the game and its rules, presented by Raymond Baxter. At the end of Part One (concentrating on the history), it was announced that Part Two (about the rules) had been postponed due to "scheduling difficulties".Another documentary was broadcast on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
2005. It was named In Search of Mornington Crescent, and narrated by Andrew Marr
Andrew Marr
Andrew William Stevenson Marr is a Scottish journalist and political commentator. He edited The Independent for two years until May 1998, and was political editor of BBC News from 2000 until 2005....
. This has since also been released on a BBC Audiobook CD.
Two books of rules and history have been published, The Little Book of Mornington Crescent (2001; ISBN 0-7528-1864-3), by Graeme Garden
Graeme Garden
David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...
, Tim Brooke-Taylor
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is 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 Footlights revue in 1964...
, Barry Cryer
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...
and Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
, and Stovold's Mornington Crescent Almanac (2001; ISBN 0-7528-4815-1), by Graeme Garden.
Cultural references
- The Steep Approach to GarbadaleThe Steep Approach to GarbadaleThe Steep Approach to Garbadale is a novel by the Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 2007. The novel had at least two working titles, Matter and Empire! [fact]-Plot introduction:...
, by Iain BanksIain BanksIain Banks is a Scottish writer. He writes mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies...
, mentions Mornington Crescent as a game created by the fictional company Wopuld Ltd., described as being "based on the map of the London undergroundLondon UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
with a complicated double-level board". - In the novel Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass DestructionAdrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass DestructionPublished in 2004 by Penguin Books, Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction is Sue Townsend's sixth full Adrian Mole novel . It is set in 2002/3 and Adrian is 33¾ years of age...
, by Sue TownsendSue Townsend-Adrian Mole series:* The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ , her best selling book, and the best-selling new British fiction book of the 1980s.* The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole * The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole...
, the protagonist writes to Radio 4 demanding a copy of the rules, in the mistaken belief that it is a real game. - A song by Mickey SimmondsMickey SimmondsMickey Simmonds is an English session keyboardist, arranger and composer. He is best known for his work with progressive rock acts, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Camel and Fish...
entitled "Mornington Crescent" appears on the Bonzo Dog Band’s 2007 album, Pour l'Amour des ChiensPour l'Amour des ChiensPour l'Amour Des Chiens is the first all new studio album by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band in 35 years...
. The song includes puns based on London Underground names, and includes the lyric "You’re harder to understand than Mornington Crescent!"
See also
- List of games with concealed rules
- "Numberwang" from the television show That Mitchell and Webb LookThat Mitchell and Webb LookThat Mitchell and Webb Look is a British television sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Shown on BBC Two since 2006, its first two series were directed by David Kerr, who also directed Mitchell and Webb's previous television sketch show The Mitchell and Webb Situation, whereas...