Their catchphrases still fill our language, and their outlandish characters have proved unforgettable through several generations. Books of scripts, and recordings of the shows, continue to sell in extraordinary numbers. No comedy clip-show would be imaginable without Jules and Sand, Bluebottle and Eccles, or Tony Hancock and Sid James. Between them, these three very different shows from the 1950s and '60s define and encapsulate the glory days of radio comedy.

There's more than mere nostalgia at work here. Round The Horne is as funny today as it was in the 1960s - and, in our more prudish times, twice as outrageous! The Goons still sounds astonishingly radical - it's hard to imagine such a bizarre programme being commissioned these days. As for The Lad Himself ... well, has British comedy ever produced such an irresistibly iconic figure as Tony Hancock?

But where did these smash hits come from? Was Spike Milligan's redrawing of the boundaries of comedy really as sui generis as it seems? Did Hancock's genius spring fully-formed from 23 Railway Cuttings? Did Barry Took and Marty Feldman discover some secret recipe that suddenly produced a sketch show twice as funny as any of its predecessors?

This book explores the origins of the 'Big Three' - and just as importantly, the enormous, lasting influence they've had on radio (and TV) comedy ever since. It also sketches in the social context of the shows - and aims to remind us that Hancock isn't only famous for committing suicide, that Milligan did more with his life than have nervous breakdowns, that Kenneth Williams wasn't just a neurotic diarist; to remind us, above all, that these amazing shows have survived because they were extraordinarily good. Where much critical attention has focussed on the private lives of the casts, the Pocket Essentials Classic Radio Comedy concentrates on what made them great - the comedy.

Books by Mat Coward