Julian and Sandy

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Julian and Sandy were characters on the BBC radio programme Round the Horne, played by Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick, with scripts written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman.

As well as being highly amusing, Julian and Sandy were notable for being two camp gay characters in mass entertainment at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the UK, and for the use of Polari or palare in the sketches.

Kenneth Horne would find these two characters usually by looking in a rather risque magazine (which he would insist he bought for innocent reasons). This would lead him, more often than not, to a business in Chelsea starting with the word "Bona" (palare for "good"). He would enter by saying, "Hello, anyone there?", and Julian (Hugh Paddick) would answer, "Ooh hello! I'm Julian and this is my friend Sandy!"

Here is a quote illustrating the use of double entendre from the sketch "Bona Law", featuring Julian and Sandy as lawyers:

HORNE: Will you take my case?

JULIAN: Well, it depends on what it is. We've got a criminal practice that takes up most of our time.

HORNE: Yes, but apart from that — I need legal advice.

SANDY: Ooh, isn't he bold?

At other times, Horne's character would pretend not to understand the more risqué meanings in Julian and Sandy's dialogue, although it was always hinted that he was secretly in on the joke.

The sketches also often had Horne drawing out of Julian and Sandy more about their personal lives than Horne was seeking, as the two would misunderstand his meaning. In one sketch, discussing Julian and Sandy's time out travelling the world aboard ship, Julian reveals that the pair were caught up in a storm:

HORNE: So, did you drag yourself up on deck?

JULIAN: Oh, no! We dressed kind of casual-like...

Another catch phrase often used by Sandy was "That's your actual French", although Barry Took acknowledged that Peter Cook had claimed to be the first to use "your actual ...." as a format phrase.

In the last episode of Series 4 (which later turned out to be the last ever episode, due to Horne's untimely death) Julian and Sandy are revealed to be "married" — to a pair of "dolly palones" named Julia and Sandra.

Other appearances of the characters

In the 2003 stage show Round the Horne Revisited (later filmed for BBC Four), Williams and Paddick (and therefore Julian and Sandy) were played by Robin Sebastian and Nigel Harrison.

The fiftieth Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures novel Happy Endings by Paul Cornell features a polari-speaking Silurian musical duo from the 30th century called Jacquilian and Sanki.

See also

• Wolfenden report

External links

• [Julian and Sandy sub-section on a Kenneth Williams website]
• [Julian and Sandy tribute site] -- with sketches
• [BBC Shop: The Bona World of Julian and Sandy]
• [Round the Horne page]

 

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