I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue down opportunities to work on it as he preferred to remain a listener. The official, authorised history of the show and ISIRTA, "The Clue Bible" by Jem Roberts, was published by Preface Publishing in October 2009. Humphrey Lyttelton, primarily known as a jazz trumpeter and bandleader, was invited to be chairman because of the role played by improvisation in both comedy and jazz music. In the first series Lyttelton shared the role of chairman with Barry Cryer but he made it his own (especially once Cryer replaced Cleese as a regular panellist) and continued as chairman until his death on
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue who has worked on the show since 1992. "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" developed from the long-running radio sketch show "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again", the writers of which were John Cleese, Jo Kendall, David Hatch, Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and especially Graeme Garden who suggested the idea of an unscripted show which, it was decided, would take the form of a parody panel game. A panel game with no competition was not itself a new idea: the BBC had a history of successful quiz shows designed to allow witty celebrities to entertain where winning was not important.