After the seventh series of "Beyond Our Ken" ended Horne was scheduled to appear in a number of other BBC programmes; Eric Merriman objected, contending that he had made Horne into a star, and that "no other comedy series should be allowed to use him", according to Horne's biographer, Barry Johnston. When the BBC refused to withdraw Horne from the programme "Down with Women", Merriman resigned from writing "Beyond Our Ken" and the show came to an end. After some pressure from Horne to keep the remainder of the team together, the BBC commissioned "Round the Horne" as a replacement on similar lines. They turned to Took, as one of the original writers of "Beyond Our Ken", and his new writing partner, Marty Feldman. The name of the programme came from a pun on Horne's name, combined with the naval term "round the Horn", meaning to navigate the waters at the southern tip of South America, Cape Horn. The pair aimed to write what they described as "down-market material in an upmarket way". The scripts they produced led to a faster-paced programme than "Beyond Our Ken", which included more allusions to contemporary events, including politics and films.