Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 2006. My castaway this week is the jazz musician and veteran radio presenter Humphrey Littleton. He formed his first band in

1948 and described by Louis Armstrong as Britain's top trumpeter has been touring ever

since. His chosen profession betrays an upper- crust lineage. His father was a famous

housemaster at Eton, and childhood holidays were often spent at the stately homes of titled relatives.

His radio career began with shows about jazz, but it's in his role as Chairman Humpf, on Radio Fours, I'm sorry I haven't

a clue, that he's gained cult status as the deadpan purveyor of blue chip filth to middle England.

Humphrey Littleton, you've been a quiz master then on that show since 1972, but

your real love, your first love, jazz.

Yes indeed, yes. Sometimes people ask me, you know, what's the most important thing?

And I say, well, if ever I slump forward, it's not going to be on a computer keyboard,

it'll be trumpet in hand.

What is it about the jazz that so captivates?

Well, I was fascinated by music from a very, very early age.

The trumpet came quite late. I had a love affair with the

harmonica for a long time. And drums as well? You play the drums. Yes. I fiddle

about with that for a while and my mother thought as mothers do that I was showing

enormous promise. So she answered an advert in the local paper for a drum teacher and

a man called Mr Glass came down and I can remember the moment when he came into the room and my mother said of course

Humphrey's worked a lot on the drums himself and he's learned quite a lot to which Mr. Glass said

well we'll soon unlearn him all that.

...