Are you going to tell the Palace or am I? This was radio star Kenneth Horne's question to his producer when told there were no free tickets to give out for his own show Round the Horne.

When it was discovered a young Prince Charles and his current girlfriend were the intended recipients of the freebies, two were quickly dispatched.

So remembers Brian Cooke, who, with Johnnie Mortimer, Marty Feldman and Barry Took wrote the scripts for the cult radio show which ran on the BBC from 1965 to 1969.

He is the only surviving member of the writing team and his revival of the show as a West End revue, Round The HorneRevisited, has been a surprise success surprise to everyone but Brian that is.

He put up £200,000 of his own money to stage the production, which started in a pub theatre in Kennington because no one in the West End would touch it.

But word of mouth quickly spread and during its three-week run, producers were regularly turning away 50 people a night.

The national press picked up on this and Brian was asked by a West End theatre to transfer overnight.

It has been so successful a separate company is taking Round the Horne Revisited on tour and will be at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley.

Brian, 66, who retired from full-time writing 10 years ago, explains why he decided to resurrect the show.

"It was a labour of love. I wanted to see if we could catch the lightning in a bottle that we had then."

It was his first experience of working in a team and between them they came up with anarchic sketches featuring characters like Julian and Sandy, Binkie Huckabuck, Dame Celia Molestrangler and J Peasmold Gruntfuttock and Rambling Syd Rumpo.

These were brought to life by Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden and Douglas Smith with Horne as the ringmaster.

To bring these characters and the actors who played them back to life, Brian says one thing was very imperative.

"It was more important the actors sounded like the original performers than looked like them.

"The idea was that if you closed your eyes you could be taken back in time."

In the quest for realism the set even features real 60s microphones, and scripts refer to long-gone features of everyday life back then like bus conductors and Lyons teahouses.

"The idea is that the audience is attending an actual recording of Round the Horne in the sixties.

"Maybe 10,000 people saw the show being recorded then as there were 66 episodes made and the theatre seated 110.

"So not many people saw it live. It is a cult show and this is the nearest you can get to seeing a recording."

Round the Horne ...Revisited is on at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, from October 4- 9.

The show starts at 7.45pm and there are matinees on Monday and Saturday at 2.30pm. Call 0870 060 6620.

The show will visit the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford from November 8-15. Call box office on 01483 4400 00 for further details.