Breakfast: Limericks - 1 July 2009 - line by line
On Wednesday July 1st 2009 on Breakfast Ian McMillan invited listeners to send in suggestions for each line of a limerick we created while on air.
Also see complete limericks sent in by listeners.
Ian kicked us off with the first line and here's the final version from subsequent lines sent in sequentially by listeners and selected by Ian:
It was just the loud tick of the clock
And the dust on her long velvet frock
Built up over years
That brought her to tears
As she gazed at the portrait in shock.
Below we publish the suitable 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th lines sent in.
We haven't had time to put them all up yet so if yours isn't here please re-visit this page later.
Second and third lines
Fourth and fifth lines
Last on
Monday - Petroc Trelawny
Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show, with Sullivan and Debussy.
7 days left to listen
View a list of Breakfast: Limericks - 1 July 2009 - line by line programmes with links to further details.
Coming up
Tuesday - Petroc TrelawnyPetroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show.
Broadcast: 06:30 - 09:00 26 Nov 2013
The second line
Via email
As the prisoner entered the dock
- David Lees
That I heard, as I searched for my sock
- Sheila Sharples
I paused, I thought and undid the lock
- Nola Gyles
That led Handel to try out Baroque
- Nigel Rock Cooper
That echoed the click of the lock
- Simon Garrett
As Joe Blogs was rechecking his stock
- Brian Hiscoe
Made me cut up my old wedding frock
- Sarah Tyzack
Which I realised at once had no"tock"
- Brian Cade
Which woke me, when I heard a soft knock
- Michael Hartley
As the prisoner stood in the dock
- Jennifer Moore-Blunt
And the rasp of a key in the rusty old lock
- Janet Fitch
When the door opened wide with a shlock
- Gillie Harries
And the swaying of the ship in dock
- Pierre Marshall
And the postman's peremptory knock
- Peter Judge
The same prolific author also offered:
... but I smashed it to bits with a rock ... even muffled within a warm sock
... that created a deep writer's block
... that distracted a suave Mr Spock
That distracted her thoughts from the block
- Robin Gilbert
As the prisoner rose in the dock
- David Jones
No hickory, dickory or dock
- Johnnie MacLeod
That caused me to wake still in shock
- Stewart Denham
That gave me a terrible shock
- Sue Ryall
Oh that noise how it did seem to mock
- Janet Coopey
Which had just come back home out of hock
- Frank Turner
He heard as he stood taking stock
- Nicola Baxter
That preceded a tentative knock
- Michael Deval
As the ship sailed into the dock
- Victoria Anning
That revealed the bomb under my frock
- Roger Gill
That made Mousey cry Dickery Dock!
- Jean Crystal
A reminder of time for the man in the dock
- Paul Drummond-Jackson
I could hear as I stood in the dock
- Walter Essex
Not my lover's discreet morning knock
- Patsy Moore
The faint sound of a key in the lock
- David Homer
As I feverishly ripped off my smock
- Jacquelyne Morison
That obscured the low click of the lock
- Dennis, Bedford
That lifted his deep writer's block
- Rachel Duerden
(That I heard) as I woke soaked in sweat and in shock
- Ian Kane
That she heard as she woke with a shock
- Liz Delap
That she heard as she set up her glock
- John Sherlock
As the man crouched with his head on the block
- Meg Arnot
Which had caused me to pause and take stock
- Mark
As the staff on the ward ran amock
- Helen Boyles
As the traitor was led to the dock
- Amanda Forsyth
As the judge glared across to the dock
- Adrian Ward
That stopped him from running amok
- Oliver Wright
Made me think of time's pace run amok
- Eunice Maguire
That he heard as he stood in the Dock
- Mick Penning
As I timed your stir fry in my wok
- Bill
The brass key turned slowly in the lock
- S Stewart
That she heard as she straightened her frock
- Elaine Duffin
Made me wish you all had writer's block
- Martin Rowson
Which worried the young man in the dock
- Elizabeth Rice
And the Judge staring down at the dock
- Nick
As she laid her white neck on the block
- Pat Hanchet
As the prisoner sat in the dock
- Valerie Jureidini
That revealed my Deafness was unlocked
- Anon
That preceded the doom-laden knock
- Jeremy Doyle
Which sent that poor mouse into shock
- Mave Ersu
But it seemed to do nothing but mock
- John Pountney
That made me sit up and take stock
- Edwin Carpenter
As i stared at the Hollyhock
- Helen Lunt
That woke me from my languorous writer's block
- Michael Scott Byrne
As he stood there, head-bowed, in the dock
- Roger Timms
But it beat on my heart like death's knock
- Richard Lodge
As the prisoner entered the dock
- Mary Blyth
Made the ladybird wobble and rock
- Keith Murray
And the absence, unjust, of his his knock
- Rosanne Moss
As I gazed, aghast, at my sock
- Stewart Owen
As our ship drifted into the dock
- Nicholas Reed
He heard, his head on the block
- Graham Swindon
And the sound of the a in the lock
- Dawn Devine
Not the dust, the large brick, or the shock
- Brian Ings
But it kicked off her walk to the block
- Janet Robson
That alerted the man in the dock
- Keith Yarwood
Then the sound of the key in the lock
- Lin Foxhall
More to come...
The third line
Via email
That made her so sad
- Nigel Rock Cooper
Brought a tear to her eye
- Michael Hartley
and a mouse looking in
- Keith Murray
She said “I can’t wait”
- Elizabeth Rice
When a Deafening Roar
- Brian Hiscoe
Harbingers of doom
- Toddy Hoare
"Zut alors" Hercule cried
- Nola Gyles
Took her back to the Dance
- Michael Penning
That conjured the face
- Helen Boyles
Made her shudder and sneeze
- Eunice Maguire
The holes in the curtains
- Andrew Smith
As she flung wide the door
- Patsy Moore
As she sank to her knees
- Jill Calvert
Became eerily bright
- Helen Hunt
from the wheels of the cart
- Catherine Osborne
That made be see plainly
- Jacquelyne Morison
Brought memories back
- Vincent Grispo
That ran through his mind
- David Edgar
That made Jo-anne weep
- Jean Cystal
She peered through the gloom
- Michael Deval
That made me recall
- Patty Naxton
That reminded the bishop
- Philip J Riddell
That called for revenge
- Linda Duckenfield
That told him for sure
- Liz Rapple
Her flight was delayed
- Fenella Fairbairn
Which drove him insane
- Roy MacLean
That took me back years
- Sylvia Helsby
Made her dream of that day
- Victoria Anning
Whilst Arthur stared at the sword in rock
- Peter Lucas
Which convinced the young bride
- Mave Ersu
She’d been dead for three days
- Mark Richie
Which made me regret
- Adrian Ward
Reflections of a time stood still
- Nick Mosienko
When the train whistle blew
- James Hennighan
And an ocean of tears
- Janet Fitch
More to follow...
The fourth line
Spent scrubbing stained stairs
- Toddy Hoare
That confirmed my worst fears
- Michael Zeffertt
Now ending in tears
- Jean Crystal
Brought back all her fears
- Hellen Lunt
Compounded with tears
- Lucy Yarwood
As she dwelt on her fears
- Victoria Anning
With many a tear
- Janet Coopey
Despite her worst fears
- Stephen Johnston
A huge iceberg of tears
- Keith Murray
Years, years
- Linda Goulden
In Fez and Algiers
- Jonty Izard
And caused many tears
-Sheila Sharples
Having seen many tears
- David King
That brought her to tears
- Stephen Whittle
As the sand disappears
-Tony
Anniversary tears
-Rosalind Bizley
While her desperate prayers
- Diana Russell
Her eyes dimmed with tears
- Elizabeth Rice
In a patchwork of tears
- Madeleine
Annointed with tears
- Lyn Longridge
And enshrining her fears
- Gerald Elliott
Cascading in tears
- David Edgar
That unleashed her tears
- Sue
Amid floods of tears
- Gary Williams
All the time, all the tears
-Dennis
Her memory blurs
- Bill Douglas
That seldom one hears
- Jacquelyne Morison
It had her dried up her tears
- Jim Young
Of petrifed tears
- Nigel Ling
Like the friends she revears
- Robert
Proving props for the fears
- Gem Duncan
To my grabbing the shears
- Patsy Moore
Less the tock of her tears
- James O'Grady
Having seen many tears
- David King
Hung silent, now stirs
- Mick Penning
The ticks raised her fears
- Stephen Sharples
For Miss Haversham the clock did not stop
- Elizabeth Rice
Now bespattered with tears
- Hugh Hillyard-Parker
That confirmed my worst fears
- Val Bucknall
That played on their fears
- John Caldicott
Amidst all her fears
- Susan Byers
More to follow...
The fifth line
When she heard the sound of a knock
- David Edgar
At nettles encountered, no dock
- Linda Duckenfield
As she peered through the rust in the lock
- Linda Goulden
As the Police lead her out of the Dock
-John Gannon
Vainly awaiting her true lover’s knock
- Nigel Rock Cooper
Would the outcome be such a shock!
- David King
Her Audience had Left In a Flock
- Brian Hiscoe
As she lay down her head on the block
- Susan Byers
And caused her to jump in the dock
- Phil Cowburn
As her madness caused her man to mock
- John
As she reeled from the shock
- Stephen Johnston
And then, at the door, there's a knock
- Stephen Whittle
And time's key slowly turned in the lock
- John Jeffries
Time puts her dream in the dock
- Wendy
She'd forgotten to darn his damn sock
- Charles Bockett-Pugh
At last, on her way to the block
- Tony Robson
For lives wasted at each dropping tock
- Nigel Ling
For time was short and the cleaners would mock
- Toddy Hoare
As she held her lost love's golden lock
- Keith Murray
As she thought of him, there in the dock
- Roger Timms
And anaphylactic shock
- Roger Godin
For the one who had once been her rock
- Helen Boyles
Pretending her lost baby to rock
- John
As she stroked her (once bonny) grey lock
-Mave Ersu
Oh, how cruelly time's passing can mock
- Brian Cade
As she saw her love's quest as a block
- Jacquelyne Morison
As she turned the lost key in the lock
- Christine Kirkby
How cruelly the ticking years did mock
- Janet Coopey
Frock and clock and traumatic shock
- Michael Hartley
Such times, no forgiveness - such shock
- Chris Horne
When he watched as she stood in the dock
- Viv Gabriel
So she stood up and put a match to the lot
- Anthea Hyslop
She cried as she stood in the dock
-Michael Zeffertt
As she silently walked to the dock
- Jill Calvert
And made her recall that knock, knock
- Patrick Forsyth
As she lowered her head to the block
- Ruth Samuels
Some things only time can unlock
- David Banks
I'm Miss Havisham -- kindly don't mock
- David Samuels
As she fondled her late husband's sock
- Stephen Mares
Would she ever get over the shock?
- Mick Penning
As she laid her head on the block
- Greta
When she heard his key scrape in the lock
- Pip Franks
Would they show her some mercy or mock?
- Michael Brueck
O why did I go to Bankok?
- S Stewart
Tempus fugit and one last loud tock
- David Lewis
As she leapt from the soulless tower block
- Jonathan Izard
As she struggled to undo the lock
- Roger Sears
As his boat drew away from the dock
- Peter Winn
From the agony of just taking stock
- Brian Jay
As his shadow continued to stalk
- Mary Craig
As he'd gone....she took the knock
- Nigel
As she fingered the faded child's smock
- Anne Jennings
As the guillotine's men turned the lock
- David Lees
Just before the hangman's drop
- Stephen Sharples
Holding her deceased bairn¹s sock
- Allan Sutherland
Would she ever get over the shock?
- Paul Freeman
As Miss Faversham paused to take stock
- Paul Catterall
But she regained her poise from the shock
- Stephen Johnston
As she gazed at the court from the dock
- Chris Cooper
But it still was a terrible shock
- Frank Cox
As it hung to remind and in mock
- Mick Penning
For all she had was in hock
- Ted Lightbown
For lost dreams that now mock
- Robert Johnston
For she was now alone in the dock
- Karolina Vasilikou and Nikos Karydis
It was just the tick of the clock
- Sebastian Gaete
As she swallowed that sweet German hock
- Hugh Coleridge
Or was it that sixth glass of Hock
- John Cox
It was the Fates, not her children, who mock
- Sally Bayly
The lives it had joined now unstuck
- David Dewsbury
Like the oceans besieging a rock
- David Samuels
As she wept o'er its moth-eaten flock
- Adrien Herbert
But oh no, not another odd sock!
- Alice Maslen
At her time of release and unlock
- Ruth Samuels
Why oh why had he swum with that croc?
- Laurie Dunkin Wedd
But the house stayed mute as a rock
- Amanda Raven
And she sobbed, find your own other sock
- Peter Cowap
And the thought of his love of baroque
- Fran Neale
And hoped that he still had her lovelock
- Gareth Jones
Then she thought, "I'm not such an old crock"!
- John Henry
As she knelt with her head on the block!
- Fi Larsen
With time so short the cleaners would mock
- Toddy Hoare
As she put her last things into hock!
- Tony
When her mal-treated cat died of shock
- Gwen Sims
As she stood at the edge of the dock
- Stephen Whittle
The steady pace and dread knock
- Pete Lyon
For a solitude none could unlock
- Malcolm Smith
So she listened to Bela Bartok
- Kevin Burke
Which diluted the stock in her wok
- Clive Lloyd
Its never too late to take stock
- Adrian Sindall
While the mirror and time came to mock
- Ann Crompton
As she darned her old man's last sock
- Jay Victoria
One black stocking had shrunk to a sock
- John Cilia La
As she sipped her glass of hemlock
- Bill Deakin
And that's why he stands in the dock
- Anthony Powell
