Having taught himself the trumpet at school, Lyttelton became a professional musician, leading his own eight-piece band, which recorded a hit single, "Bad Penny Blues", in 1956.

He was a first cousin of the 10th Viscount Cobham and of Viola Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster and a great-nephew of the politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttelton, the first man to represent England at both football and cricket, both of whom also attended Eton.

After leaving school, Lyttelton spent some time at the Port Talbot steel plate works in South Wales, an experience which led to his becoming what he termed a "romantic socialist".

After being called up for war service, he was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards as a second lieutenant on 29 November 1941 alongside future politician Mark Bonham Carter,[3] and saw action at Salerno, Italy, during Operation Avalanche, when he came ashore with his pistol in one hand, and his trumpet in the other.

[1] On VE Day, 8 May or 9 May 1945, Lyttelton joined in the celebrations by playing his trumpet from a wheelbarrow, inadvertently giving his first broadcast performance; the BBC recording still survives.

[5] In the late 1940s and early 1950s Lyttelton was prominent in the British revival of traditional jazz forms from New Orleans, recording with Sidney Bechet in 1949.

At a Birmingham Town Hall concert at which alto saxophonist Bruce Turner debuted, a banner with the words "Go Home Dirty Bopper!"

The Lyttelton band — he saw himself primarily as a leader — helped develop the careers of many now prominent British musicians, including Tony Coe and Alan Barnes.

For several years during the postwar period at 100 Oxford Street his regular band included Wally Fawkes, the Christie brothers, Pat Hawes and Johnny Parker.

Lyttelton's mainstream band usually included such established musicians as Jimmy Skidmore, Joe Temperley, Kathy Stobart, Jimmy Hastings, Mike McKenzie, John Barnes, Roy Williams and Pete Strange along with new talent such as Tony Coe, Alan Barnes, John Picard, Karen Sharpe, and Jo Fooks.

After his death, part of Lyttelton's appearance with his 2007 Band, (with Karen Sharpe instead of Robert Fowler), at the Brecon Jazz Festival, in which he was joined by American tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton was shown by BBCtv as a tribute, (Humph's Last Stand).

From 1967 until April 2007, Lyttelton presented The Best of Jazz on BBC Radio 2, a programme that featured his idiosyncratic mix of recordings from all periods of the music's history, including current material.

The show was originally devised as a comedic antidote to traditional BBC panel games (both radio and television), which had come to be seen as dull and formulaic, and in keeping with the staid middle-class "Auntie Beeb" image.

Lyttelton continued in this role until shortly before he died, and was known for both his deadpan, disgruntled, and occasionally bewildered style of chairmanship, and for his near-the-knuckle double entendres and innuendo which, despite always being open to an innocent interpretation, were, according to William Rushton, "the filthiest thing on radio".

At the time of his death, Lyttelton was the oldest active panel game host in the UK, being two and a half years older than his closest rival, Nicholas Parsons.

One occasion was in 1976, and in 1994 he declined the knighthood offered by Downing Street: his son Stephen later wrote that "Accepting it was never an option but he still felt sick to the stomach.

"[14] On 18 April 2008, Jon Naismith, the producer of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, announced the cancellation of the spring series due to Lyttelton's hospitalisation to repair an aortic aneurysm.

A further email on 21 April 2008 reported that the BBC were "unclear precisely how long Humph's recovery period will be" but Lyttelton was "otherwise fine and in very good spirits".

[15] On 22 April 2008, Lyttelton and the I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue team were booked to appear in the stage version of the programme at the Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth.

Because of his illness, his place was taken by Rob Brydon, but a pre-recorded message from Lyttelton was played to the audience ("I'm sorry I can't be with you today as I am in hospital — I wish I'd thought of this sooner!").

Radio 4 celebrated Humphrey Lyttelton Day on Sunday 15 June 2008, including a new profile of ISIHAC by Stephen Fry called Chairman Humph — A Tribute.