Mornington Crescent (game)

[1] The game consists of each panellist in turn announcing a landmark or street, most often a tube station on the London Underground system.

[2] Mornington Crescent first appeared in the opening episode of the sixth series of BBC Radio 4's comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, broadcast on 22 August 1978.

"[6] A similar game called "Finchley Central" was described in the Spring 1969 issue of the mathematical magazine Manifold, edited by Ian Stewart and John Jaworski at the University of Warwick.

The apparent rules are fictional, and its appeal to audiences lies in the ability of players to create an entertaining illusion of competitive gameplay.

In one of them, first introduced in North Yorkshire, a player whose movement is blocked is considered to be "in Nidd" and is forced to remain in place for the next three moves.

[citation needed] Over time, the destinations named by the panellists expanded beyond the Underground, in accordance with various regional expansions of the game.

In other episodes, an attempt was supposedly made to expand the territory to Manhattan (via Heathrow and JFK) but there was some disagreement as to whether or not the New York City Subway system was suited to the game.

[15] When Mornington Crescent Underground station was reopened in 1998 after six years of closure for lift repairs, London Transport invited the Clue team to perform an opening ceremony.

[17] At Christmas 1984, Radio 4 broadcast a special programme, Everyman's Guide to Mornington Crescent, a "two-part documentary" on the history of the game and its rules, presented by Raymond Baxter.

[20] Due to space restrictions, the rules for the game were not published but were promised for the next month's edition, along with an explanation by a member of the Society for the Support of Mornington Crescent, Dr. Richard Taylor-Fischel.

Unfortunately, in that edition on the Letters page, p121, he took umbrage at the modifications to the game that had been necessary to produce a computer program and consequently withdrew his collaboration, using the name Dr. R. T. Fischel PhD and bar.