Rambling Syd Rumpo was a folk singer character, played by the English comedian and actor Kenneth Williams, originally in the 1960s BBC Radio comedy series Round the Horne.
History
The Rambling Syd sketches generally began with a short discourse on the nature of the song, which would then follow. The discourses and the songs involved suggestiveness and double entendre. Rambling Syd was customarily introduced by Kenneth Horne, who would set things up by (for example) inquiring as to the nature and origin of the song. Rambling Syd would usually respond with an "Ello, me dearios", before launching into the ensuing detailed explanation, which left a great deal to the imagination.
The songs themselves pushed and extended boundaries of sexual suggestiveness, using nonsense (or little-known) words such as "moolies" and "nadgers" in suggestive contexts. Many of the words used by Rambling Syd were invented by the Round the Horne scriptwriters Barry Took and Marty Feldman, who wrote the majority of the songs' lyrics, based upon traditional folk songs. Some were existing words used in a suggestive context, such as "artefacts" (often used in an archaeological context for items such as grave goods) and "nadgers", which had already appeared in The Goon Show.
On 3 July 1967, Williams, in the guise of Rambling Syd, recorded a series of the songs before a live audience at Abbey Road Studios. In his diary, Williams wrote that, "the laughter was so intrusive it broke up the rhythm of some of the songs". One of the producers told Williams that the audience had been given a party before the recording and most were drunk.
This is a lyrical excerpt of "Good King Boroslav", from a Christmas episode, Cinderella, first broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1967: