in the sketch The Disorderly Room, a parody of military life, written by Eric Blore, in which military disciplinary proceedings were comically set to popular tunes of the day. The sketch remained in his repertory from 1921 to 1941, and according to Handley's biographer Ted Kavanagh "it must have been played on every music-hall stage in the country". In 1924 The Disorderly Room was included in the programme for the Royal Command Performance at the London Coliseum. The show was broadcast, and marked the beginning of Handley's radio career. BBC Handley was successful on the halls, but he was not a major star. His career took off as a broadcaster. He was a regular performer on the BBC from 1924 onwards – his biographer Barry Took calls him "a mainstay of its variety programmes" – as a solo entertainer, an actor in sketches and occasionally a producer. Much of his material was written by Ted Kavanagh, who devised comic monologues for him and worked with him on the broadcast revues that paved the way for their greatest success, It's That Man Again. In 1929 Handley married the actress and singer Jean Allistone (Rosalind Jean Henshall, née Allistone, 1897–1958) whom he had met at the BBC. She had trained under Sir Herbert Tree, appeared in revues and musical comedies and, from 1925, was a pioneer broadcaster. The couple had no children. Between 1935 and 1949 Handley frequently performed on air with the comedian Ronald Frankau in a comedy act as "Mr Murgatroyd and Mr Winterbottom" ("Two minds with not a single thought"). Together they wrote and delivered what Took describes as "a sophisticated crosstalk of quickfire word and idea association"; the combination of the Old Etonian Frankau's patrician tones as Murgatroyd and Handley's fast-talking Scouse patter as Winterbottom became one of the BBC's most popular comedy features. Took quotes a typical example of Murgatroyd and Winterbottom's rapid cross-talk, which concludes: Murgatroyd: Yes, Mr Winterbottom, we must always study the listener – the Mr and Mrs Everymans Winterbottom: The Jones and Smiths. Murgatroyd: The Robinsons and Browns. Winterbottom: The Gilbert and Sullivans. Murgatroyd: The Tristan and Isoldes. Winterbottom: The Hengists and Horsas. Murgatroyd: The Moodys and Sankeys. Winterbottom: And the Darbys and Joans. Murgatroyd: Cut out the Joans and let's think of the Derby. What have you backed? Winterbottom: My car into a shop window. Joan a car? Murgatroyd: Cut out the