How did they get away with it?

It was the question on everyone's lips as the audience drifted off into the night after witnessing the latest offering at The Theatre Royal in Windsor on Monday (October 12).

Not that anyone was casting aspersions on the acting abilities of the performers. No, it was simply wondering how the writers and cast of Round the Horne managed to get their hotchpotch of outrageous innuendo on the air every week half a century ago without falling foul of the BBC censors.

For this lively and reverential adaptation of the much-loved radio programme is an eyebrow-raising reminder of just how wonderfully naughty it all was.

There are some eerily-accurate portrayals of the Round the Horne team by enthusiastic members of the Apollo Theatre Company, who have obviously spent many, many hours in the rehearsal room mastering the accents and mannerisms of the perpetrators of this ground-breaking show.

Surprisingly this stage tribute, billed as the Round the Horne 50th anniversary tour, and using original scripts by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, has been masterminded by a young fan who is only half the age of the show!

Tim Astley founded the theatre company when he graduated from the Guildford School of Acting in 2010. He was only 12 when he fell under the magic of Round The Horne after listening to his late grandfather's BBC audio cassettes of the programme.

Gaining the approval of Barry Took's widow he set about condensing hours of material into a stage show, recreating the fun and merriment which enlivened the BBC's Paris Studio during the original radio recordings. He has compiled and produced the show.

All the much-loved characters are there, of course, from the folk singing yokel Rambling Syd Rumpo to the outrageously camp Julian and Sandy. And all are brought to life with some incisively-accurate portrayals.

It has to be said that this production is a more low-budget version of Round the Horne tribute which toured the UK a few years ago, winning awards and gaining a slot on the Royal Variety Performance. The set is more basic and there are no musical interludes in the style of the resident group The Fraser Hayes Four.

But the cast are no less dedicated in their endeavours to bring back to life the over-the-top characters and their wicked humour which brought so much delight to radio audiences on Sunday afternoons so long ago.

Julian Howard McDowell lacks the physical height of the towering Kenneth Horne but is sufficiently commanding as the 'main man'. Jonathan Hansler does a truly remarkable job of emulating Hugh Paddick and all the weird and wonderful characters he portrayed. Eve Winters has even been made to look like Betty Marsden and her facial contortions, particularly as Dame Celia Molestrangler, have to be seen to be believed - a delight lost to the 1960s audiences listening in at home.

'Life-long Round the Horne fan' Nick Wymer fits snugly into the role of much-put-upon announcer Douglas Smith, while arguably the most difficult task of all - portraying the enigmatic and troubled comic genius Kenneth Williams, falls to Colin Elmer. He passes the test with flying colours in a performance which relies on finely-observed respect rather than pure mimicry to bring us all of Williams' ridiculous mannerisms and blustering asides.

The cast is completed by Conrad Segal, who does all that is asked of him in providing the music and sound effects.

Of course, the reason Round the Horne by-passed the BBC censors so slickly in the sixties was that much of the innuendo, particularly that involving the high camp 'polari' words so beloved by Kenneth Williams, simply went over everyone's head. It's only now, from a more enlightened perspective, that we can appreciate the outrageousness of it all.

It's one huge slice of nostalgia for those of a certain age and a reminder for the younger generation - among whom, apparently, are new legions of Round the Horne fans - that modern-day comedians are not the first to push the boundaries to far-flung extremes.

If any foreign tourists strayed into the Theatre Royal to see the show, goodness knows what they made of this British comedy concoction of innuendo and madness.

They certainly learnt a few new words. But then didn't we all?

Round the Horne is at the Theatre Royal until Wednesday (October 14).

The Theatre Royal, 32 Thames Street, Windsor, SL4 1PS - 01753 853888