Only When I Laugh (TV series)
Only When I Laugh is a British television sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for ITV. It aired between 29 October 1979 and 16 December 1982 and was set in the ward of an NHS hospital. The title is in response to the question, "Does it hurt?"
| Only When I Laugh | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Written by | Eric Chappell |
| Directed by | Vernon Lawrence Graeme Muir |
| Starring | James Bolam Peter Bowles Christopher Strauli Richard Wilson Derrick Branche |
| Theme music composer | Ken Jones |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 29 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Vernon Lawrence |
| Editor(s) | Phil Cooke Keith Coppock Jim Molyneux Trevor Pugh Stuart Quarmby Lance Tattersall |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Yorkshire Television |
| Distributor | ITV Studios |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original release | 29 October 1979 – 16 December 1982 |
It starred James Bolam, Peter Bowles, and Christopher Strauli as patients Roy Figgis, Archie Glover, and Norman Binns. Mr. Gordon Thorpe, their consultant surgeon, was played by Richard Wilson; and Gupte, the staff nurse from Delhi, was played by Derrick Branche.
The show was one of many successes for writer Eric Chappell, and has been repeated on ITV4 since 2019, formerly on ITV3.
Reception
In a discussion of Eric Chappell's work in The Guinness Book of Classic British TV, Only When I Laugh was described as "intermittently rewarding".[1]
Cast
- James Bolam as Roy Figgis
- Peter Bowles as Archie Glover
- Christopher Strauli as Norman Binns
- Richard Wilson as Gordon Thorpe
- Derrick Branche as Gupte
Guest appearances have been made by Gwen Taylor, John Quayle, Neil McCarthy, Patrick Troughton, Moira Lister, Pat Ashton, Neil Connery, Pamela Cundell, Brenda Cowling, Reginald Marsh, Rosalind Ayres, Ann Beach, Mary Tamm, Karl Howman, Isla Blair, Ronnie Stevens, Stephen Greif, Robert Gillespie, Sylvia Kay and Frank Middlemass.
Episodes
29 episodes were broadcast over four series including a Christmas special.
DVD release
- In region 2 all four series of Only When I Laugh have been released on DVD by Network DVD, and a complete series box set has also been released both with music edits.
- In region 1 series 1 & 2 have been released in individual DVDs (now discontinued). A complete 5 disc box set was released on 10 March 2009.[2]
- Region 4 has only released the complete series box set.
| DVD Title | No. of Discs | Year | Episodes | DVD release | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||||
| Complete Series 1 | 1 | 1979 | 7 | 23 September 2003 | 8 July 2006 | — | |
| Complete Series 2 | 1 | 1980 | 7 | 16 September 2003 | 15 November 2007 | — | |
| Complete Series 3 | 1 | 1981 | 8 | — | 21 July 2008 | — | |
| Complete Series 4 | 1 | 1982 | 7 | — | 15 September 2008 | — | |
| Complete Series 1–4 | 4 | 1979–1982 | 29 | 10 March 2009 | 15 September 2008 | 12 April 2008 | |
References
- The Guinness Book of Classic British TV, by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, Second Edition.Guinness Publishing Ltd., 1996 ISBN 0851126286 (p.67).
- News on "Only When I Laugh" DVD release Archived 1 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine