British Comedy Guide
Comedy Rewind

I'm H-A-P-P-Y: Only When I Laugh

Only When I Laugh. Image shows from L to R: Archie Glover (Peter Bowles), Roy Figgis (James Bolam), Norman Binns (Christopher Strauli)

Writer Eric Chappell's place in the sitcom firmament would have been secured if he'd stopped after writing Rising Damp, his classic sitcom about Rupert Rigsby, an unscrupulous landlord, played by Leonard Rossiter, and his tenants - Richard Beckinsale, Frances De La Tour and Don Warrington - which had became one of the most popular shows of the 1970s.

However, when it came to an end in 1978, the same year it won a BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy, it wasn't long before Yorkshire Television commissioned Chappell to craft a new sitcom. He duly picked up his pen and began writing Only When I Laugh, with action this time taking place in a hospital ward. All the elements of a classic sitcom are there: the three main characters were not only trapped, but there was also immediate conflict, as all came from different backgrounds, and the main source of comedy was the badinage between them.

Premiering in October 1979, the first episode followed Norman Binns, played by Christopher Strauli, who acts as the audience surrogate, as he enters the hospital and begins bonding with the resolutely working class Roy Figgis, played by James Bolam in his first sitcom role since co-starring alongside Rodney Bewes in The Likely Lads and its sequel, Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?. (Their fascinating, fractious relationship is covered in an excellent edition of Comedy Chronicles.)

It's not long before Binns and Figgis draw the ire of the exquisitely well-spoken Archie Glover, played in typically suave fashion by Peter Bowles, who was perhaps typecast as these kinds of upper and upper-middle class characters throughout his career, debuting in his most popular role as Richard DeVere in Peter Spence's To The Manor Born only a month earlier. Speaking to the Liverpool Echo in 1979, Chappell said that the three main characters "all come from different backgrounds. They differ in class and politics and they're all different in their attitude to being in hospital. That's what gives the vital chemistry for the comedy".

Chappell often drew upon class and, more importantly, class warfare, in his comedy. Whether it was the working class Rigsby being intimidated by the educated eloquence of Philip in Rising Damp or the barbed badinage between the Pearces and the Cochrans in Duty Free, he was able to mine stereotypical British societal structure - much more in evidence then than now - to great effect.

Only When I Laugh. Image shows left to right: Gupte (Derrick Branche), Roy Figgis (James Bolam), Norman Binns (Christopher Strauli), Archie Glover (Peter Bowles), Dr. Gordon Thorpe (Richard Wilson). Credit: Yorkshire Television, ITV
Only When I Laugh. Image shows left to right: Gupte (Derrick Branche), Roy Figgis (James Bolam), Norman Binns (Christopher Strauli), Archie Glover (Peter Bowles), Dr. Gordon Thorpe (Richard Wilson). Credit: Yorkshire Television, ITV

Richard Wilson is the trio's doctor, Gordon Thorpe, who the three men drive to his wits' end with their endless arguments. Derrick Branche, who began his career as the guitarist in The Hectics alongside a young Freddie Mercury, completed the ensemble as Staff Nurse Gupte.

A good example of class warfare in action in Only When I Laugh is the following exchange, in which Archie and Roy argue about how skilled Thorpe is as a doctor:

ROY: Of course he's very professional with them, he gets the best silver out, they don't get any rusty scalpels - [affecting an upper class accent] soon have you out again playing golf old chap, pip pip! - different for us, it's all cut and thrust.
ARCHIE: Hasn't done you any harm, Figgis.
ROY: That's only because of my natural resistance, my working class ability to endure pain and suffering.
ARCHIE: What do you mean? They had to carry you down there kicking and screaming. Can't stand pain. You can't even stand the sight of blood! Look what happened when they bought in that chap with the gashed arm - he had to get off the stretcher to make room for you!

Only When I Laugh also stands as a historical document of sorts, featuring behaviour that seems utterly bewildering today, like openly smoking in a hospital ward. This is examined in the Series 2 episode It Can Damage Your Health, in which Glover attempts to give up smoking, but the plan backfires when his withdrawal symptoms cause him to perform poorly at a job interview.

While the setting could be restricting, Chappell, who began as a playwright, weaves a farcical formula throughout each episode. Take The Rumour, in which Figgis hears Thorpe talking about having his dog put down, but - in true, beautiful sitcom form - mistakenly believes they are talking about him.

One of the most striking aspects of the series is the sombre theme tune, which contrasts lyrics - "I'm H-A-P-P-Y" - with the dour, downbeat tone in which it is sung. It was written by Ken Jones, who also succeeded Ron Grainer as composer for Steptoe And Son, and was responsible for the theme tunes to Sykes and It's Marty. While many sitcom themes are ebullient, others, such as Victoria Wood's dinnerladies or Suicide Is Painless from M.A.S.H, are similarly mellow. Here, much more alike the former than the latter, the theme's feeling is largely at odds with the tone of the show itself.

Only When I Laugh. Victoria Plumtree (Gwen Taylor). Credit: Yorkshire Television, ITV
Only When I Laugh. Victoria Plumtree (Gwen Taylor). Credit: Yorkshire Television, ITV

The hospital premise also allowed a steady stream of guest stars to appear as patients and visitors throughout the series. These include Wanda Ventham, second Doctor Who Patrick Troughton, John Junkin, Gwen Taylor (pictured), Pat Ashton, Mary Tamm, Sylvia Kay, Reginald Marsh and Patricia Brake.

The show ended after four series on an uncharacteristically upbeat note, as the three men are finally discharged from hospital and arrange a reunion in the far more salubrious surroundings of a restaurant. However, in true sitcom style, the final scene sees Figgis returned to the ward once more.

Chappell chose Strauli to replace Richard Beckinsale in the 1980 feature film version of Rising Damp, after Beckinsale sadly passed away in the midst of recording his final sitcom, James Saunders's Bloomers, in 1979. After reuniting with Bowles in 1982 for two series of The Bounder, he continued to achieve sitcom success, first in 1983 with three series of Duty Free, which he co-wrote with Jean Warr, and then in 1984, with four series of Home To Roost, which starred John Thaw and Reece Dinsdale. Other sitcoms like Singles and Haggard followed, before his final sitcom, Fiddlers Three starring Peter Davison and Paula Wilcox, aired in 1995.

Only When I Laugh. Roy Figgis (James Bolam). Copyright: Yorkshire Television
Only When I Laugh. Roy Figgis (James Bolam). Copyright: Yorkshire Television

James Bolam, meanwhile, continued to have great success as a character actor, appearing in Alan Plater's Beiderbecke Trilogy and spent several years leading the cast of BBC drama New Tricks.

Hospitals would continue to be a good mine for comedy, with the likes of Getting On and The Delivery Man exploring different areas of the medical experience, while over in America, Scrubs ran for nine seasons.

Only When I Laugh may look rather dated today, but there is no denying that Chappell's scripts attracted the cream of the comic crop, and the timeless nature of the setting means that it stands up remarkably well to repeat viewings. Chappell may be best known for Rising Damp, but his prolific and prodigious output proves that he may well have been ITV's most successful sitcom writer, and Only When I Laugh is a wonderful example of a skilled craftsman at the peak of his powers.


Where to start?

Only When I Laugh. Norman Binns (Christopher Strauli). Credit: Yorkshire Television, ITV

Series 2, Episode 4 - The Visitors

This episode features the great Pat Ashton, as Norman's overbearing mother tries to set him up with a girl, unaware that he is courting Nurse Jenny.

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Only When I Laugh - The Complete Series

Only When I Laugh - The Complete Series

Only When I Laugh was written by Eric Chappell (Rising Damp, Home To Roost) and directed by Vernon Lawrence. The series starred James Bolam, Peter Bowles, and Christopher Strauli as three congenital hypochondriac layabouts forever haunting the ward patrolled by the droll Doctor Thorpe (Richard Wilson).

This 4 DVD collection includes every episode from all four series of the show.

First released: Sunday 14th September 2008

  • Distributor: Network
  • Region: 2
  • Discs: 4
  • Catalogue: 7952882

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