Sick jokes
MARION MCMULLEN looks back at the final dose of hit sitcom Only When I Laugh 40 years ago
THEY say laughter is the best medicine and Only When I Laugh was just the tonic viewers needed.
The ITV sitcom saw James Bolam, Peter Bowles and Christopher Strauli as three hospital patients requiring treatment for their various ailments, both real and imagined, while future One Foot In
The Grave star Richard Wilson played their longsuffering surgeon Gordon Thorpe.
James Bolam was work-shy lorry driver
Roy Figgis who was quite happy with his long hospital stay, while Peter Bowles was the posh patient and total hypochondriac Archie Glover and Christopher Strauli the mild-mannered ward newcomer Norman Binns.
The hospital comedy launched on ITV in 1979 and was written by Eric Chappell, who also created the sitcom Home To Roost.
He had previously worked as an auditor for the East Midlands Electricity Board for 22 years. Several of his novels were rejected by publishers before he decided to become a playwright, with his play The Banana Box staged at the Hampstead Theatre Club in 1970 before moving to the West End three years later. The play was adapted for TV to become Rising Damp starring Leonard Rossiter, Frances de la Tour, Richard Beckinsale and Don Warrington.
Only When I Laugh followed the success of Rising Damp and went on to notch up to 29 episodes over four series, including a Christmas special.
The sitcom came to an end 40 years ago, on December 16, 1982, with the farewell episode seeing the three men finally discharged from hospital on the same day – to the delight of Dr Thorpe.
But he could not escape them for long and they all found themselves at the same restaurant.
The doc fled when Figgis started telling him about all his latest symptoms only to find Figgis back on the ward the very next day... with a broken leg.