Not long after 'Rising Damp' ended on ITV in 1979, Eric Chappell followed it up with 'Only When I Laugh', a hospital based sitcom which did for the NHS what 'The New Statesman' did for Westminster.
Naive young mummy's boy Norman Binns is admitted to hospital to find himself sharing a ward with Roy Figgis, a wily long distance lorry driver with a sharp tongue and Archie Glover, a rich hypochondriac to whom hospital is a second home. Both Figgis and Glover soon show Binns the art of hospital survival and sometimes the trio join forces to make life difficult for the starchy consultant surgeon Gordon Thorpe and Indian staff nurse Gupte.
It was almost like 'Porridge' set in a hospital, with James Bolam's Figgis and Peter Bowles' Glover combining together to make one Fletcher and Norman Binns being the Lennie Godber equivalent. Even Richard Wilson's Thorpe had a hint of prison officer MacKay about him. However, whilst nowhere near as funny as Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' show, 'Only When I Laugh' nonetheless had some fine moments, especially from Bolam, whose Figgis also wasn't far removed from Terry Collier from 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?'. Derrick Branche left after series three so his character Gupte vanished without explanation. Peter Bowles later did another show scripted by Eric Chappell - 'The Bounder' - in which he was a charming confidence trickster.
Not a wonderful show by any means ( and the theme tune I'm afraid is depressing beyond words! ) but for the most part very funny and vastly superior to anything Bolam did afterwards.
Naive young mummy's boy Norman Binns is admitted to hospital to find himself sharing a ward with Roy Figgis, a wily long distance lorry driver with a sharp tongue and Archie Glover, a rich hypochondriac to whom hospital is a second home. Both Figgis and Glover soon show Binns the art of hospital survival and sometimes the trio join forces to make life difficult for the starchy consultant surgeon Gordon Thorpe and Indian staff nurse Gupte.
It was almost like 'Porridge' set in a hospital, with James Bolam's Figgis and Peter Bowles' Glover combining together to make one Fletcher and Norman Binns being the Lennie Godber equivalent. Even Richard Wilson's Thorpe had a hint of prison officer MacKay about him. However, whilst nowhere near as funny as Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' show, 'Only When I Laugh' nonetheless had some fine moments, especially from Bolam, whose Figgis also wasn't far removed from Terry Collier from 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?'. Derrick Branche left after series three so his character Gupte vanished without explanation. Peter Bowles later did another show scripted by Eric Chappell - 'The Bounder' - in which he was a charming confidence trickster.
Not a wonderful show by any means ( and the theme tune I'm afraid is depressing beyond words! ) but for the most part very funny and vastly superior to anything Bolam did afterwards.