User Reviews

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.

I love this show with its Ward of bed hogging Hypochondrics, and totally Incompetent Staff. I have seen it so many times, that I simply can't get enough of it.

Beligerant know all Roy Figgis, Pompous know all Archie Glover, and Mummy's Boy Norman Binns, are the Wards sole occupants.

Dr. Gordon Thorpe is the Chief Doctor and Surgeon, while Gupt is the male nurse.

Gupt is overworked and perpetually harrangued, by both Dr. Thorpe and the patients.

Dr. Thorpe is in turn condescending and patronising, to both Gupta and the patients. And oily when he is trying to smarm his way, into the affections of the nearest unsuspecting female.

I have yet to see all of the episodes of this show so I might yet discover, what if anything is actually wrong with these malingerers.

Dr. Thorpe never ever seems to be able to work it out, however hard he tries he can never manage to get shot of any of them.

Shame that, not including mine, there are only five reviews at this time of what was an excellent series. Indicative I suppose of the fairly new advent of the net among older viewers of an old series.

I digress. Three, and it has to be said, hypochondriacs, take up space in the the men's surgical ward of a general hospital to the chagrin of Dr Gordon Thorpe. (Richard Wilson). The 'patients', James Bolam (Royston Figgis), Archie Glover (Peter Bowles) and Norman Binns (Christopher Strauli) all have strong characters/different traits, clashing with one another at times but at others, working together when necessary. Also some interaction with the male nurse, Gupte (Derrick Branche). There were numerous situations, like outsiders also being admitted to the ward creating paranoia or comic incidents, but some great writing by the excellent Eric Chappell brought some classic one-liners with the situations. My favourite episode is where Figgis dons a doctor's white coat. No, not to diagnose, (even though he started the episode like that) but to get out and have a pint at the local pub! That of course meant he had all and sundry 'other' hypochondriacs bombarding him with their ailments after Figgis trying to reluctantly avoid this. Temptation anyway gets the better of him and he can't help admitting nearly all in the pub to the hospital! Classic!

A dreadful TV series that I used to know as "The Suppurating Bedsores Show".(In those days my family only had one TV and I didn't always get the final say about what we watched).The idea of the three main characters being sat in a hospital bed for the duration of this series honestly made me feel ill! It's been a long time since I've suffered this garbage but I'm sure it never gave me a laugh. Richard Wilson as the curmudgeon of a doctor would later strike TV fame with his portrayal of cynical pensioner Victor Meldrew.

Maybe the greatest handicap that the likes of "Only When I Laugh" and the similarly dreadful "Wish You Were Here" had, was that UK TV sitcoms were,in general, better if they WEREN'T made by one of the ITV franchises. (similar era...compare these shows with the BBC's far superior "Porridge" or "Citizen Smith" that were still funnier even as repeats).

And is it merely my memory playing tricks or didn't ITV sitcoms have more manic sounding 'canned laughter' as if the makers were desperately trying to convince everyone that these shows were really funny...but only served to put sensible people off watching them.