ITV1 · Ended

Only When I Laugh

Comedy · 1979

Last aired: S4 E7, The Reunion · 1982-12-16

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?" 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 ITV3 since 2007. Roy, Archie and Norman are long-term patients in a British hospital ward. Though they don't seem terribly ill, neither do they seem to be getting better and going home. So they pass their days side by side in the hospital ward, chatting and occasionally getting on one another's nerves.