Only When I Laugh

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 is set in the ward of an NHS hospital. The title is in response to the question, "Does it hurt?". It stars James Bolam, Peter Bowles, and Christopher Strauli as patients Roy Figgis, Archie Glover, and Norman Binns. Mr. Gordon Thorpe, their consultant surgeon, is played by Richard Wilson; and Gupte, the staff nurse from Delhi, is played by Derrick Branche. The show was one of many successes for writer Eric Chappell, and has been repeated on ITV4 since 2019, having previously been repeated on ITV3 and was previously repeated on The Family Channel, UK Gold and on Plus (Formerly Granada Plus). Production Only When I Laugh was written after Eric Chappell was commissioned by Yorkshire Television to write another sitcom following the success of Rising Damp. Chappell devised the premise of a hospital comedy from the patients' perspective as he felt that previous television based in a hospital setting focused on the doctors, nurses and staff. In an interview with the Liverpool Echo in 1979, Chappell said of the three main characters, "They 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."