Masterful Movie

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

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!

Two years after the end of 'Doctor On The Go', I.T.V. came up with another hit medical sitcom, only this time the main characters were the patients, not the doctors.'Only When I Laugh' was a screamingly funny show from 'Rising Damp' author Eric Chappell. Three patients from differing social backgrounds - trouble making lorry driver Roy Figgis ( James Bolam ), naive Norman Binns ( Christopher Strauli ), and rich hypochondriac Archie Glover ( Peter Bowles ) - share a hospital ward. Their 'nemesis' is the pompous Dr.Gordon Thorpe ( Richard Wilson in what was his best television role before 'One Foot In The Grave' ). The Indian male nurse Gupte ( Derrick Branche ) was well-meaning but incompetent, and this led to the series being branded 'racist' in some quarters. Gupte mysteriously vanished from the later episodes. Bolam's 'Figgis' wasn't far removed from 'Terry Collier' of 'Likely Lads' fame, while Bowles' 'Glover' was a try-out for his later series 'The Bounder'. Although it stretched credibility somewhat that all three men should be confined to hospital for such an incredibly long time, this was one of I.T.V.'s best sitcoms of the late '70's/early '80's. Great theme tune, too!

I saw this series when it originally aired many years ago. It was something the folks watched that caught my eye at a young age & it wasn't until recently that I rediscovered this great series on the newly released DVD sets. The show, the cast, the writing, is as funny now as it was way back when. The basis of the series is three hypochondriacs who are under the care of an unsympathetic doctor. The cast couldn't be better & Peter Bowles is as great as always. I wish they could have crammed more than 6 episodes on a 2x DVD set. Seems a bit small.. Regardless, I am glad to get to enjoy this series all over again.

The three hypochondriacs strike again. A good series must make one sit down from the beginning to the end, and this one certainly manages it!