About this season
Only When I Laugh is an ITV1 sitcom broadcast from 29 October 1979 to 16 December 1982 for four series with seven episodes each, and a Christmas special in 1981. The title is the answer to the question, "Does it hurt?" A naïve middle-class man is admitted to an NHS hospital ward, shared with a working-class layabout and an upper-class hypochondriac. The trio never fail to cause a nuisance for the poor, unsuspecting staff.
Episodes (8)
1. A Day in the Life Of
Aired 2 September 1981 • 30 min
A TV crew arrive to shadow Thorpe for a day. He has primed Norman to give a glowing report but Norman keeps fluffing his lines, leaving Glover as only too keen to take over.
2. Adam's Rib
Aired 9 September 1981 • 30 min
When new doctor Amy Glossop starts on the ward, Thorpe is initially hostile due to her gender, though both Glover and Norman have fallen in love with her.
3. The Right Honourable Gentleman
Aired 16 September 1981 • 30 min
Extreme right-wing MP Sir Julian Briggs is admitted to the ward, angering socialist Figgis, though Thorpe is anxious to get him on side as the hospital faces closure.
4. Postman's Knock
Aired 23 September 1981 • 30 min
Believing that Glover is lonely, Figgis writes an anonymous letter in character as Glover to agony aunt Clare Butterfield, who is annoyed by the writer's arrogance. However, Glover has answered an ad and is expecting a visit from the free-thinking Leonora.
5. Accident
Aired 30 September 1981 • 30 min
Norman witnesses an accident outside the hospital gates involving Thorpe and young speed freak Ronnie, though it is the doctor who would appear to be in the wrong when his breath sample proves positive. Figgis and Glover stage a mock trial to get Norman to divulge the truth.
6. Dear Diary
Aired 7 October 1981 • 30 min
Norman has been keeping a diary and Figgis and Glover are anxious to see what he's written about them. Upon stealing the diary, they find that most of the entries are fantasies in which Norman is the brave patient soothing everybody else's nerves, as well as inventing a romance between himself and the notoriously icy Nurse Bradley.
7. These You Have Loved
Aired 14 October 1981 • 30 min
Figgis takes exception to the hospital radio run by Nurse Victoria and, when she accidentally leaves her recording equipment, spices things up by taping and broadcasting one of Thorpe's tirades.
8. Away for Christmas
Aired 24 December 1981 • 30 min
On Christmas Eve, the ward gets a new patient, eight-year-old elected mute Danny, a known arsonist whose parents are abroad. Figgis dresses up as Father Christmas to steal presents for him from the Children's Ward but is rumbled and has to escape, getting the benefits of kisses from nurses who mistake him for the hospital's other Father Christmas.