A huge ratings success for ITV, Only When I Laugh was written by Eric Chappell (Rising Damp, Home to Roost) and directed by Vernon Lawrence (Duty Free, The Bounder). The series starred James Bolam (Beiderbecke), Peter Bowles (To the Manor Born) and Christopher Strauli (Raffles) as three congenital hypochondriac layabouts forever haunting the ward patrolled by the droll Doctor Thorpe (Richard Wilson - One Foot in the Grave).