Only When I Laugh – Set
Two
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: C
The premise sounds like it has potential. Three men who are constant hypochondriacs
take up semi-permanent residence in a hospital and drive everyone nuts. That Peter Bowles (The Bounder is
reviewed elsewhere on this site) is one of the would-be-ill made it more
promising, but after watching six of the episodes of Only When I Laugh,
I was surprised how unfunny it was.
Sure, the show is not politically correct, has a fine
cast, is on the smart side, and was made at a good time for British TV in
1980. However, I never laughed. I did not buy the situation that they could
be in the hospital for so long. Maybe a
feature length film (or telefilm), but an entire TV series? The hook necessary to suspend such disbelief
is never presented, and if it was in early shows (like the hospital needed the
money), it is not reasserted.
The shows come down to either they resident ill driving
each other nuts, or complicating “invading” visitors (i.e., the truly ill, who
do not stay as they get well and go home), which is far too predictable for its
own good. When I thought about it,
there was not one TV comedy series about a hospital (M*A*S*H does not
count, because they were military and it was mobile) that was ever funny. A few were tried, with the later (and
lesser) episodes of the 1970s Bob Newhart Show sort of qualifying, but
that still does not count.
The full screen, color shows were shot on PAL videotape
and show their age, but the transfers work well enough, while the Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono is also sufficient. The only
extras here are some brief biography/filmography combos. That was exactly the case with the first
boxed set.
One might argue that this critic missed the jokes because
the show was so British, but I did not think it was British enough. Furthermore, it is nowhere as outrageous as
Lindsay Anderson’s grossly underrated feature film Britannia Hospital
(1982) or how the likes of Monty Python or Benny Hill would have handled
it. Only When I Laugh is more
like “if only I laughed” and only for the most curious.
- Nicholas Sheffo
