''Hello Cheeky'' is a comedy series starring
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer (23 March 1935 – 25 January 2022) was an English writer, comedian, and actor. As well as performing on stage, radio and television, Cryer wrote for many performers including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory ...
,
John Junkin
John Francis Junkin (29 January 1930 – 7 March 2006) was an English actor and scriptwriter who had a long career in radio, television and film, specialising in comedy.
Early life
Born in Ealing, Middlesex, the son of a policeman, he and h ...
and
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE (17 July 194012 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian best known as a member of The Goodies.
He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and became president ...
, broadcast on
BBC Radio 2 between 1973 and 1979, and also broadcast on television - on the ITV network - in 1976. The format was short comedy sketches, often as short as one line, with occasional longer sketches.
The BBC radio show was broadcast weekly in a half-hour timeslot, usually on Saturday or Sunday lunchtime. Its three stars were normally the only performers who appeared, although the show's musical director,
Denis King
Denis Andrew King (born 25 July 1939) is an English composer and singer. He is best remembered as a member of a family ensemble, The King Brothers.
Early career: the King Brothers
King was born in Hornchurch, Essex, England. He began his mus ...
, was often given a small speaking role in one or two of the shorter items.
The radio series featured music by the
Denis King
Denis Andrew King (born 25 July 1939) is an English composer and singer. He is best remembered as a member of a family ensemble, The King Brothers.
Early career: the King Brothers
King was born in Hornchurch, Essex, England. He began his mus ...
Trio, and was produced initially by
David Hatch
Sir David Edwin Hatch, (7 May 1939 – 13 June 2007)
"''Just a Minute''" site wa ...
, then by
Richard Willcox, and thereafter by
Bob Oliver Rogers.
Radio
The series ran on BBC Radio 2 from 1973 to 1979. There were also three
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...
specials: ''Hello Cheeky Hello Christmas'' in December 1973, ''Hello Christmas'' in December 1974, and the
pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
-style ''Cheeky Whittington and his Magic Ballpoint'' in 1976. There was also a Summer Special in 1974.
Initially, the scripts were written by all three of the show's stars. Later in the run, as Tim Brooke-Taylor's time became increasingly absorbed by his television work on ''
The Goodies
The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940–12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their eponymous television com ...
'', the scripts were written solely by Barry Cryer and John Junkin.
During the first two series in 1973-74 it was ordinarily produced by David Hatch, but occasional editions were produced by Richard Willcox (with both men credited on the 1974 summer special, ''Hello Summer'') From series 3, in 1975, it was produced by Bob Oliver Rogers (with David Hatch returning briefly to produce some editions of the final series, aired in 1979, due to Bob's unexpected death).
The initial experiment of broadcasting it at lunchtime on Saturdays lasted for one series only. From series 2 it was transmitted at lunchtime on Sundays, a more natural home for comedy shows, which had traditionally occupied that spot in the station's schedules since the heyday of the old
BBC Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
in the early 1960s.
To describe it as a sketch show, while technically correct, would also be misleading. It was typically more a succession of quick-fire gags and one-liners, rather than actual sketches. So many of the items were one-line, that co-writer Barry Cryer was moved to comment publicly that "a minute was a long sketch on ''Hello Cheeky''". One consequence of this was that the show lacked anything resembling a regular structure.
Some items did reappear each week, but not in any kind of regular order: these included quickfire "meanwhile"s, "would you believe it?"s, "home hints for the handyman", "the Encyclopedia of the Air", comic songs, spoof phone calls (one cast member would pretend to be a listener or celebrity, phoning to complain about the previous item), spoof news flashes, and "Hello Cheeky's personal column" (a spoof advice forum). A number of the items that were used had previously been recorded by
Marty Feldman
Martin Alan Feldman (8 July 1934 – 2 December 1982) was a British actor, comedian and comedy writer. He was known for his prominent, misaligned eyes. He initially gained prominence as a writer with Barry Took on the ITV sitcom ''Boot ...
(who John Junkin and Tim Brooke-Taylor had known since working together on television in 1968).
Many of the jokes were topical, featuring references to well-known personalities of the day: not only showbusiness celebrities (everyone from comedian Ken Dodd to actor Roger Moore), but also BBC presenters (including Michael Aspel, Frank Bough, Nicholas Parsons and Terry Wogan), politicians (especially the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs Thatcher), sportsmen (such as England international footballer Martin Peters), and prominent personalities of the day (the inevitable references to clean-up-TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse, and the anti-immigration MP, Enoch Powell).
The show gained a reputation for its puns. Two examples: "I once spent an evening with twelve Benedictines". "What happened?" "I drank them all, and fell over"; and "
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
sent me a
draught board for Christmas. Trouble is, all the squares are white."
The final item each week, which was typically the longest item in the show, often featured a comic amalgam of three ostensibly serious broadcasts (e.g.
Z-Cars
''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...
,
Gardeners' Question Time
''Gardeners' Question Time'' is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme in which amateur gardeners can put questions to a panel of experts.
History
The first programme was broadcast in the North and Northern Ireland Home Service of the BBC at 2 ...
and
A Book At Bedtime), with one of the cast changing channels on his TV or radio, such that a line from one programme (the ''feed'' line) was followed by one from a very different type of programme (the ''punchline''), to get a laugh.
Occasionally, the final sketch was a film spoof. For instance, secret agent Jim Bellybutton appeared in an espionage sketch spoofing the
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
films. These sketches tended to lampoon famous celebrities of the day. For example: ''Agent Bellybutton, not so much
Roger Moore with the stamina of
Martin Peters
Martin Stanford Peters (8 November 1943 – 21 December 2019) was an English footballer and manager. As a member of the England team which won the 1966 FIFA World Cup, he scored the second of England's four goals in the final against West Germa ...
; more
Patrick Moore, with the stamina of
Sylvia Peters.'' A mad scientist has to rebuild him after an accident (spoofing
The Six Million Dollar Man
''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After a NASA test flight accident, Austin is re ...
TV series): ''Six Pounds 37 New P? We couldn't even rebuild
Ronnie Corbett
Ronald Balfour Corbett (4 December 1930 – 31 March 2016) was a Scottish actor, broadcaster, comedian and writer. He had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the BBC television comedy sketch show ''The Two Ronnies''. He achieved promine ...
for that.''
In later series the celebrities who were the butt of the jokes were invited onto the show, to be lampooned to their faces. Famous stars of the day who put themselves through this treatment included chat show host
Michael Aspel
Michael Terence Aspel (born 12 January 1933) is an English retired television newsreader and host of programmes such as '' Crackerjack'', ''Aspel & Company'', '' Give Us a Clue'', ''This is Your Life'', '' Strange but True?'' and ''Antiques Ro ...
, BBC TV sports presenter
Frank Bough, and radio DJ
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 week ...
.
On 6 April 1975, "The Least Worst of Hello Cheeky" was recorded before a live audience in the BBC's
Paris Studio in Regent Street, produced by Bob Oliver Rogers. From the two-hour show, 45 minutes of material was released on
a vinyl LP, while two 30-minute radio shows containing material from this recording session were broadcast on 25 January and 1 February 1976 as the final editions of the third series.
The Christmas and Summer specials were somewhat atypical. They did not reflect the standard format, and were in the main a collection of unrelated musical items interspersed with occasional jokes; the Christmas shows did not even have a preference for seasonal pieces. Some of the shorter musical items were performed by the show's three stars, but many items solely featured guests. The Specials were also much longer than the standard half-hour of the regular episodes: the Summer Special was one hour, while the Christmas specials varied - the 1973 Christmas show was also one hour, while in 1974 it was 90 minutes. For the third and final seasonal edition, in 1976, in order to achieve a more comedy-focused show - this time allotted only 45 minutes of airtime - Cryer and Junkin wrote a ''Hello Cheeky'' pantomime (''Cheeky Whittington and his Magic Ballpoint'').
After the completion of four successful series for radio, plus the six Specials, a combination of unfortunate events occurred which curtailed what had been a popular and successful show. Firstly, a dispute arose with BBC Management, concerning the cast's decision to defect to ITV, to make a TV version of the show. And then, unexpectedly, the radio show's 29-year-old producer died. Former producer David Hatch was brought in to put together a final half-dozen episodes, from material already in the can, for a truncated final series: which was only transmitted after more than three years had elapsed since the previous series.
In recent years, some of the half-hour episodes from ''Hello Cheeky'' have been re-broadcast on digital station
BBC Radio 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...
and its successor
BBC Radio 4 Extra. These have mostly been editions first heard in 1973, although ''Cheeky Whittington and his Magic Ballpoint'' also receives seasonal re-runs as an item in the three hour special, ''Barry Cryer's Christmas Selection Box - Part 2''.
With the exception of the two specials recorded on 6 April 1975, all of the radio broadcasts are known to exist (at least as off-air recordings).
Television
In 1976 an unsuccessful attempt was made to present ''Hello Cheeky'' on television, with the same writing and performing team. When BBC-TV turned the proposal down, the show aired instead on the ITV network. It was made by
Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
, with
Len Lurcuck as producer, and ex-BBC comedy producer
Duncan Wood as its executive producer.
The first series, comprising eight episodes, was broadcast between 19 January and 22 March 1976. A second series, comprising a further five episodes, was broadcast later that year, between 26 May and 23 June: the timing was a deliberate attempt to benefit from the popularity of the radio show, the latest series of which ran throughout that summer.
The TV show was not a ratings success. The reason for this was considered to be the fact that no attempt was made to make the material more visual for television.
The failure of the attempt to transfer the show to television, plus the impact on BBC Management of the cast defecting to ITV (and, in effect, using BBC Radio to promote a TV series on the rival ITV channel), had a disastrous effect on what had, up until then, been a very successful radio show: only a handful of further radio episodes would be made, and their transmission was postponed for several years (until the television show had ceased to air in re-runs on the ITV network).
The two TV series (except for Episode 10, which no longer exists in the archive) were released on DVD by Network in June 2010. The DVD was deleted from their catalogue on 13 January 2013.
Radio Episodes
Series 1
*S01 E01 (7 April 1973)
*S01 E02 (14 April 1973)
*S01 E03 (21 April 1973)
*S01 E04 (28 April 1973)
*S01 E05 (5 May 1973)
*S01 E06 (12 May 1973)
*S01 E07 (19 May 1973)
*S01 E08 (26 May 1973)
*S01 E09 (2 June 1973)
*S01 E10 (9 June 1973) (Guest
Michael Aspel
Michael Terence Aspel (born 12 January 1933) is an English retired television newsreader and host of programmes such as '' Crackerjack'', ''Aspel & Company'', '' Give Us a Clue'', ''This is Your Life'', '' Strange but True?'' and ''Antiques Ro ...
)
*S01 E11 (16 June 1973)
*S01 Christmas Special, ''Hello Christmas'' (25 December 1973)
Series 2
*S02 E01 (10 February 1974)
*S02 E02 (17 February 1974)
*S02 E03 (24 February 1974)
*S02 E04 (3 March 1974)
*S02 E05 (10 March 1974)
*S02 E06 (17 March 1974)
*S02 E07 (24 March 1974)
*S02 E08 (31 March 1974)
*S02 E09 (7 April 1974)
*S02 E10 (14 April 1974)
*S02 E11 (21 April 1974)
*S02 E12 (28 April 1974)
*S02 E13 (5 May 1974)
*S02 E14 (12 May 1974) (Guest
Aimi MacDonald
Aimi MacDonald (born 27 February 1942) is a Scottish actress and dancer. She is best known for her role as ''"The Lovely" Aimi MacDonald'' in the television sketch comedy show ''At Last the 1948 Show'' (Rediffusion, 1967).
Background and ear ...
)
*S02 E15 (19 May 1974)
*S02 Summer Special, ''Hello Summer'' (27 May 1974)
*S02 Christmas Special, ''Hello Christmas'' (25 December 1974)
Series 3
*S03 E01 (9 March 1975)
*S03 E02 (16 March 1975)
*S03 E03 (23 March 1975)
*S03 E04 (30 March 1975)
*S03 E05 (6 April 1975)
*S03 E06 (13 April 1975)
*S03 E07 (20 April 1975)
*S03 E08 (27 April 1975)
*S03 E09 (4 May 1975)
*S03 E10 (11 May 1975)
*S03 E11 (18 May 1975)
*S03 E12 (25 May 1975)
*S03 E13 (1 June 1975) (Guest
Joan Bakewell
Joan Dawson Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell, (''née'' Rowlands; born 16 April 1933), is an English journalist, television presenter and Labour Party peer. Baroness Bakewell is president of Birkbeck, University of London; she is also an author a ...
)
*S03 Special - ''Least Worst of Hello Cheeky'', Part 1 (25 Jan 1976)
*S03 Special - ''Least Worst of Hello Cheeky'', Part 2 (1 Feb 1976)
Series 4
*S04 E01 (16 May 1976) (Guest
Frank Bough)
*S04 E02 (23 May 1976)
*S04 E03 (30 May 1976)
*S04 E04 (6 June 1976)
*S04 E05 (13 June 1976)
*S04 E06 (20 June 1976)
*S04 E07 (27 June 1976)
*S04 E08 (4 July 1976)
*S04 E09 (11 July 1976)
*S04 E10 (18 July 1976)
*S04 E11 (25 July 1976)
*S04 E12 (1 August 1976)
*S04 E13 (8 August 1976)
*S04 E14 (15 August 1976)
*S04 E15 (22 August 1976)
*S04 E16 (29 August 1976)
*S04 Christmas Special (25 Dec 1976) (Guests:
Marti Caine
Marti Caine, born Lynne Denise Shepherd (26 January 1945 – 4 November 1995), was an English comedian, actress, dancer, presenter, singer, and writer, who first came to national attention by winning the television talent show ''New Faces'' in 1 ...
,
Peggy Mount
Margaret Rose Mount OBE (2 May 1915 – 13 November 2001) was an English actress. As a child, she found acting an escape from an unhappy home life. After playing in amateur productions, she was taken on by a repertory company and spent nine yea ...
and
David Jacobs)
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Series 5
*S05 E01 (7 October 1979)
*S05 E02 (14 October 1979)
*S05 E03 (21 October 1979)
*S05 E04 (28 October 1979)
*S05 E05 (4 November 1979) (Guest
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in the UK for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in December 2009, his BBC Radio 2 week ...
)
*S05 E06 (11 November 1979)
References
External links
The Cast of "''Hello Cheeky''"
BBC Radio comedy programmes
ITV comedy
1970s British television sketch shows
1976 British television series debuts
1976 British television series endings
1973 radio programme debuts
BBC Radio 2 programmes