"The Bowmans" is an episode of the BBC television situation comedy programme
HancockHancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy, series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr...
, the final BBC series featuring
Tony HancockAnthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...
, first broadcast on 2 June 1961. Written by
Ray GaltonRay Galton OBE , and Alan Simpson OBE , are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based...
and
Alan SimpsonRay Galton OBE , and Alan Simpson OBE , are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based...
, the title is a
retronymA retronym is a type of neologism that provides a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective to account for later developments of the object or concept itself...
, the episodes were not originally identified separately.
Outline and background
Hancock plays an actor in a radio serial called
The Bowmans, a parody of
The ArchersThe Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
. (The theme tune to
The Bowmans is a parody by series composer Wally Stott of the real
Archers theme tune "Barwick Green".) Hancock plays Joshua Merriweather, a parody of the soap opera's country bumpkin Walter Gabriel. He annoys the other actors and producers so much they kill off his character, only to find the audience hold the character in greater affection than they had thought. Hancock has difficulties finding new work, but the BBC are forced to resurrect his character in
The Merriweathers by discovering a long-lost twin brother, with Hancock's involvement resuming under his exorbitant terms. In his produced script a substantial portion of the village fall down a disused mine-shaft, and Joshua proposes repopulating the village with his other relatives (all to be played by Hancock).
The supporting cast includes
Patrick CargillPatrick Cargill was a British actor known for his role on the British television sitcom Father, Dear Father.-Career:...
as the producer,
Peter GlazeWilliam George Peter Glaze was an English comedian born in London. He hosted Crackerjack with Leslie Crowther in the 1960s and with Michael Aspel, Don Maclean, and Bernie Clifton in the 1970s...
as an animal impersonator and
Brian OultonBrian Oulton was an English character actor.Born in Liverpool, he made his acting debut in 1939 as a lead actor...
as the actor portraying the patriarch of the Bowmans family.
The programme is clearly a parody of the killing of
Grace ArcherGrace Archer née Fairbrother was a fictional character in the BBC's long-running radio soap, The Archers, and was one of the original characters. She was played by Ysanne Churchman...
in September 1955. It bears a few similarities to the play and film
The Killing of Sister GeorgeThe Killing of Sister George is a 1964 play by Frank Marcus that was adapted as a 1968 film directed by Robert Aldrich.- Stage version :Sister George is a beloved character in the popular radio series Applehurst, a nurse who ministers to the medical needs and personal problems of the local villagers...
, a better-known
parodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the incident.
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