Hello Cheeky
Hello Cheeky was a comedy series broadcast on BBC Radio 2 between 1973 and 1979. It was written and performed by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer, and John Junkin, with music by the Denis King Trio, and produced by David Hatch, Richard Willcox, and Bob Oliver Rogers.
Radio
The series ran on Radio 2 from 1973 to 1979. There were also three Christmas specials: Hello Cheeky, Hello Christmas in 1973, Hello Christmas in 1974 and the pantomime-style Cheeky Whittington and his Magic Ballpoint in 1976.
Regular segments included the quickfire "meanwhile"s, "would you believe it?"s, "home hints for the handyman", phone calls, news flashes and comic songs, a number of which had previously been recorded by Marty Feldman. The final sketch frequently featured a comic amalgam of three ostensibly serious broadcasts (e.g. Z-Cars, Gardeners' Question Time and A Book At Bedtime).
Hello Cheeky gained a reputation for its puns. Two examples being "I once spent an evening with twelve Benedictines. What happened? I drank them all and fell over" and "Enoch Powell sent me a draught board for Christmas. Trouble is, all the squares are white."
On 6 April 1975, "The Least Worst of Hello Cheeky" was recorded before a live audience in the Paris Studio. It was produced by Bob Rogers. From the two-hour show, 45 minutes was released on vinyl. Two 30 minute shows containing material from this recording session were broadcast on 25 January and 1 February 1976.
Some episodes of the radio series have been re-broadcast on BBC Radio 7.
Television
Hello Cheeky transferred to Yorkshire Television in 1976 with the same writing and performing team with Len Lurcuck as producer and Duncan Wood as executive producer. The first series containing eight episodes, and was broadcast between 19 January and 22 March 1976. The second series, containing five episodes, was broadcast between 26 May and 23 June of the same year.
The TV series was not considered a success, as there was no attempt to make the material more visual for television.
The two TV series (minus one episode) were released on DVD by Network in June 2010, and will cease to be available from them after 13 January 2013.[1]
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 (Guest - Michael Aspel) (9 June 1973)
- S01 E11 (16 June 1973)
- S01 Special (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 (Guest - Aimi MacDonald) (12 May 1974)
- S02 E15 (19 May 1974)
- S02 Summer Special (27 May 1974)
- S02 Christmas Special (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 (Guest - Joan Bakewell) (1 June 1975)
- S03 Special - The Least Worst Part 1 (25 January 1976)
- S03 Special - The Least Worst Part 2 (1 February 1976)
Series 4
- S04 E01 (Guest - Frank Bough) (16 May 1976)
- 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 Special (25 December 1976) (Guests: Marti Caine, Peggy Mount, and David Jacobs)
Series 5
- S05 E01 (7 October 1979)
- S05 E02 (14 October 1979)
- S05 E03 (21 October 1979)
- S05 E04 (28 October 1979)
- S05 E05 (Guest - Terry Wogan) (4 November 1979)
- S05 E06 (11 November 1979)