Hello Cheeky is a comedy series starring Barry Cryer, John Junkin and Tim Brooke-Taylor, 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, was often given a small speaking role in one or two of the shorter items.
The radio series featured music by the Denis King Trio, and was produced initially by David Hatch, 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 specials: Hello Cheeky Hello Christmas in December 1973, Hello Christmas in December 1974, and the pantomime-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 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 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 (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 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, Gardeners' Question Time 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.