It's That Man Again
It's That Man Again (commonly contracted to ITMA) was a BBC radio comedy programme which ran for twelve series from 1939 to 1949. The shows featured Tommy Handley in the central role, a fast-talking figure, around whom the other characters orbited. The programmes were written by Ted Kavanagh and produced by Francis Worsley. Handley died during the twelfth series, the remaining programmes of which were immediately cancelled: ITMA could not work without him, and no further series were commissioned.
This article is about the radio programme. For the film adaptation, see It's That Man Again (film).Other names
ITMA, It's That Sand Again, V-ITMA
30 minutes
United Kingdom
- London (s 1, 7–12)
- Bristol (s 2)
- Bangor, Wales (s 3–6)
- Llandudno, Wales (s 5, one show)
- Manchester (Specials)
12 July 1939 –
6 January 1949
12
310, including 5 specials
ITMA was a character-driven comedy whose satirical targets included officialdom and the proliferation of minor wartime regulations. Parts of the scripts were rewritten in the hour before the broadcast, to ensure topicality. ITMA broke away from the conventions of previous radio comedies, and from the humour of the music halls. The shows used sound effects in a novel manner, which, alongside a wide range of voices and accents, created the programme's atmosphere.
The show presented more than seventy regular characters during its twelve seasons, most of them with his or her own catchphrase. Among them were the bibulous Colonel Chinstrap ("I don't mind if I do"), the charlady Mrs Mopp ("Can I do you now, sir?"), the incompetent German agent Funf ("this is Funf speaking"), the courtly odd-job men Cecil and Claude ("After you, Claude—no, after you, Cecil"), the Middle Eastern hawker Ali Oop ("I go—I come back"), and the lugubrious Mona Lott ("It's being so cheerful that keeps me going"). To keep the show fresh, old characters were dropped and new ones introduced over the years.
ITMA was an important contributor to British morale during the Second World War, with its cheerful take on the day-to-day preoccupations of the public, but its detailed topicality—one of its greatest attractions at the time—has prevented it from wearing well on repeated hearing. The show's lasting legacy is its influence on subsequent BBC comedy. ITMA's innovative structure—a fast-moving half-hour show with musical interludes and a cast of regular characters with popular catchphrases—was successfully continued in comedy shows of the 1950s and 1960s, such as Take It from Here, The Goon Show and Round the Horne.
Background[edit]
The comedian Tommy Handley started as in music hall before becoming a regular feature on BBC radio from 1924. By the end of the 1920s he was, according to the writers Andy Foster and Steve Furst, a household name in Britain; his popularity continued into the 1930s.[1] The scriptwriter Ted Kavanagh was a fan of Handley and wrote a script for a comedy sketch for him in 1926. Handley liked the work and bought it; it was the start of a professional relationship that lasted until Handley's death in 1949.[2][3]
Although the BBC featured many comic acts in its variety programmes, it had no regular comedy series until early 1938, when Band Waggon and Danger! Men at Work began.[4][5] The former, which ran for three series in 1938 and 1939, was a particular success;[6] John Watt, the BBC's director of variety, wanted a successor and decided that Handley would be the right person to present it.[7] In June 1939 Handley, Kavanagh and the producer Francis Worsley met at the Langham Hotel, London, to discuss ideas for a sketch show to meet Watt's criteria.[8][9] They decided to emulate the quick-fire style of American radio programmes such as the Burns and Allen Show, although with a much more English quality.[10]
Initial plans were to call the new programme MUG—the "Ministry of Universal Gratification"—but Worsley preferred ITMA. "ITMA", or "It's That Man Again", referred to Adolf Hitler, and the term was used as a headline to describe him by Bert Gunn, the editor of the Daily Express.[11][a]
Other characters[edit]
Kavanagh and the ITMA team caricatured people of all ages, both sexes, and many nationalities, classes and professions. There were spoofs of national and regional types, including Johann Bull, a conspicuously Teutonic German agent trying to pass himself off as English;[55] Chief Bigga Banga of Tomtopia, who spoke no English and Wamba M'Boojah who spoke with the grandest of Oxford accents, having been a BBC announcer;[140] the American publicity agent, Luke Slippy;[97] Hari Kari, a Japanese caller whose gibberish only Handley could understand,[141] and his compatriots Bowing and Scraping.[142] From the British regions there were the Scottish Tattie Mackintosh (and her mother); the Welsh Sam Fairfechan ("Hello, how are you? As if I cared") and his family;[143] and the Liverpudlian Frisby Dyke, with a strong Scouse accent, puzzled by some of Handley's longer words ("What's a concentrated cacophony?"),[144] but usually winning their weekly battle of wits.[145][t]
Leading female characters included three secretaries to Handley in his various capacities: Cilly,[24] Dotty (her sister),[28] and the formidable but soft-hearted Miss Hotchkiss;[66] Mrs Lola Tickle, Handley's first charlady;[37] the shy Lady Sonely;[140] Banjeleo, Bigga Banga's daughter and translator;[140] Nurse Riff-Rafferty, Handley's old nanny, with a fund of embarrassing stories of his early years;[140] Naieve, Major Mundy's old-fashioned daughter;[147] the "pert poppet" Poppy Poopah;[60][148] Ruby Rockcake who ran the railway buffet: "No cups outside!";[140] the generously proportioned Ella Phant;[76] and the two unnamed Posh Ladies, whose conversations were strewn with "dahlings" and always ended with the cry, "Taxi!"[70]
Military figures in addition to Colonel Chinstrap included his puritanical nephew Brigadier Dear, mortified by his uncle's excesses;[149] and Major Mundy, a British expatriate on Tomtopia with an unreconstructed 19th-century mindset.[147]
Among the mock authority figures were Sir Short Supply, a strangulated-voiced bureaucrat;[149] the Town Clerk, a north-country official who would offer "have a cher, Mr Mer", later Mer himself;[150] Fusspot, an official whose name was self-explanatory;[151] two characters with a habit of repeating the ends of their sentences: the Man from the Ministry[55] and Inspector Squirt: "I'm Inspector Squirt—I said Squirt";[152] and Percy Palaver, appointed governor of Tomtopia in Handley's absence, and notable for his generally unintelligible speech punctuated with "oomyahs" and "harrumphs".[97]
Professions and occupations were represented by, among others, the announcer at Radio Fakenburg;[37] Atlas, the hypochondriac strongman;[145] Bookham, a variety agent;[55] Curly Kale, a chef who hated food and loved dreadful old jokes;[153] Dan Dungeon, the jocose tour guide at Castle Weehouse;[149] Farmer Jollop;[40] Lemuel the office boy;[37] Norman the Doorman;[55] and Vodkin and Vladivostooge, two mad scientists.[154]
Eccentrics included Basil Backwards ("Sir, morning good! Coffee of cup. Strong too not. Milk have rather I'd");[155] George Gorge, a champion glutton;[147] Comical Chris, a persistent would-be joker;[70] Mark Time, a nonagenarian whose response to anything was, "I'll have to ask me dad";[66] Mr Sninch-of-Puff, a man who spoke in spoonerisms;[156][157] and Whats'isname, a man who struggled to recall the simplest nouns, and had the same effect on Handley.[70][158]