It's That Man Again

rdf:langString It's That Man Again

rdf:langString It's That Man Again

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString #e6e6ff

rdf:langString The ITMA cast at rehearsal during a visit to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, January 1944

rdf:langString United Kingdom

rdf:langString ITMA, It's That Sand Again, V-ITMA

rdf:langString The Diver

rdf:langString Funf

rdf:langString After you, Claude. No, after you, Cecil.

rdf:langString Ali Oop

rdf:langString Catchphrase:

rdf:langString Catchphrase: ... but I'm all right now.

rdf:langString Catchphrase: Good morning! Nice day!.

rdf:langString Catchphrase: I don't mind if I do.

rdf:langString Catchphrase: I go—I come back.

rdf:langString Catchphrase: Notting at all! Notting at all!.

rdf:langString Catchphrase: This is Funf speaking.

rdf:langString Catchphrases:

rdf:langString Cecil and Claude

rdf:langString Colonel Chinstrap

rdf:langString Commercial Traveller

rdf:langString It's being so cheerful that keeps me going.

rdf:langString Mona Lott

rdf:langString Mrs Mopp

rdf:langString Played by Clarence Wright

rdf:langString Played by Dino Galvani

rdf:langString Played by Dorothy Summers

rdf:langString Played by Hattie Jacques

rdf:langString Played by Horace Percival

rdf:langString Played by Horace Percival and Jack Train

rdf:langString Played by Jack Train

rdf:langString Played by Joan Harben

rdf:langString Played by Sydney Keith and Jack Train

rdf:langString Sam Scram and Lefty

rdf:langString Series 10–12

rdf:langString Series 11–12

rdf:langString Series 2–6

rdf:langString Series 3–4

rdf:langString Series 3–5

rdf:langString Series 3–8

rdf:langString Series 3–8 ; 3–6 and 8

rdf:langString Series 4–5

rdf:langString Series 4–8

rdf:langString Series 5–6 and 8–12

rdf:langString Signor So-So

rdf:langString Sophie Tuckshop

rdf:langString • It's me noives! .

rdf:langString • Boss, boss, sumpin' terrible's happened!

rdf:langString • Can I do you now, sir?

rdf:langString • Don't forget the diver

rdf:langString • Every penny makes the water warmer

rdf:langString • I'm going down now, sir.

rdf:langString • I've brought this for you, sir.

rdf:langString • TTFN.

rdf:langString center

rdf:langString 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. 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 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.