It's That Man Again

The show that taught Britain to quote the wireless. Tommy Handley's wartime series ran from 1939 to 1949 and packed each half hour with rapid-fire characters, none more famous than Mrs Mopp the char-lady and her "Can I do you now, sir?", or Colonel Chinstrap treating any remark as an offer of a drink with "I don't mind if I do." Hear it as a historical document as much as a comedy. Many jokes lean on wartime ministries and rationing, and the pace can feel frantic to modern ears, but a single episode explains where every catchphrase show that followed came from.