The Bowmans

"The Bowmans" is an episode of the BBC television situation comedy programme Hancock, the final BBC series featuring Tony Hancock, first broadcast on 2 June 1961. Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the title is a retronym; the episodes were not originally identified separately.

Hancock plays an actor in a radio serial called The Bowmans, a parody of The Archers. The theme tune to The Bowmans is a parody by series composer Wally Stott of the real Archers theme tune "Barwick Green". Hancock plays Joshua Merriweather, a parody of the soap opera's country bumpkin Walter Gabriel. He annoys the other actors and producers so much they kill off his character, only to find the audience hold the character in greater affection than they had thought. Hancock has difficulties finding new work, but the BBC are forced to resurrect his character in The Merriweathers by discovering a long-lost twin brother, with Hancock's involvement resuming under his exorbitant terms. In his produced script a substantial portion of the village fall down a disused mine-shaft, and Joshua proposes repopulating the village with his other relatives (all to be played by Hancock).

The supporting cast includes Patrick Cargill as the producer, Peter Glaze as an animal impersonator and Brian Oulton as the actor portraying the patriarch of the Bowmans family.

The programme is clearly a parody of the killing of Grace Archer in September 1955. It bears a few similarities to the play and film The Killing of Sister George, a better-known parody of the incident.

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