Old Harry's Game
Old Harry's Game is a British radio comedy written and directed by Andy Hamilton, who stars as the cynical, world-weary Satan. "Old Harry" is one of many names for the Devil. The show's title is a play on that of the 1982 television series Harry's Game.
Beginning in 1995, four series, of six half-hour episodes each, were aired by 2001, and a two-part Christmas special followed in 2002. A fifth full series was frequently delayed because of a cast member's illness, but recording of the four episodes of series five took place in April 2005. The first episode of that series was broadcast on 20 September 2005 on BBC Radio 4. James Grout did not take part. Series 6 began on 27 September 2007, and Series 7 aired in 2009. Christmas and New Year specials were broadcast on 23 and 30 December 2010 respectively, and a two-part Olympics special on 12 and 19 July 2012.
Apart from series 3 and 4, the episodes were not given official titles.
Andy Hamilton, James Grout, Robert Duncan, David Swift and Michael Fenton Stevens had all worked together previously, in the UK television comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey between 1990 and 1998, which Hamilton co-wrote. Swift and Stevens were written into the 1998 series by Hamilton when the run of Donkey ended that year. The majority of the guest and recurring actors also had roles in Drop the Dead Donkey, including Jasper Jacob, Philip Pope, Nick Revell, Nigel Pegram, Penelope Nice and Geoffrey Whitehead.
A 30-minute animated version was created in 2012, as the pilot for a possible television series, by the UK animation house Flickerpix, but in the event a series was not commissioned.
Plot
The series is set mainly in Hell, and the plot usually centres on the relationships and conflicts between Satan, his various minions, and the damned with interventions by God and other denizens of Heaven. Satan himself is identified with the fallen angel in Christianity and portrayed as jaded from millennia in charge of Hell and the expectation that he will continue to be so for eternity. Although he enjoys some aspects of the job, such as the opportunity to play pranks in the world of the living, and devising ironic torments for those damned souls whom he believes deserve it, his greatest wish is to someday be accepted back into Heaven, and he often wistfully recalls his past as an archangel.The series regularly features famous historical figures and celebrities, most of whom are portrayed as being less likeable than the version recorded by history. This includes a foul-mouthed and extremely violent Jane Austen, a sexually predatory Florence Nightingale, a less-than-heroic Samson, and a vacuous Helen of Troy.
This subversive approach was also applied to God, who makes the occasional appearance, originally played by David Swift, then in series 7 by Timothy West. God is usually portrayed as being quick-tempered and vengeful; in the series he says he created the universe accidentally, when he was messing about with some matter and energy. He put it down to have a sip of his drink and then, kaboom! he had a universe on his hands. Life on Earth was created for a bet, as Earth was dull viewing; God, for a bit of fun, sprinkled some mutating bacteria into the oceans and ran a book with the other Angels to see which one would evolve into a creature that would develop a language first; the Angel Gabriel's bacteria were doing very well until they randomly mutated into carrots, and it was one of the Seraphim whose bacteria eventually became Homo sapiens. God seems rather annoyed that things 'got out of hand'.
The Angels are also portrayed somewhat differently. The Angel who delivered the news that Mary was to give birth to the Messiah was in fact named Graham, while Gabriel is a separate entity who was credited with doing so due to a transcription error early in the making of the Bible. They are also presented as rather arrogant when dealing with Satan, but at the same time behaving as suck-ups around God. They are forbidden to indulge in physical pleasures, but are still tempted by them.
Series 1 to 4
The first four series centred on the philosophical arguments between Satan and the somewhat idealistic main human character known as "The Professor". The Professor represents the undeserving damned, being a man of high moral virtue and having been consigned to Hell only on the technicality that he did not believe in God. The character was originally called Professor Richard Whittingham, although in series 2 he is referred to as Professor Richard Hope, when in episodes 5 & 6 Satan gets his book The Theory of Everything published. Generally, Satan seeks to prove to the Professor that mankind is inherently base or flawed, with the Professor taking the opposing position. Usually Satan travels to the living world to display the more contemptible sides of human nature, such as snipers shooting old ladies in Bosnia or prostitution in Thailand, to a generally horrified Professor. At other times he introduces the Professor to historical personages the Professor holds in high esteem but who are now languishing in Hell, such as Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, showing him how petty and mendacious they really are. However, the Professor's idealism is usually shown to have some validity as well, and more often than not he wins the argument although Satan always insists he hasn't.The other main human character is Thomas Quentin Crimp, an execrable type with no morals, held out by Satan as an example of all that is detestable about humanity and often described as the most venal and corrupt human being who ever lived. In the first episode, it transpires that Thomas caused the car crash which landed him and the Professor in Hell. The latter, despite his moral idealism, is consigned to Hell because of his atheism. The fact of the afterlife — which the Professor originally optimistically views as a hallucination - does not change his views. Despite their conflicting attitudes, the Professor and Thomas are billeted together by Satan.
Regular plot elements involve the Professor visiting, or being shown, his beloved wife Deborah as she gets on with her life following his death. His widow's eventual marriage to a corrupt Irish jockey and her near-fatal coma were important plot strands in series 3 and 4. Throughout the first four series, the Professor also has an ongoing bet with Satan that he can demonstrate that even Thomas has some decency within him; if he can do so, then Satan will allow Deborah and the Professor to be billeted together should Deborah be sent to Hell when she dies. These plot strands ended when Satan finally arranged for the Professor to be accepted into Heaven a short time after the events of the 2002 Christmas special.
Other characters featured are Satan's minions. Satan's personal assistant and most venomous demon, Gary, was featured in the first series because Thomas was on his list of tormentees. Thomas later manipulates Gary and convinces him to rebel against Satan, with a distinct lack of success. Gary is mentioned only once in later series and his absence is never explained. Scumspawn, featured from the second series onwards, takes Gary's place, having applied to become Satan's new personal assistant. Although Satan initially refuses, he later relents, and Scumspawn proves a surprisingly effective assistant. His subplots usually involve attempts to become a better demon. Much of the humour surrounding Scumspawn derives from his sensitive, caring and highly artistic personality, which is a constant irritant to Satan, who often complains that Scumspawn does not act very much like a demon.
According to Andy Hamilton in an interview broadcast on 5 April 2008, on BBC Radio 7's "I Did It My Way", one episode in series 3 was partially re-recorded due to a tragic confluence of events. In the episode, Satan disrupts Deborah's wedding to Irish jockey Rory O'Donnell by taking the form of BBC reporter Jill Dando and accusing the presiding vicar of being a Satan worshipper. Later in the episode, Satan reveals that Jill Dando never existed at all and was just a disguise that he used to stir up unrest in the realm of the living. After the episode was originally broadcast, the 37-year-old reporter was murdered outside her home, and the episode was partially re-recorded for repeats with Satan manifesting himself instead as a different BBC reporter, Gaby Roslin. A later episode in the third series referenced Satan's "Jill Dando" alter ego, and also had to have some lines re-recorded.
Christmas Special 2002
In a double-bill Special, broadcast on New Year's Eve 2002 and New Year's Day 2003, Hope, an extraordinarily beautiful Salvation Army worker and tambourine player, is killed by accident years too early and sent to Hell by mistake. This results in Satan trying to have her brought back to life by taking her to Death. But he only gets as far as meeting the Welsh Death, and contacting the Head Death on his mobile. After Death refuses to bring her back to life, as a last resort Satan travels to Heaven. After talking to Saint Peter, Satan blackmails St Peter into letting Hope into Heaven.While all this is going on, the Professor has been changed into a buzzing bluebottle and Thomas has been painted like a zebra and is awaiting the "attentions" of some special crocodiles.
Series 5
Series Five retains some of the themes from earlier series, but most of the action does not revolve around Satan's relationships with his minions and the damned. Instead, the episodes focus on Satan's efforts to reduce overcrowding in Hell.After an unsuccessful appeal to God in Episode One for planning permission to enlarge Hell, expanding Hell's demonic workforce or adjusting the entrance requirements, the action divides between Hell and various locations on Earth. The basic plot of the subsequent episodes involves Satan taking on the guise of a leading world figure in order to meet influential people, such as Queen Elizabeth II, whom he tries to convince to lead more of mankind to Heaven by encouraging them to change their ways. However, these efforts are largely unsuccessful, and finally abandoned after Satan successfully takes control of the world's media to promote messages of peace, co-operation and so on, only to find that this has no effect and humanity just carries on committing mortal sins regardless.
The subplot of each episode focuses on Scumspawn's ineffective attempts to run Hell in Satan's absence. This normally involves trying to cope with a strange new arrival in Hell, unionised demons, or overcrowding. He generally enlists Thomas's help in trying to find a solution, which usually fails. At the end of the episode, Satan returns and sorts out whatever new problem Scumspawn has managed to create.
The final two episodes of the series feature a new arrival, Roland, a damned soul even more venal and corrupt than Thomas who tries to organise a rebellion of the demons in Hell with Thomas's help, with exactly the same degree of success that Gary and Thomas had in Series 1. In the end, after easily dealing with the insurrection, Satan decides he need not worry, as humans will soon be extinct anyway. In order to hasten mankind's demise, he turns himself into Jeb Bush and plots to convince Jeb's brother George Bush to launch a nuclear strike on the polar icecaps.