Editing It's That Man Again (section)

==Leading characters==
The main character was always Handley's, whether as manager of the pirate radio station, head of the Office of Twerps, Mayor of Foaming-at-the-Mouth, factory manager, Governor of Tomtopia or down-and-out. He remained the fast-talking central figure, around whom all the other characters orbited.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=36, 41}} Took comments that it is impossible to put them into order of popularity: "They were all successful. Everyone had their own favourite".{{sfn|Took|1981|p=28}} Some of the best known are described below, in order of first appearance in the show.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=136}}{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=32–45}}{{sfn|Worsley|1949|pp=19–21, 23–24, 62}}

===Funf===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Funf'''</big><br />Played by Jack Train<br />Series 2–6<br />Catchphrase: ''This is Funf speaking''.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=49}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Funf,{{efn|Although fünf is the German for "five", the name was not chosen for any association with "fifth column": Worsley, hearing his schoolboy son counting in German, decided that Funf—pronounced ''foonf''—sounded ideal.{{sfn|Partridge|1992|p=95}}}} "the enemy agent with the feet of sauerkraut",{{sfn|Curran|Seaton|2002|p=135}} was the earliest of the show's major supporting characters, making his debut in the second programme of the second series.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=32}} He was an incompetent German agent, ''ITMA'''s response to a national scare in 1940 about a supposed "[[fifth column]]" in Britain.{{sfn|Thurlow|1999|p=477}} He would telephone Handley to make dark threats, in a sinister, hollow voice, which Train produced by speaking across the top of an empty glass held next to the microphone. Handley's verbal dexterity continually left Funf in confusion. Funf, described by the media historian [[Denis Gifford]] as "the greatest of all war-time characters",{{sfn|Gifford|1985|p=134}} became what Worsley called "a national craze"{{sfn|Partridge|1992|p=95}} and helped to make the German propaganda machine a source of public ridicule in Britain.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=17}}

===The Diver===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''The Diver'''</big><br />Played by Horace Percival<br />Series 3–8<br />Catchphrases:<br />• ''Don't forget the diver''<br />• ''Every penny makes the water warmer''<br />• ''I'm going down now, sir''.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=49}}||align=right| width=30%}}

The Diver was drawn from a real-life figure familiar to Handley's generation of [[River Mersey|Merseysiders]]. The one-legged diver and swimmer [[Frank Gadsby]] was well known at [[New Brighton, Merseyside|New Brighton]] in the first decades of the 20th century for high-diving off [[New Brighton Pier, Wallasey|the pier]], watched by what the ''[[Liverpool Echo]]'' called "countless boatloads of people"{{sfn|"Aeroplane Dive". ''Liverpool Echo''}} He would solicit donations with phrases appropriated by his caricature in ''ITMA'': "Don't forget the diver, sir, don't forget the diver. Every penny makes the water warmer!"{{sfn|"Don't Forget the Diver!". ''Liverpool Echo''}}{{efn|In 1919 Gadsby, known as "Professor" or "Peggy" Gadsby, went one better by diving into the [[River Mersey]] from a [[biplane]].{{sfn|"Aeroplane Dive". ''Liverpool Echo''}} To make his act more spectacular he sometimes oiled himself and set fire to the oil before diving in.{{sfn|"Seeing the Fashions at New Brighton". ''Liverpool Echo''}} When he retired, he was succeeded by another diver, Bernard Pykett, who had lost a leg in the [[First World War]].{{sfn|"Have a thought!". ''Liverpool Echo''}} When the pier was reconstructed in 1930 the local authority prohibited diving, and, as the ''Echo'' put it, "''Don't forget the diver!'' The familiar appeal for the one-legged diver&nbsp;... will no longer be heard by arriving trippers".{{sfn|"Don't Forget the Diver!". ''Liverpool Echo''}} Handley was not the only Liverpudlian comedian to celebrate the diver: he is mentioned in a 1942 song by [[Arthur Askey]]: "First class, third class, guard and engine driver/Sailors, whalers, don't forget the diver".{{sfn|Askey, "The Flu-Germ"|loc=Event occurs at 1 minute 14 seconds}}}}

In ''ITMA'' the Diver was what Worsley called a "crossing" character: he would cross a scene for a few seconds, often to interrupt Handley at a particularly inopportune moment:

{{blockindent|There would be a gurgling sound, a few bubbles, and up would bob the Diver. His few words very soon became part of the country's vocabulary, as did so many of our phrases, and it was not long before "Don't forget the Diver" was heard on all sides, in bars, in buses, on stations, even from disembodied voices in the black-out, and practically no lift descended without someone saying in those weary tones "I'm going down now, sir!"{{sfn|Worsley|1949|p=19|}}|}}

===Cecil and Claude===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Cecil and Claude'''</big><br />Played by Horace Percival and Jack Train<br />Series 3–5<br />Catchphrase:<br />
''After you, Claude. No, after ''you'', Cecil''.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=43}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Two ceremonious odd-job men—also broker's men—who talked in rhyme:

:'''Cecil''': After you, Claude –
:'''Claude''': No, after ''you'', Cecil
:'''Handley''': Cut out the etiquette—you've a big job to do.
:'''Cecil''': Do you want us to push your chair, Mr Mayor?
:'''Claude''': It'll need a new tyre, sire.
:'''Handley''': No. I want you to go round to the lighthouse and lend a hand erecting our Foaming Fun Fair.
:'''Cecil''': Will there be swings and things?
:'''Claude''': There'll be coconut shies I surmise.
:'''Handley''': Yes, and merry-go-rounds, you hounds&nbsp;...
:'''Cecil''': Then we'll have a dekko Sir Echo.
:'''Claude''': We'll have a penn'orth Sir Kenneth.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|pp=50–51}}

===Ali Oop===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Ali Oop'''</big><br />Played by Horace Percival<br />Series 3–4<br />Catchphrase: ''I go—I come back''.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=xx}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Ali Oop was a caricature of a Middle-Eastern hawker, persistently trying to sell improbable goods to Handley:

:'''Ali Oop''': Please mister, you give me permission to peddle on your pier?
:'''Handley''': Certainly not.
:'''Ali Oop''': Any other town I peddle where I like.
:'''Handley''': Ah, but we're very particular here.
:'''Ali Oop''': You give me licence—I give you very funny toy. Make loud noises when sat on.
:'''Handley''': They used to laugh when I sat down at the piano.{{efn|Handley's allusion is to a famous American advertising slogan for mail-order piano lessons, "They all laughed when I sat down at the piano, But oh!, when I began to play".{{sfn|Rawson|Miner|2005|p=6}}}} You get out of here and take your penetrating effluvia with you.
:'''Ali Oop''': I go—I come back.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|pp=45–46}}

===Sam Scram and Lefty===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Sam Scram and Lefty'''</big><br />Played by Sydney Keith and Jack Train<br />Series 3–8 (Sam); 3–6 and 8 (Lefty)<br />Catchphrases:<br />• ''Boss, boss, sumpin' terrible's happened!'' (Sam)<br />• '' It's me noives!'' (Lefty).{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=43}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Sam and Lefty were two American characters, both nominally gangsters, but of a conspicuously uncombative kind. Sam, Handley's bodyguard, was prone to panic:{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=34–35}}

:'''Sam''': Boss, boss, sumpin' terrible's happened!
:'''Handley''': Don't tell me the [[German battleship Scharnhorst|Scharnhorst]] has come up again?
:'''Sam''': No, there's a tough-looking guy outside, boss.
:'''Handley''': Has he got a broken handcuff on one wrist?
:'''Sam''': Yes, boss!
:'''Handley''': And a bludgeon in the other?
:'''Sam''': Yeah, boss!
:'''Handley''': And crime written all over his face?
:'''Sam''': Yeah, boss!
:'''Handley''': It's my brother: send him in.{{sfn|''ITMA''. Series 7. Episode 14. 6 January 1944|loc=Event occurs at 1 minute 14 seconds}}
Lefty was of a nervous disposition.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=34–35}} At a fairground shooting gallery with Sam:
:'''Lefty''': I got the gun—they're going to get the woiks.&nbsp;... Missed 'em!
:'''Sam''': I thought you were a dead shot with one of dem tings.
:'''Lefty''': Aw—it's me noives, I tell ya—its me noives.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|pp=59–60}}

When Train was ill during series 7, Lefty was temporarily replaced by Butch Scram, Sam's brother, played by Bryan Herbert.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=39}}

===Mrs Mopp===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Mrs Mopp'''</big><br />Played by Dorothy Summers<br />Series 4–8<br />Catchphrases:<br />• ''Can I do you now, sir?''<br />• ''I've brought this for you, sir.''<br />• ''TTFN''.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=49}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Although Mrs Mopp, the charlady, was in fewer than half the series of ''ITMA'', she was one of the best-loved characters, and was remembered long after the show finished. She would burst through Handley's door, usually when least convenient, and hoarsely ask, "Can I do you now sir?"{{efn|Mrs Mopp's opening words were originally "Can I do for you now, sir", but the "for" was omitted, at first by accident and then because the line was more effective without it.{{sfn|Partridge|1992|p=43}}}} She regularly brought Handley peculiar presents, nominally edible as a rule, beginning with some carrot jelly she had sieved through her jumper.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=36}} In a show recorded before a [[Royal Navy]] audience she brought him "a Bosun's Blancmange".{{sfn|Gifford|1985|p=180}} At the end of their scenes together she would bid him "Ta-ta for now", soon abbreviated to "TTFN".{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=36}}

:'''Mrs Mopp:''' Can I do you now, sir?
:'''Handley:''' Well, if it isn't Mrs Mopp the vamping vassal with the tousled tassel. I thought you told me you were called up?
:'''Mrs Mopp:''' Well, sir, I had me medical.
:'''Handley:''' And were you passed A.1?
:'''Mrs Mopp:''' Oh no, sir. I'm passed sixty-two.
:'''Handley:''' You don't look a day over sixty-one. I mean, were you passed fit?&nbsp;...
:'''Mrs Mopp:''' No, sir—I was examined by a lady doctor. She wanted me to remove my bonnet.
:'''Handley:''' Disgraceful! I expect she wanted to open a false front.
:'''Mrs Mopp:''' I wouldn't let her meddle with my modesty vest, sir. I said, "You must take me as you find me". The Labour [viz. [[labour exchange]]] sent me to you, sir.
:'''Handley:''' The Labour? That's capital. I'll put you in charge of the sock exchange.
:'''Mrs Mopp:''' Oh, thank you, sir. I brought this for you.
:'''Handley:''' Isn't that nice. What is it—an engineer's indiscretion?
:'''Mrs Mopp:''' No, sir, it's an overseer's 'otpot.
:'''Handley:''' Thank you, Mrs M. There'll be an 'otpot in the Old Tom tonight.
:'''Mrs Mopp:''' Ta-ta for now.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|pp=70–71}}

At their last meeting Mrs Mopp bade Handley "TTFN", to which he responded, "NCTWWASBE"—"Never Clean The Window With A Soft-Boiled Egg".{{sfn|"Memories of I.T.M.A."|loc=Event occurs at 29 minutes 12 seconds}}{{efn|Handley's comebacks like this to Mrs Mopp's "TTFN" were his own last-minute inventions, not known to anybody else in advance.{{sfn|"Buying ITMA a coffee". ''Liverpool Echo''}} His longest is thought to be NKABTYSIRWU—Never Kiss A Baby Till You're Sure It's Right Way Up.{{sfn|Fisher|2013|p=167}}}} After being written out of ''ITMA'' she had her own series of quarter-hour programmes, ''The Private Life of Mrs Mopp'', written by Kavanagh.{{sfn|"Mrs Mopp". ''BBC Genome''}}

===Commercial Traveller===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Commercial Traveller'''</big><br />Played by Clarence Wright<br />Series 4–5<br />Catchphrase: ''Good morning! ''Nice'' day!''.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=43}}||align=right| width=30%}}

The Commercial Traveller, like the Diver, was a "crossing" character, distracting Handley from the business at hand with his irrelevant sales patter:

:'''Traveller''': Good morning.
:'''Handley''': Good morning
:'''Traveller''': ''Nice'' day.
:'''Handley''': No.
:'''Traveller''': Any helicopters, motor cars or washing machines?
:'''Handley''': Yes, please.
:'''Traveller''': You can't have them—they're only for export.
:'''Handley''': What have you come here for, then?
:'''Traveller''': So that I can call again. Good morning.
:'''Handley''': Good morning.
:'''Traveller''': ''Nice'' day.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=153}}

===Signor So-So===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Signor So-So'''</big><br />Played by Dino Galvani<br />Series 4–8<br />Catchphrase: ''Notting at all! Notting at all!''.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=43}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Handley's scatty secretary was planned as an Italian equivalent of Funf, but "his chronic mismanagement of the English tongue proved too endearing and he remained at Handley's side as a well-loved language joke".{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=37}} His incurable tendency to [[malapropism]]s caused him to address a female character: "Ah, you attract me like a maggot! Let me cuss you on both cheeks".{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=37}} His verbal infelicities became infectious and regularly caused Handley's character to trip over his words:

:'''Handley''': Now, So-So, you are an architect, aren't you?
:'''So-So''': Oh yes, Mr Hagglemuch. I am an unqualified artichoke. I have built many sky-scrappers, and bolks of falts.
:'''Handley''': Bolks of falts?
:'''So-So''': Yes—luxury falts.
:'''Handley''': Now listen, you leaning tower of Pisa, you can say bolks of falts as easy as I can.
:'''So-So''': You mean blocks of flats. I have also built a villain in the country.
:'''Handley''': A villain?
:'''So-So''': Yes, a semi-detached villain. ... Come this way. This is your office. I will finish it.
:'''Handley''': Listen, So-So, leave the finishing—er—furnishing of this to me. Any more of your basic English and I'd go mad.
:'''So-So''': Oka-da-doke.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=74}}

===Colonel Chinstrap===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Colonel Chinstrap'''</big><br />Played by Jack Train<br />Series 5–6 and 8–12<br />Catchphrase: ''I don't mind if I do''.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=63}}||align=right| width=30%}}

The bibulous Colonel Chinstrap was a retired army officer, perpetually on the look-out for a free drink.{{efn|Jack Train and [[John Snagge]] recalled that Chinstrap was based on an acquaintance of Snagge's, a retired [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]] officer, who told him, "I have bought a water heater on a ten-year instalment plan and the devils who are selling it to me don't know I'm dying of drink". The man did not recognise himself in Chinstrap, whom he considered "exactly like a lot of silly chumps I used to know in India".{{sfn|"Chinstrap". ''Aberdeen Evening Express''}}{{sfn|"Col Chinstrap Speaking". ''Birmingham Daily Gazette''}}}} ''[[The Times]]'' commented that his voice "carried the unmistakeable aroma of vintage port and brandy".{{sfn|"Jack Train". ''The Times''}} An unnamed prototype of the character appeared in the third series:

:'''Handley''': Didn't I meet you in Rumbellipoor, sir?
:'''Train''': You did not, sir. I was never there.
:'''Handley''': Then you must have a double.
:'''Train''': Thanks, I will.{{sfn|Partridge|1992| pp= 139–140}}

The character reappeared in the fifth series, now identified as Colonel Humphrey Chinstrap; he rapidly became one of the show's most popular features.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975| p=63}} He would "mishear" an innocent remark as an invitation to a drink:

{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="10" border="0"
| '''Handley''': Colonel, you have been treated most shabbily.<br />'''Chinstrap''': A glass of Chablis, sir? I don’t mind if I do.{{sfn|Kavanagh|2019}}
|
| '''Handley''': Why don't you try a swim in the Serpentine?<br />'''Chinstrap''': Try a gin and turpentine? I don't mind if I do.{{sfn|Fisher|2013|p=163}}
|-
| '''Handley''': Funf ... He's a sly Jerry<br />'''Chinstrap''': Did I hear you say "dry sherry", Handley? I don't mind if I do.{{sfn|"Memories of I.T.M.A."|loc=Event occurs at 9 minutes 30 seconds}}
|
| '''Handley''': King John signing the Magna Carta at Runnymede.<br />'''Chinstrap''': Rum and mead, sir? I don't mind if I do.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975| p=143}}
|}
The catchphrase, "I don't mind if I do", was not new,{{efn|''[[The Oxford English Dictionary]]'' dates the phrase—"a humorous circumlocution accepting an invitation, esp. the offer of a (usually alcoholic) drink"—to at least 1847.{{sfn|"mind". Oxford English Dictionary}}}} but ''ITMA'' brought it into widespread popular use.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975| p=139}}
The Colonel had a life beyond ''ITMA''. Train ("assisted by Colonel Chinstrap") made a gramophone record of a song called "I don't mind if I do" in 1949;{{sfn|British Library Catalogue}} Chinstrap and his ''ITMA'' colleague Major Mundy offered comments on the [[New Zealand cricket team in England in 1949#Second Test, Lord's, 25–28 June 1949|Lord's Test Match]] in two short broadcasts in June 1949;{{sfn|"Colonel Chinstrap and Major Mundy: Cover points at the Test Match". ''BBC Genome''}} Train, playing Chinstrap, co-starred in the 1950 comedy series ''The Great Gilhooly'',{{sfn|"I want you to meet Gilhooly". ''The Radio Times''}} and appeared weekly on television in late 1951 and early 1952 with scenes from the Colonel's life story.{{sfn|"Colonel Chinstrap". ''BBC Genome''}} In 1952 [[Evans Brothers Ltd|Evans Brothers]] published Chinstrap's autobiography—ghost-written by Kavanagh, with a foreword by Train.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1952|pages=}} In a 1954 BBC radio programme he featured in ''The True Story of Humphrey Chinstrap (Col. Retd.)'', "the authentic history of a warrior who penetrated the darkest jungles of Whitehall and Wooloomooloo armed only with a sword and a corkscrew".{{sfn|"At Last! The true story of Humphrey Chinstrap (Col. Retd.)". ''The Radio Times''}} Train twice made guest appearances as Chinstrap in ''[[The Goon Show]]'' (1957 and 1959).{{sfn|Wilmut|Grafton|1977|pp=67, 75}}{{efn|The ''Goon Show'' historian Roger Wilmut comments, "It is interesting that the character, although from a different show a decade earlier, fits into the Goon Show framework with no sense of strain".{{sfn|Wilmut|Grafton|1977|p=146}}}}

===Mona Lott===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Mona Lott'''</big><br />Played by Joan Harben<br />Series 10–12<br />Catchphrase:<br />''It's being so cheerful that keeps me going''.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=43}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Mona Lott (subsequently, after her marriage, Mona Little), the lugubrious laundress, was among the later creations to feature in the show, appearing in the last three series. She would regale Handley with her latest woes, her doleful demeanour in ludicrous contrast with her mantra, "It's being so cheerful that keeps me going". For Mona, a domestic disaster such as a burst water tank would become increasingly calamitous, until her husband&nbsp;...

{{blockindent|...&nbsp;started rowing the bed about the room shouting, "Any more for the Skylark?" and then somebody opened the bungalow door and he went sailing down the garden path and I haven't heard from him since.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=149}}|}}

Among other catastrophes recounted by Mona were her brother-in-law, a champion runner, walking in his sleep and getting half-way to [[Brighton]] before anyone could catch him,{{sfn|''ITMA''. Series 10. Episode 19. 23 January 1947|loc=Event occurs at 7 minutes}} and, when on a train journey, "I put me head out of the window to look at the view, and the [[catcher pouch|mail-bag catcher]] caught me. Before I knew where I was I found myself on the platform between a sack of fertiliser and a dead duck".{{sfn|''ITMA''. Series 12. Episode 4. 14 October 1948 |loc=Event occurs at 16 minutes 15 seconds}}

===Sophie Tuckshop===
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#e6e6ff|salign=center | quote =<big>'''Sophie Tuckshop'''</big><br />Played by Hattie Jacques<br />Series 11–12<br />Catchphrase: ''...&nbsp;but I'm all right now''.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=45}}||align=right| width=30%}}

Sophie Tuckshop was a replacement for a less successful character, Ella Phant. Jokes about the latter's size did not work well on radio because the light and girlish voice of the performer, Hattie Jacques, did not suggest a heavyweight.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=136}} She described Sophie as "a terrible child who never stopped eating, with the inevitable sickening results".{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=136}}

:'''Sophie''': I had such a lovely dream last night—I dreamt the bed was made of marzipan and the mattress was marshmallow and the sheets were jelly and the pillows embroidered with lovely sugar violets.
:'''Handley''': Stop! Once more we halt the roar of Sophie's Tuckshop to tell you of some of the interesting things that are In Tum Tonight! Carry on, Bicarb!{{sfn|Kavanagh|1975|p=147}}{{efn|Handley's words parody the opening and closing announcements of the popular radio show ''[[In Town Tonight]]'' (1933–1960), delivered by a stentorian voice (Fred Yule's for a time){{sfn|"Fred Yule", ''The Times''}} halting "the roar of London's traffic" to bring to the microphone "some of the interesting people who are In Town Tonight". At the end of each show the voice cried, "Carry on, London!"{{sfn|"In Town Tonight 1936". ''The Radio Times''}}{{sfn|"In Town Tonight 1945". ''The Radio Times''}}}}