Whack-O!

• Professor James Edwards played by Jimmy Edwards
• Mr Oliver Pettigrew played by Arthur Howard in 1956–60 and Julian Orchard in 1971
• Mr F.D. Price Whittaker played by Kenneth Cope
• Mr S.A. Smallpiece played by Norman Bird
• Lumley (a pupil) played by John Stirling
• Mr R.P. Tench played by Peter Glaze
• Mr Halliforth played by Edwin Apps in 1956–60 and Peter Greene in 1971
• Parker played by David Langford
• Mr Forbes played by Keith Smith
• Mr Proctor played by Brian Rawlinson
• Mr Dinwiddie played by Gordon Phillot in 1956–60 and Harold Bennett in 1971
• Mr Cope-Willoughby played by Frank Raymond
• Matron played by Barbra Archer, Liz Fraser and by Charlotte Mitchell
• Taplow played by Gary Warren in 1971
• Potter played by Greg Smith in 1971
• Proctor played by John Clegg
• Clodagh Rodgers appeared as herself during the colour series in 1972[2]
• Max Bygraves appeared as himself in one episode in 1960[3]
• Vera Lynn appeared in one episode in 1959[3]

Most of the show's episodes are missing, presumed lost. Six of the original black-and-white episodes are known to exist today; from the colour revival series of the early 1970s, only one is known to have survived.[4]

Only 7 episodes exist in the BBC TV archives, with 3 (out of the 6 remaining B&W episodes) having been rediscovered in December 2016.

• TBA
• Series 3 episode 5 (21 October 1958)
• Series 5 episode 4 (1 December 1959)
• Series 6 episode 4 (3 June 1960)
• Series 7 episode 1 (22 November 1960)
• Series 7 episode 5 (20 December 1960)
• Series 8 episode 2 (4 December 1971)

TV comedy historians have written that the central theme of Whack-O! and Bottoms Up! was corporal punishment and specifically the caning of boys’ backsides. This however was largely absent from the revived series in 1971, as by that time corporal punishment was becoming less acceptable in Britain and was eventually banned in state and many independent schools in 1986.

Whack-O! tended to glorify a ritualised form of punishment that had been an accepted practice in British schools, but by modern standards the popular humourizing of corporal punishment is an anathema, and it may seem somewhat perverted in the way it was featured in the series. The comedy of the series was built around whether boys would be caught and punished for minor misdemeanours, and the size and effectiveness of canes and the building of caning devices. In one episode a device and long cane was made so six boys could be punished together. In another a device was made so the teacher carrying out the caning did not see the boy, and it turned out that all the backside seen to be caned were that of deputy headmaster Pettigrew (when played by Arthur Howard). A feature of Edwards carrying out punishment was the clear enjoyment he exhibited.

Both Jimmy Edwards and Arthur Howard were gay men and Anthony Slide, a biographer of Edwards with "Wake Up at the Back There! It’s Jimmy Edwards (BearManor, 2018)", has written: "I know I’m a little perverse, but I cannot find it anything but fascinating and decidedly weird that two gay men were starring in a BBC series involving the use of a cane on the bottoms of young boys."

• Biographer of Jimmy Edwards

This is how the BBC sums up this aspect of Whack-O! on its official website: "Watching the series now is a little painful in one respect – we're too sensitive to find canings amusing – but it's right on the money in other ways, mainly because finding over-privileged kids vile hasn't gone out of fashion."

BBC Radio adapted the TV scripts into 45 thirty-minute shows, mostly with the original cast, of which 42 recordings survive. There were three series which originally ran on the BBC Light Programme from 23 May 1961 until 22 July 1963. They have been repeated on BBC Radio Extra since 2015 and the last airing was in 2020.

• Audio Download and Streaming
• Dates of Airings

• List of films based on British sitcoms

• Whack-O! at IMDb
• Whack-O at BBC Online Comedy Guide
• BBC Radio 4 Whack-O Episode Guide
• British Film Institute Screen Online