Old Harry's Game

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Old Harry's Game

Series logo
Genre	Sitcom
Running time	29 minutes
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
Home station	BBC Radio 4
Starring	Andy Hamilton James Grout (Series 1-Christmas Special 2002) Jimmy Mulville Steve O'Donnell (Series 1) Robert Duncan (Series 2 onwards) David Swift (Guest appearances) Annette Crosbie (Series 6 onwards) Philip Pope (Regular guest appearances) Felicity Montagu (Regular guest appearances) Michael Fenton Stevens (Regular guest appearances) Nick Revell (Regular guest appearances) Claire Skinner (Christmas Special 2002) Geoffrey Whitehead (Series 5) Timothy West (Series 7)
Created by	Andy Hamilton
Written by	Andy Hamilton
Produced by	Paul Mayhew-Archer
Original release	27 November 1995 – 2012
No. of series	7 (as of 2010)
No. of episodes	46 (as of July 2012)
Opening theme	Musical motif from Christopher Young's score for Hellraiser (1987) ('Resurrection'/ Main Theme)
Website	At BBC Radio 4

Old Harry's Game is a UK radio comedy written, directed and starring Andy Hamilton, who plays the cynical, world-weary Satan. "Old Harry" is one of many names for the devil. The show's title is a humorous play on the title of the 1982 TV 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 (postponed from January). The first episode of that series was broadcast on 20 September 2005 on BBC Radio 4. James Grout (the Professor during the first four series) did not take part. Series 6 (comprising a further six episodes) began on BBC Radio 4 on 27 September 2007, and Series 7 aired on BBC Radio 4 in 2009.^[1] 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 (Satan), James Grout (The Professor), Robert Duncan (Scumspawn), David Swift (God) and Michael Fenton Stevens had all worked together previously, in the UK television comedy series Drop the Dead Donkey between 1990 and 1998, which had been co-written by Hamilton. Both of the latter 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 (series one), Philip Pope (recurring), Nick Revell (recurring), Nigel Pegram, Penelope Nice (Deborah Whittingham, before being replaced by Felicity Montagu) and Geoffrey Whitehead (Roland).

A 30-minute animated version was created in 2012, as the pilot for a possible television series, by the UK animation house Flickerpix,^[2] but in the event a series was not commissioned.