The Bowmans 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. It was 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 fictional radio serial called "The Bowmans", a parody of the real BBC radio programme "The Archers". The theme tune to "The Bowmans" is a close variation by series composer Wally Stott of the real "Archers" theme tune "Barwick Green". Hancock plays Joshua Merriweather, a character
The Archers has been broadcasting the Archers-inspired soap opera "Urunana" ("Hand in Hand") since 1999. "The Archers" was also the model for the Russian radio soap opera "Dom 7, Podyezd 4" ("House 7, Entrance 4"), on which the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, once made a cameo appearance. The Japanese NHK, offers a "morning drama" ("asadora") that runs for 15 minutes from Monday to Saturday on television. This slot was established on radio in the early postwar era and moved to television in 1961. Each series lasts six months, i. e. approximately 150 episodes. All centre on a heroine, usually a