Its three stars were normally the only performers who appeared, although the show's musical director, Denis King, was often given a small speaking role in one or two of the shorter items.
The radio series featured music by the Denis King Trio, and was produced initially by David Hatch, then by Richard Willcox, and thereafter by Bob Oliver Rogers.
Later in the run, as Tim Brooke-Taylor's time became increasingly absorbed by his television work on The Goodies, the scripts were written solely by Barry Cryer and John Junkin.
From series 2 it was transmitted at lunchtime on Sundays, a more natural home for comedy shows, which had traditionally occupied that spot in the station's schedules since the heyday of the old BBC Light Programme in the early 1960s.
So many of the items were one-line, that co-writer Barry Cryer was moved to comment publicly that "a minute was a long sketch on Hello Cheeky".
Many of the jokes were topical, featuring references to well-known personalities of the day: not only showbusiness celebrities (everyone from comedian Ken Dodd to actor Roger Moore), but also BBC presenters (including Michael Aspel, Frank Bough, Nicholas Parsons and Terry Wogan), politicians (especially the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mrs Thatcher), sportsmen (such as England international footballer Martin Peters), and prominent personalities of the day (the inevitable references to clean-up-TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse, and the anti-immigration MP, Enoch Powell).
The final item each week, which was typically the longest item in the show, often featured a comic amalgam of three ostensibly serious broadcasts (e.g. Z-Cars, Gardeners' Question Time and A Book At Bedtime[11]), with one of the cast changing channels on his TV or radio, such that a line from one programme (the feed line) was followed by one from a very different type of programme (the punchline), to get a laugh.
Famous stars of the day who put themselves through this treatment included chat show host Michael Aspel, BBC TV sports presenter Frank Bough, and radio DJ Terry Wogan.
On 6 April 1975, "The Least Worst of Hello Cheeky" was recorded before a live audience in the BBC's Paris Studio in Regent Street, produced by Bob Oliver Rogers.
They did not reflect the standard format, and were in the main a collection of unrelated musical items interspersed with occasional jokes; the Christmas shows did not even have a preference for seasonal pieces.
Firstly, a dispute arose with BBC Management, concerning the cast's decision to defect to ITV, to make a TV version of the show.
These have mostly been editions first heard in 1973, although Cheeky Whittington and his Magic Ballpoint also receives seasonal re-runs as an item in the three hour special, Barry Cryer's Christmas Selection Box - Part 2.