Get Some In!

Hi, I have most of the series dotted around on various videos. It is a shame a lot of you haven't seen it again, for I'd like to know what the favourite lines/episodes would be your choice. I like the ones Marsh delivered to Leckie, of course with racist overtones (a big reason why it probably hasn't been repeated) "You're a Scottish spy, sent to infiltrate Her Majesty's 'English' Royal Air Force, and when our backs are turned, you're gonna lead a bunch of rebellious fairies over Hadrian's Wall!" Perhaps another good one is where Marsh 'nails' Lilley's boots - with him inside them still of course, to the floor! (For not swearing by saying 'blimey'!) Perhaps the best sadistic streak was when he 'defused' Lilley by mentioning he was a walking time-bomb. He got the latter to cross his legs, pull his beret down to his nose, put his hands in his pockets, then proclaims "You are now defused!" Of course '3' - F smith always got one over on him and poor Ken was the butt of his 'poofhouse' jokes. It got a little sentimental as it wore on, Leckie getting married to Corporal Wendy (Who also managed not to give in to Marsh). Marsh's megalomania showed through in having his stripes even sewn on to his pyjamas! Well done to the scriptwriters and the five actors. I actually went out with Robert Lindsay's nanny in the late 80's, she said then that Robert still had Mike Grady (Who played Ken in Citizen smith with him) and David Janson (Ken 'poofhouse' Richardson) round from time to time. This hopefully will be out on DVD. Update, as many of you know from 2011, the series made it on DVD, thankfully!

When this was first broadcast in the mid-1970's it quickly became one of my Dad's favourites. He had completed his own National Service with the RAF at exactly this time so he could sympathise with the 'erks' and what they endured under Corporal Marsh. He said his introduction to service life was arriving at an RAF station in the pouring rain after travelling from one end of England to the other (taking him at the base nearest to his home would, of course, defy service logic). He was given two damp blankets, and shown to an empty hut - and I mean empty, not even a bed. He lay on the floor in his wet clothes and didn't close an eye all night.

Eventually, after training, he was posted overseas and it is fascinating to look in his photo album and realise these were the dying days of the British Empire: Palestine, South Africa, RAF Khartoum, even Iraq ("Saddam knew my father, father knew Saddam..."). On one occasion he was with a small patrol in the desert. They camped for the night and woke the next morning to find themselves lying on the open sand. Tents, equipment, anything they weren't actually wearing had gone and they never knew a thing. He said they could steal your socks without taking your boots off.

None of this has anything to do with reviewing the programme, but it does show it was grounded in real life. In its day it seemed very funny but nowadays it would be frowned on to call someone 'poofhouse' week after week on prime-time. I don't know why people can't see this as reflecting the ignorance of the person who uses this type of abuse - they insist it makes the show itself 'homophobic'. It was well-written and acted and there are far worse quality programmes around today.

Welcome to the world, post war Britain and the subject is National Service in the RAF Regiment, as the theme music goes "now you're in the RAF you'll never see a plane". Fabulous cast, all of whom are covered elsewhere on this site but the episodes have to be seen to be believed. This program bears all the hallmarks of an illustrious age before any thoughts of a nanny state, no political correctness, no punches pulled, they just told it as it is. This series was pure entertainment and it is a complete shame that only people of my generation got to enjoy it. Previous reviewers on this site have nailed it on the head and I can only back it up. If you have seen "Bad Lads Army", supposed reality TV, this knocks it into a cocked hat, and this is "drama". Please, BBC, put this out on DVD and put me down for the first copies.

Forget your 'Dad's Armys', and 'Aint 'Alf Hot Mum's, this was the business. I fortunately was able to recapture it when the complete series was aired on satellite in the UK. While watching them, I actually found myself utterly embarrassed...Because I was laughing aloud at the Television like an unhinged school boy.

I guess that's because it was made in the care free days of the 1970s, when sitcoms were actually funny.

NCO: 'Smiff? Is that spelt wiv one F or two.'

SMITH: 'No. Three.'

I find it odd that people are raving about this show. What I can remember of it was turgid and predictable, but people profess to think it marvellous despite the fact that it has been practically 30 years since they saw it. Good memories or rose tinted spectacles. My guess would be the latter. Also most of the comments on this page are bemoaning the fact that this isn't repeated due to political correctness. It may also not be reproduced on DVD since it isn't exactly Fawlty Towers. They haven't had any problem putting Love Thy Neighbour out on satellite television but you will see that the appalling Mixed Blessings, about an interracial couple and the "hilarious" angry reaction of their families and the general public never sees the light of day. Stuff goes because its rubbish.