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!

The nation should be re-exposed to the world of Corporal Marsh. I cannot believe some of the so rubbish that can be bought today masquerading as comedy. This is a genuine comedy from the days when comedy was funny. The marching chant of 'Corporal Marsh is very nice' in series 1 is a TV small classic moment and this programme has a number of classic moments. Please release this on DVD or re-run it again on TV so that we all can enjoy such a moment. There is not a weak episode or series and the characters are strong throughout. The relationship between Percy and Alice was worthy of a spin off series. This is possibly the writers best work although I am sure that others will argue otherwise.

Just to say that those who would like to see again this classic 70's sitcom (and a rare good one from ITV), check out a certain well known video sharing site. Like others, I recall watching this as a kid, my Dad who did National Service, though in the army, loved it too and thought it realistic. The writers both did National Service in the RAF in the 1950's. A classic line, from the very first episode, from the wonderful Tony Selby as the fearsome NCO, 'my name is Marsh, that's B-A-S-T-A-R-D!' As well as giving Robert Lindsay his first major role, before another well remembered part where he was also named 'Smith'. I don't think there has been any real intention of not repeating this series due to some PC concerns, it's just got lost in the crowd of 70's sitcoms, though popular it's just not as well known as others like 'Porridge'. It might be that the BBC just looks after it's sitcom legacy better. The corporate convulsions of the old ITV network in the 1990's and 2000's might also have played a part here.

If "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" has suffered acutely from Politically Correct retro-censorship, being rarely repeated (and then only the odd episode that gets past the new puritans), "Get Some In!" has been officially airbrushed out of late 70s British sitcom history. The total ban on repeats of this series means that I have not seen it since it was originally aired. Set in the 1950s, when young British men were still obliged to undergo compulsory National Service in one of the armed forces, my recollections of this series take me back, nevertheless, to the late 1970s, when such National Service seemed a dim and remote memory (to teenagers like myself, smugly ineligible). It aired in that bizarre cusp or hinge of time between decadent hippie-dom (concept albums, and rock stars in mansions) and early punk, and sought to demythologise the wizard-prang, pipe-between-the-teeth image of the RAF by showing the lowly, earthbound National Service recruits to the air force ("Though you're in the RAF, you'll never see a plane" went one line of the theme song). The recruits ("erks", if memory serves) were the standard-issue collection of heterogeneous types, running the gamut of the English class system and its miscellaneous sub-categories, most notably including the brilliant David Janson, subsequently much under-used, and the no less brilliant Robert Lindsay, in his first starring role (pre-"Citizen Smith"). Presiding over these raw recruits was the fearsome NCO, Tony Selby, a superb utility actor who had graced "The Avengers", "Ace Of Wands" and many another must-see British series of the late 60s and early 70s. With a strong cast, and what seemed at the time to be funny scripts, it is puzzling that this series has never re-aired, but perhaps it reflected too closely the PC insensitivities of the 50s. Our loss!

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.