Review by AdamJezard

This is a wonderful TV series. In reality, there are 33 episodes (including the pilot in the BBC's Comedy Playhouse series), although only 11 have survived the massive destruction of material that took place at the BEEB in the early 70s.

The wonderful cast play members of a cathedral ecclesiastical community, who constantly in-fight amongst themselves. There is the Bishop (Mervyn), the Archdeacon (Hare) and the chaplain, Noote (Nimmo), who are lazy, ineffectual and enjoy life's pleasures. This triumvirate is engaged in a constant battle of wits against the reforming and high-church Dean (Baron, sadly the two seasons with Clark in the role have not survived).

It's not always about big belly laughs. The humour is more akin to that of the Will Hay films or Capt. Mainwearing in `Dad's Army', where the joy is in watching incompetent people tackle tasks beyond their scope.

I loved this series as a child and the BBC, under licence, has recently released the surviving episodes, which are fortunately available on Amazon.co.uk.

For real buffs, there was also a BBC radio series with Baron, Mervyn and Hare in their original roles, although Nimmo only appeared in 13 of the 33 episodes, being replaced by his friend Jonathan Cecil. Many of these are available on OTR sites in the US (that's Old Time Radio) in MP3 format. The BEEB would have a little treasure trove on its hands if it would release these on CD, I'm sure.

Sadly, another BBC series, "Oh, Brother!", in a similar vein, made at the same time and also starring Nimmo, also seems to have suffered as reportedly only 9 of the original 19 episodes have survived.