User reviews

How awful that the BBC refuse to show this again...what a load of nonsense...it was and still is an affectionate look at how things were in the war...I went on holiday to Turkey last year and saw exactly the same thing in the markets...foreign people imitating British for comedy purposes... poor Michael Bates was lambasted as racist for his role but that is exactly the kind of character around at the time...and there still is. This is almost "Spike Milliganesque" in its approach to multi culture comedy...there was never any intent to mock or offend...pure vaudeville. Perry and Croft understood perfectly the comedy in wartime as these were all obviously based on real life characters..anybody who is offended by this should be genuinely ashamed.....this series had 15 million viewers in its heyday...all apparent racists. Must add that all the crew were all in on the fun...Windsor Davies was brilliant., much like Hylda Baker and always using the wrong words ...one thing though....almost every British comedy at the time was made into a movie...why was this left out. Marvelous comedy from the finest writing duo since Galton and Simpson.

I didn't know what to make of this comedy after watching the first few episodes. It certainly had jokes, but it is such a unique setup that it was difficult to be comfortable with it at. Nevertheless, after becoming familiar with the characters and roles, it became a lot easier to get into the swing of the show.

The show is about troupe of entertainers who are soldiers (in rank only) in the Royal Artillery Core and are based in India (hence the programme's title). They perform shows for the regular soldiers which involve a range of acts, such as dancing, singing, joke-telling, acting etc. This is all to the extreme frustration of the Sergeant Major Williams, a seasoned soldier with decades of combat experience. He is desperate to see real fighting action and resents being in charge of this concert party that frequently embarrass him with their "less-than-macho" attitude. There are also two pompous senior officers who are generally oblivious to anything that is going on, only concerned with attending dinner parties with other officers.

The first few series did become a bit repetitive in my opinion: the plots mostly being Williams scheming to get the concert party disbanded and sent into the jungle, partly out of spite as he despises them so much, but also to satisfy his taste for combat. Whilst never becoming boring, it did become a bit stale.

However, perhaps I am imagining it, but from around series 4 or 5, when they are all relocated to a jungle in Burma (still as the concert party), the plots seemed to improve in my opinion, becoming more varied and creative and generally funnier.

One thing that is enormous credit to Croft and Perry is their ability to make some rather quite powerful and emotional episodes for a programme that is otherwise slapstick and daft. The final episode was really quite moving. The finale was done excellently, considering how so many other programmes fall flat with their finales.

As a final comment, Windsor Davies gives an incredible performance as the Sergeant Major, being naturally hilarious and also a convincing military figure (I believe he did spend a year or two in the army, so was probably very familiar with how to act the role).

Great fun.

When it comes to humor there are few levels to which the British will not stoop and, In "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum", Britain stoops to conquer humor in India. David Croft was in charge, so be warned not to expect Merchant-Ivory class or Bollywood sophistication. "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" is a prime example of low British humor, which means that there are few depths below which they will not descend for the sake of a laugh. Not that the show isn't screamingly funny, it is. It is simply that you will hate yourself for laughing at it.

The series is set on a British Army base in India in 1945, during the closing days of World War II, A group of soldiers are trying to evade active duty at the front by serving in an entertainment unit. Their world is further polluted by a Colonel, a Captain, a Sergeant-Major and a group of Indian servants.

All of the characters are portrayed in the broadest possible manner. If "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" had been produced in the U.S. (not that it ever could have been) the network would have been compelled to cancel it after the very first episode due to a veritable avalanche of protests from Indian civil rights organizations and LGBT defense groups.

That being said, it must also be conceded that "I's Not Half Hot, Mum" is very well written, impeccably performed and screamingly funny. It you don't mind politically incorrect humor, the kind where you hate yourself for laughing, but laugh anyway, this will be just your cup of tea.

The series has been rerun by Dutch TV lately, and really, it was in fact the only program I really enjoyed 5 times a week for a long time. Lovely boys, lovely series!!!!! The show has lost none of its freshness, wit and edge. SM Williams as the prototype British drill sergeant and the bedraggled concert party which remind me a lot of the stories depicted in Spike Milligan's war memoirs. The final episode with the demob scenes I found very touching. It was very realistically depicted with the war heroes returning to a drab Blythe and viewed with disdain and even contempt by the civvies they were "protecting".

I really hope that the BBC will air the show again. I miss it!!!!

I enjoyed this series when it was originally broadcast. As there is no likelihood of it being broadcast again,I bought The box?box set and have just finished it.It is very funny,almost as good as Dads Army.It does have problems. Michael Bates,blacked up,as the bearer, makes it unacceptable for broadcastimg,as does the homophobic rants by the Sergeant Major. Furthermore it has to be said that many of the Indian characters are drawn in an unsympathetic light..

This had people rolling around laughing in the 1970s and for good reason. It was very funny and totally politically incorrect which made it even better. No one was offended by it back then - even the targets of its jokes but in today's climate thin skinned professionally offended whackjobs absolutely would be. Hilarious.

I absolutely adore this I discovered about years ago when I was 21 and still love it. Windsor Davies is an absolute delight. The send up of British officers is great and Don Estelle was a criminally underrated singer. Michael Bates also deserves a mention despite the criticism of his character it's worth pointing out he was born in India and is a wonderful character in his own right. This is a classic and for those who aren't easily offended you'll have a wonderful time.

I am in my late 70s and have just finished watching, for the third time, the boxed set of 'It ain't half hot mum'.

I found it amusing and of the period and reflected how the majority of Britons regarded the rest of the world. I never met one who was different, in skin colour, until I joined the RAF at 17 when I travelled up to Bridgnorth with an Indian/Pakistani recruit. Just as the BBC doesn't show shows that reflect the times they were made I think that is pandering to the 'lilly liveried' who are trying to take our heritage away.

When I have worked my way through the DVDs that I have, I don't have a TV, I shall again take the series and enjoy it. I admit that it may be all the wrong reasons but I will enjoyed it well into my 80s.

This was the follow up to the immortal 'Dad's Army'and while sharing a wartime setting and comedy based on character had a somewhat harder and cruder edge and was less reliant on whimsy. Perhaps as a result of this, despite the fact that it lasted several series it never gained a real place in the nation's affections to the same extent as Dad's Army. It also straddled a changing period in Britain's attitude to racial stereotyping. The 1970's had begun with the crude 'Love Thy Neighbour' but ended with the first sitcoms featuring more than token black casts (e.g 'The Fosters') and 'It Ain't Half...' was increasingly criticized for its attitude even though as another correspondent says, the Asian characters usually outwit their British 'masters'. Michael Bates as Ranji Ram is probably the last comical asian character to be played by a white actor in makeup a la Peter Sellers. (Bates had lived in India as a boy). Interestingly 'The Simpsons' contains an Indian family whose 'jolly good, sahib' voices and behaviour would be pretty much unacceptable on a British TV programmae today and is very similar to the portrayal of the asian characters in 'It ain't half hot...'. The pint size singer Don Estelle formed an unlikely duo with Sergeant Major Windsor Daies for a few UK hits. Sadly Don is now reduced to busking round Lancashire towns in his 'It Ain't Half...' costume these days.

When I first saw this series when it first came on air I thought it good but a bit of a Dad's Army knockoff.

Its been a few decades since I last watched this and I must admit to a change of mind, its better (just).

A look at the wartime Raj a few years before it finally expired often through the eyes a Punkah Wallah Ramzan, a Cha Walla Muhammad and a first class bearer Rangi Ram. The show was supposed to be about the troop but the show to me was always more fun when looked at through the eyes of these three.

The troops themselves are a military entertainment troop (concert party) of supposed actors musicians, singers and performers but dear god they are gloriously crap at it.

Only enlisted soldiers in a steaming hot jungle world war hell, fighting suicidally fanatical enemies could possibly watch their show and call it entertainment.

But that's the joke, this is the only place they could perform and be applauded rather than be kicked to the curb by the theatres manager (if the audience didn't string em up first.)

But apposing them is not a katana wielding fanatical enemy army, it is in fact their own sergeant major (sergeant shaddup) Wilson who is aware all to well what they are up to but is powerless to prevent their skiving by...

The commanding officers who want to keep the morale of troops temporarily detained at the base (and require that they not end up in the jungle themselves.)

Every character had their thing as it where both as a character and an act even the one who didn't have act Gunner Parky made not having or being able to act his act.

But it is both Bearer Rangi & sergeant Shuddup who shine best acting with a voice body and face all at once so well you can almost see what they are feeling (or scheming) before they do or announce it.

Well that is a lot of praise I originally thought was only okay, isn't it.

Well its not all Banjo & chips I'm afraid.

Sadly Michael Bates who played Ranji passed away after 36 episodes and then 10 episodes later Barbar Bhatti left the show.

It wasn't the same, the show just didn't work from then on without the three of them trying to decipher the plans (mistakes & incompetence) of their colonial masters (idiots) where doing.

And like many shows that run this long they where running out of steam script wise.

They had been stuck in the last few months of 1945 for some eight years by its end and the cast where starting to show their age for young gunners in 1945 India & Burma.

Still it is overall a great watch of a time long gone.

This is a BBC sitcom set in 1945. It's about a Royal Artillery Concert Party. The first four series are set in India; the latter four are set in Burma.

This is painfully bad to watch, because all of the members of the concert party are appallingly bad entertainers. After I watched it, I read that the characters are supposed to be awful entertainers - and that's what's meant to be the main source of the show's humour. However, that makes them unpleasant to watch and listen to - and it's just the same bad joke repeated in every episode. It's also unrealistic - if all members of a concert party were bad entertainers, they'd be fired.

Dad's Army may be a classic but this series by the same scriptwriters involving a similar but more youthful crowd of army misfits generally has more laughs per episode and is a lot funnier. The scene after the closing titles where Sergeant Major Williams barks "shut up" at Char Wallah Mohammed never ceases to be funny. The series lost something when Michael Bates died (you know, there's an old Hindu proverb....). Don Estelle has a marvellous singing voice and another running joke in the programme was the performances where he played romantic heroes like Nelson Eddy or Ivor Novello and he'd have Melvyn Hayes (Gloria) as his leading lady. This programme has been frequently criticised as racist but frankly the various Indians, Malaysians and Burmese who used to appear in it were usually portrayed as smarter and more sorted out than the Sergeant Major and his platoon. Sergeant Major Williams has a fair bit of trouble with the King's English (degrading to the Welsh?), Gunner Atlas Mackintosh takes offence very quickly, particularly with Gloria (insulting to Scots?) and Captain Ashwood is an upper-class twit (so that degrades the English?). The BBC seems to show Dad's Army practically every waking day and "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" should be seen more often too. It's a classic and has a big fan following.

acting very good windsor davies very good as williams and others actors were very good I like it I thought the writing is good very good series