It Ain't Half Hot Mum is a British television sitcom about a Royal Artillery concert party based in Deolali in British India and the fictional village of Tin Min in Burma, during the final months of the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who had both served in similar roles in India during that war.
Fifty-six episodes were broadcast across eight series on BBC1 between 1974 and 1981, most of which cover a real-time historical period of approximately thirteen weeks. Each episode ran for thirty minutes. The title originates from the first episode, in which young Gunner Parkin (Christopher Mitchell) writes home to his mother in England. In 1975, a recording of "Whispering Grass" performed by Don Estelle and Windsor Davies in character as Gunner "Lofty" Sugden and Sergeant Major Williams (respectively), reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and remained there for three weeks.
The series, which attracted up to seventeen million viewers in its heyday, has been accused of racism, homophobia and a pro-imperialist attitude. One specific criticism has been the casting of white actor Michael Bates as an Indian character, with darkening makeup that some have compared to blackface. Bates however was born in India and was fluent in Hindi and Urdu.
Premise
Set in 1945, the series follows a Royal Artillery concert party during the final months of the Second World War. The main characters are performers in the base's concert party; their duties involve performing comic acts and musical numbers (similar to those seen in a music hall) for other soldiers prior to their departure for the front lines. The concert party prevents the soldiers from partaking in combat duty; thus, the soldiers love being part of the outfit. Some even daydream of becoming world-famous actors when they leave the army.
Many songs of the era were performed by the cast in their re-enactment of wartime variety shows.
Theme
The theme song for the show, titled "Meet The Gang", was performed by cast members Mike Kinsey, Stuart McGugan, Melvyn Hayes, George Layton, Christopher Mitchell, Don Estelle and Kenneth MacDonald who were filmed as they danced and sang the song on stage; close-up shots of the seven as well as shots of Michael Bates, Windsor Davies, John Clegg, Dino Shafeek and Barbar Bhatti (and other non-main actors who appeared in an episode) were inserted. When Layton left after series 2, the theme was re-filmed to only have Kinsey, McGugan, Hayes, Mitchell, Estelle and MacDonald on stage.
The theme was reshot again in series 5 when the concert party moved to Burma. Insert shots of Bates and Bhatti were removed from the opening and ending following Bates's death after series 5 and Bhatti's departure after series 6. Series 7 and 8 feature insert shots of Andy Ho, who played Ah Syn.
Production
Development and casting
It Ain't Half Hot Mum is set in 1945 during the final months of the Second World War, in the period after the German surrender, when the Allies were attempting to finish the war by defeating Japan in Asia. The scripts make clear that the performers are members of a concert party of the Royal Artillery and are thus enlisted soldiers, rather than being members of ENSA. Initially, the British soldiers are stationed at the Royal Artillery Depot in Deolali, British India, where soldiers were kept before being sent to fight at the front lines. The series was based on the experiences of its creators during the Second World War; Jimmy Perry, aged nineteen, had been a member of a Royal Artillery concert party in Deolali, India, Michael Bates, who played Indian bearer Rangi Ram, died after the fifth series had been broadcast. They also recorded a top 10 LP, titled Sing Lofty. Ross wrote that Parky's relationship with Sergeant Major Williams gave the series "real heart".
- Gunner "Nobby" Clark (Kenneth MacDonald)
"Nobby" Clark performs a whistling act in the show, and can do excellent bird impersonations. He is not particularly clever and often makes nonsense comments or observations about situations in which they find themselves.
Indians
- Bearer Rangi Ram (Michael Bates)
Rangi Ram is the concert party's Indian bearer and very proud to be of service to the army. The Sergeant Major shouts at him more than at anyone else, but Rangi is also the one he confides in when he wants to talk about problems. Rangi often breaks the fourth wall, providing the audience with an "old Hindu proverb" at the end of each episode, such as "There is an old Hindu proverb which say that if you see two eyes looking at you in the dark, it is not always a tiger. It might be two one-eyed tigers!" He is devious, and can often manipulate the situation for his own ends, usually financial. A frequently recurring gag connected with Rangi Ram is his continual references to "we British" and "us British" while at the same time referring to the other Indian characters as "ignorant coolies" or "damned natives". However, when asked to burn the Indian flag by the Sergeant Major, he refuses. He frequently clears his throat with a hacking sound. Following the death of Michael Bates, Rangi disappears from the series without explanation at the end of Series 5.
- Chai Wallah Muhammad (Dino Shafeek)
Muhammed the char wallah walks around the camp all day, selling tea from his urn. He also sings the musical interruptions between the scenes, which are mostly American hit songs, accompanied by a sitar. At the end of the credits, he starts to sing "Land of Hope and Glory" only to be interrupted by the Sergeant Major shouting "SHUT UP!!!". After Rangi leaves, he takes on the role of Bearer to the concert party, as well as still being the Char Wallah.
- Punkah Wallah Ramzan (Barbar Bhatti)
Ramzan the punkah wallah always sits outside the officers' quarters, pulling a string that is attached to a large fan indoors. He comments on everything in Urdu, and always adds a few words in English at the end. Rangi often tells him to "sit up straight while you are punkah-ing" (with the word "sit" pronounced with an initial "sh" sound for comedic effect) and not to "be such Clever Dickie". He is far more intelligent than the others give him credit for, and much of what he observes early on is often borne out in the end, but no one notices. He disappears without explanation at the end of Series 6.
Others
Deolali, India
- Mrs Daphne Waddilove-Evans (Margaret Courtenay/Frances Bennett)
Mrs Waddilove-Evans is the wife of a local major, who lives in a large house near the camp in Deolali. In the earlier episodes, she is the lover of Colonel Reynolds; the two have a strong relationship, to the point when she accompanies the patrol on a journey to a nearby town. However, the group's vehicle breaks down and Rangi recommends that they spend the night in a nearby fort. The Colonel and Mrs Waddilove-Evans agree to meet at midnight and they do so. As Colonel Reynolds is distracted, Mrs Waddilove-Evans is kidnapped by a group of Pathan tribesmen and the concert party, Rangi, Muhammed and Rumzan attempt to save her. They are surprised when they meet her on a horse further on, having gained her freedom. It is implied that she escaped by granting sexual favours to the smugglers.
- Ling Soo (Yasuko Nagazumi)
Ling Soo is a local girl who works as a maid for Major and Mrs Waddilove-Evans. She and Sergeant Major Williams have a continuing relationship. Her father, the owner of the Deolali Chinese restaurant, arranges for Williams and Ling Soo to elope to the mountains and marry secretly. This horrifies Williams, for he would be classed as a deserter, and creates a dilemma for him; should he stay on at the camp, or should he marry Ling Soo? Eventually he reluctantly chooses his profession, and his relationship is not mentioned again.
- Inspector Singh (Nik Zaran)
The Inspector is the head of police in Deolali, who warns Colonel Reynolds and Captain Ashwood on a few occasions when the locals are rioting, demanding that the British go home.
Tin Min, Burma
- "Pretty Boy" Me Thant (Burt Kwouk)
Me Thant is a Burmese smuggler, who is bribed by GHQ with twenty pieces of gold a week to keep away from, and avoid assaulting, the local British troops. Later on, he challenges Sergeant Major Williams to a test to see which of the two is more "manly". Me Thant cheats to make sure he wins the test, but his gang is infiltrated by members of GHQ, resulting in him and his gang being tied against a small plank, "Burmese style".
- Ah Syn (Andy Ho)
Ah Syn is the cook for the camp later in the series, a man of Chinese ethnicity who served food that Captain Ashwood describes as "furniture stuffing". Gunner Graham in particular moans that the food is inedible and disgusting. When Captain Ashwood asks if he knows about spotted dick and toad in the hole, he misunderstands entirely and thinks that spotted dick is an illness.
Episodes
The series ran for eight series from 1974 to 1981. Each series had between six and eight episodes. In total, there were 56 episodes, and each had a duration of 30 minutes.
Missing episodes
Two episodes from the first series, "A Star is Born" and "It's a Wise Child", are currently missing from the BBC Archives, since they were wiped after their repeat broadcasts. In 1988, two off-air VHS recordings of the missing episodes were discovered in Australia
Reception
Contemporary reception
It Ain't Half Hot Mum attracted up to seventeen million viewers during its run.
American actor John Wayne was filming in London in 1974, and caught an episode on television. Unimpressed with what he was seeing, he is reported to have said: "Well, at least the guy playing the sergeant-major has a great voice".
Spike Milligan is reported to have considered Windsor Davies' performance the most comedic he had seen.
Criticisms of racism and homophobia
Unlike other sitcoms written by Perry and Croft, such as Dad’s Army, the series does not get repeated by the BBC, as it is regarded as differing from modern broadcasting standards concerning its content.
Perry told Guardian journalist Stuart Jeffries in 2003, "It is without doubt the funniest series that David Croft and I wrote. Of course, it is also the show that we're not allowed to talk about any more." Jeffries reported, "It's regarded as a racist show, and banished to the televisual margin that is UK Gold". In the opinion of journalist Neil Clark, for a profile of Perry written for The Daily Telegraph a decade later, it "appears to have fallen victim to political correctness". Clark maintains that the show is a classic of the sitcom genre.
The casting of the white actor Michael Bates as the Indian bearer Rangi Ram has been described as an example of blackface. The BBC website article about the series describes Bates as having "blacked up". The show's creators had been aware of the issues around the casting of a white actor wearing darkening makeup to play one of the Indian characters, but went ahead owing to the creators' belief that there was a lack of suitable Indian actors at the time.
Perry told an interviewer from Radio Times in 2014 about this rejection: "You might as well be in Stalin's Russia. You don't want to upset anyone". Jeffries asked Perry about the exchanges between the Battery Sergeant Major and the troupe, which went "You're a load of poofs! What are you?", followed by the standard response "We're a load of poofs!". Perry commented: "People complain that the language was homophobic, and it was, but it was exactly how people spoke." He referred to the behaviour of his own Sergeant Major in the concert party in India, who told them: "'No man who puts on make-up and ponces about on a stage is normal – what are you?' 'We're a bunch of poofs!' we'd reply".
The series' overall tone of sympathy towards imperialism is believed to be at least partly responsible for it being no longer repeated on British television in later years, or in the words of Stuart Jeffries in 2015, it contained "obliging underlings sporting cheerful grins that, even when I was a boy, made me cringe." A. A. Gill wrote in The Sunday Times in 2013, "Rather than being satirical, or dramatic, or even a parable, it relied solely on English prejudice and nostalgia". According to Mark Duguid, again for Screenonline, it suffers "from its narrow stereotypes of its handful of Indian supporting characters as alternately servile, foolish, lazy or devious". Neil Clark, in a 2005 article for The Times, said the series "delightfully lampooned the attitudes of the British in India".
On 16 June 2023, the series began repeats on That's TV. The intention was to screen all episodes of the series (including those retrieved from off-air recordings) in their complete broadcast form, without editing any potentially offensive material.
Home releases
All eight series have been released on DVD region codes 2 and 4. A complete collection box set, containing all eight series of the sitcom, was released on 4 October 2010 in Region 2 and re-released in 2018.