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Global Telly Talk
Classic UK TV
The Great British Sitcom
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<blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 70623" data-attributes="member: 22"><p>I've just finished the first two series of <em>It Ain't Half Hot Mum</em>. Not a show I would have even considered (re)watching (I have vague memories of it as a kid), but I was given the series box set by a comedy afficiando for my birthday last year. So far, it's funny and clever and hugely endearing. The jewel in its crown is also the reason it's been more or less airbrushed (unfairly, in my opinon) from British sitcom history: Michael Bates' exquisitely judged, affectionate (and yes, cocoaed-up) performance as bearer Ranji Rahm. </p><p></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]VSy4KPdTY1U[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>It's a fascinating character -- on one level, he's so devoted to his British "superiors" that he's kind of in denial about being Indian himself (which, of course, Bates, the actor, wasn't), yet at the same time, he discreetly outwits the stupid white men with help from his native peers (who are played by <em>real </em>Indians). Alongside that, you've got the heterosexual military brass absent-mindedly lusting over the resident concert party, who are just a bunch of oiks in dresses -- an arrangement which only the permanently outraged Sergeant Major (the brilliant Windsor Davies) ever questions. He'd be happy to ship them all up the jungle except that he believes one of the party (the stupidest one of the bunch) to be his illegimate son. The genius bit is that the lad<em> isn't</em> his son and everybody knows it but him. So it's slightly tragic as well as broadly humourous.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James from London, post: 70623, member: 22"] I've just finished the first two series of [I]It Ain't Half Hot Mum[/I]. Not a show I would have even considered (re)watching (I have vague memories of it as a kid), but I was given the series box set by a comedy afficiando for my birthday last year. So far, it's funny and clever and hugely endearing. The jewel in its crown is also the reason it's been more or less airbrushed (unfairly, in my opinon) from British sitcom history: Michael Bates' exquisitely judged, affectionate (and yes, cocoaed-up) performance as bearer Ranji Rahm. [MEDIA=youtube]VSy4KPdTY1U[/MEDIA] It's a fascinating character -- on one level, he's so devoted to his British "superiors" that he's kind of in denial about being Indian himself (which, of course, Bates, the actor, wasn't), yet at the same time, he discreetly outwits the stupid white men with help from his native peers (who are played by [I]real [/I]Indians). Alongside that, you've got the heterosexual military brass absent-mindedly lusting over the resident concert party, who are just a bunch of oiks in dresses -- an arrangement which only the permanently outraged Sergeant Major (the brilliant Windsor Davies) ever questions. He'd be happy to ship them all up the jungle except that he believes one of the party (the stupidest one of the bunch) to be his illegimate son. The genius bit is that the lad[I] isn't[/I] his son and everybody knows it but him. So it's slightly tragic as well as broadly humourous. [/QUOTE]
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