40 Fun Facts About It Ain't Half Hot Mum

Which Welsh actor bellowed his way through It Ain't Half Hot Mum as Battery Sergeant Major Williams?

Windsor Davies drew on bullying sergeants he had met during his own national service. Before turning professional at 31 he had worked as a coal miner and a schoolteacher.

Which old song took It Ain't Half Hot Mum's Sergeant Major and Gunner Sugden to UK number one in 1975?

Whispering Grass spent three weeks at the top, with the tenor singing it straight and the Sergeant Major growling spoken interruptions in character. Their follow-up, Paper Doll, stalled at number 41.

Which Hollywood star, in London in 1974, reportedly liked only the Sergeant Major's voice in It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

John Wayne caught an episode on television while working in Britain and was otherwise unimpressed. Home audiences disagreed: the sitcom drew up to seventeen million viewers at its peak.

Which patriotic song does the char wallah start over It Ain't Half Hot Mum's closing credits before being silenced?

Land of Hope and Glory gets only a few bars from Muhammad the tea seller before the Sergeant Major roars at him to stop. Between scenes he also croons American hits to a sitar.

Which wartime sitcom had Jimmy Perry and David Croft already created before It Ain't Half Hot Mum began in 1974?

Dad's Army grew out of Perry's teenage spell in the Home Guard, and the pair then mined their own service in India for a second hit. Perry later called the newer show their favourite.

Don Estelle, the tiny tenor Gunner Sugden of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, was buried in 2003 with which costume item?

His pith helmet, comically oversized on a man of 4 ft 9 in, went into the grave with him in Rochdale. He had kept wearing the outfit for years, selling his own tapes in shopping centres.

In which country is the jungle village where It Ain't Half Hot Mum moves its soldiers from the fifth series onward?

Burma replaces India as the setting once the troupe is finally sent up the jungle, to a made-up village close to the fighting. The opening titles were reshot to match the move.

Which actor, a regular in Cliff Richard's 1960s films, played 'Gloria' Beaumont in It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

Melvyn Hayes appeared in all 56 episodes, his character rising from gunner to bombardier after the second series. He has since criticised the BBC for refusing to repeat the show.

John Clegg played Gunner Graham for all eight series of It Ain't Half Hot Mum without being able to do what?

Play the piano is the one thing he could not do, even though Graham is the troupe's accompanist. For the stage version of the show, a real musician had to take over the role.

Kenneth MacDonald, Gunner 'Nobby' Clark in It Ain't Half Hot Mum, later played landlord Mike Fisher in which sitcom?

Only Fools and Horses hired him in 1983 for what was meant to be a single episode, and he stayed until 1996. Christopher Mitchell, another of the gunners, turned up there too as a policeman.

Which young gunner in It Ain't Half Hot Mum does the Sergeant Major wrongly believe to be his own son?

Parkin is the son of a woman the Sergeant Major once courted in Colchester, so he alone gets praise for his blunders. His comrades even doctor a medical record to keep the mistake alive.

The title of It Ain't Half Hot Mum is a line from what, written by a new recruit in the first episode?

A letter home supplies the name: a young gunner, two days into his time in India, signs off by grumbling to his mother about the heat. His naive messages to her became a regular touch.

What ironic nickname does the very short Gunner Sugden answer to in the concert party of It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

Lofty was a joke at the expense of an actor who stood 4 ft 9 in tall. His tenor voice is the one thing in camp that even the Sergeant Major cannot resist.

Gunner Mackintosh, the strongman of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, takes his nickname from which famous bodybuilder?

Charles Atlas, the American whose famous adverts promised to transform a scrawny weakling, lends his name to the short-tempered gunner. Mackintosh's act is tearing telephone directories in half.

Which Indian character in It Ain't Half Hot Mum was played, in much-criticised make-up, by the India-born Michael Bates?

Rangi Ram went to a white actor because the writers said they could find no suitable Indian performer at the time. Bates spoke fluent Urdu and had served in the war as an officer with the Gurkha Rifles.

How does the Indian bearer usually close an episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, turning straight to the viewers?

With a Hindu proverb, usually a daft one about something like one-eyed tigers, he breaks the fourth wall in the early series. The sign-off vanished when the character left after series five.

In It Ain't Half Hot Mum, what is the daily job of Ramzan, who sits outside the officers' quarters?

Working the fan means tugging a string that swings a large fan inside the room. Ramzan mutters his verdict on events in Urdu, and he is usually proved right in the end.

To which regiment of the British Army do the gunners and bombardiers of It Ain't Half Hot Mum belong?

Royal Artillery troops are nicknamed the Gunners, and co-writer Jimmy Perry had served in one of the regiment's own troupes in India. He based each character on a man he knew there.

At which real army depot in India, where co-writer Jimmy Perry had served, is It Ain't Half Hot Mum first set?

Deolali was a British Army camp north-east of Bombay where men waited for ships home. The long waits there are said to have given slang the word doolally, meaning mad.

Which Goon reportedly rated the Sergeant Major of It Ain't Half Hot Mum the funniest comic performance he had seen?

Spike Milligan and the performer were both in the 1973 film of Milligan's war memoir, where the future Sergeant Major also played a sergeant.

In which ITV sitcom did It Ain't Half Hot Mum's Sergeant Major play an antiques dealer feuding with Donald Sinden?

Never the Twain ran for eleven series from 1981, the very year the army comedy ended. The two stars played former business partners who are now next-door neighbours and bitter enemies.

Which 1976 film cast It Ain't Half Hot Mum's Sergeant Major and 'Gloria' as near-copies of their sitcom roles?

Carry On England put the pair in an experimental anti-aircraft battery, one bellowing and the other as his delicate foil. It was the second and last film in the series for the man barking the orders.

Which actor, later Major Yamauchi in Tenko, played the bandit chief 'Pretty Boy' Me Thant in It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

Burt Kwouk, best known as Cato in the Pink Panther films, plays a smuggler paid in gold by headquarters to leave the British troops alone. He ends up tied to a plank.

Which actor, Paul Collier in the Doctor sitcoms, played Bombardier 'Solly' Solomons in It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

George Layton left after two series, feeling that Solly was not developing, and the character was written out. He went on to create the sitcoms Don't Wait Up and Executive Stress.

Dino Shafeek, the char wallah of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, also played student Ali Nadim in which ITV sitcom?

Mind Your Language ran from 1977 to 1979, so he played both parts at once. Born and raised in Dhaka, he had moved to Britain in 1958.

Donald Hewlett and Michael Knowles, It Ain't Half Hot Mum's officers, later played brothers in which sitcom?

You Rang, M'Lord? made Hewlett the lord of the manor, a part written specially for him, and Knowles his younger brother Teddy. It was the last series Perry and Croft wrote together.

What is Battery Sergeant Major Williams's one great ambition for his performers in It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

Send them into action is all he wants, as the camp's only professional soldier, disgusted by men in dresses and make-up. A sealed message later reveals that he is secretly fond of them.

Home recordings of two wiped first-series episodes of It Ain't Half Hot Mum turned up in which country in 1988?

Australia's Channel 7 had shown the episodes, and a viewer's off-air tapes survived after the BBC wiped its own copies. About four minutes are missing because the station trimmed them to fit its slot.

Which UK channel began showing It Ain't Half Hot Mum uncut in 2023, long after the BBC stopped repeating it?

That's TV set out to screen every episode in full, including the two recovered from home tapes, with nothing edited out. The BBC had long since dropped the sitcom from its own repeats.

Which British comedian said in 2010 that It Ain't Half Hot Mum was really about class differences, not race?

Sanjeev Bhaskar called the criticism of the show's white actor in an Indian role too simplistic, praising his comic timing and likening the quick-witted bearer to Sergeant Bilko.

What is the It Ain't Half Hot Mum theme song called, performed on stage by the cast in the opening titles?

Meet the Gang was written by Jimmy Perry with Derek Taverner, the pair behind the theme to his earlier wartime comedy. It also gave the very first episode its title.

Don Estelle's 1975 chart-topper with his It Ain't Half Hot Mum co-star came from an old single by which vocal group?

The Ink Spots recorded the song in 1940, and the singer had bought their single for sixpence years before. His co-star could not sing, so he spoke his part in a deep growl instead.

The It Ain't Half Hot Mum cast album of 1975 was recorded in a single day at which famous London studio?

Abbey Road hosted the whole cast on 25 January 1975 for an album of monologues and 1940s songs. One track from that day went on to top the singles chart.

Which animal follows Gunner Sugden back to camp in a fourth-series episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

An elephant trails him home in an episode whose title calls it his little friend. Sugden is also the man always picked to volunteer for any unpleasant or dangerous task.

Which comedy actress guest-starred in It Ain't Half Hot Mum as a female officer pursuing one of the camp's officers?

June Whitfield appears in the 1980 episode Dog in the Manger, showering her unwilling target with attention. Later guests on the series included Barry Cryer and Henry McGee.

Mike Kinsey's gunner in It Ain't Half Hot Mum became 'Nosher' after David Croft saw the actor doing what?

Eating pie and chips during a break was a rare event, since Kinsey did not usually have lunch on set. From then on he had to deliver every line with his mouth full.

What happens to the soldiers in The Last Roll Call, the closing episode of It Ain't Half Hot Mum?

They are demobilised after reaching home at the end of the war. The Sergeant Major's new ration book gives him initials that contradict the name he used in an earlier series.

It Ain't Half Hot Mum's Sergeant Major voiced the robot Sergeant Major Zero in which 1983 Gerry Anderson series?

Terrahawks cast him as a spherical robot soldier in command of a hundred others, trading on the parade-ground bark that had made him famous.

Stuart McGugan, Mackintosh in It Ain't Half Hot Mum, presented which BBC children's programme for over ten years?

Play School took him on in 1975, while he was still tearing up telephone directories as the army strongman. He later made his film debut as a taxi driver in Trainspotting.

The actor behind 'Gloria' in It Ain't Half Hot Mum later voiced the villain Skeleton in which children's cartoon?

SuperTed gave him a second career in voice work from 1983, playing a flamboyant bag of bones. He had started out in 1950 as a conjurer's assistant, performing the Indian rope trick.