July 12, 2022 - 4:30pm
Charles Moore has dug up quite the quote from Tory leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt today. In her 2021 book Greater: Britain After The Storm she reveals that she hates Dad’s Army and the other sitcoms written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
This sounds desperately trivial, because it is, but Moore has really exposed Mordaunt’s flank here. Asking the British public to like you — more specifically, asking elderly Tory members — if you hate Dad’s Army, is a bit like the cat bin woman hoping to be made CEO of the RSPCA.
Hilariously Mordaunt describes It Ain’t Half Hot Mum as “a full-house bingo card of… casual racism, homophobia, white privilege, colonialism, transphobia, bullying, misogyny and sexual harassment”.
Yes, all those things are, technically, depicted and mostly they come from one character, Sergeant Major ‘Shut up!’ Williams. But there is no malice in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, and they are all depicted as bad things.
Sergeant Major Williams is not the hero. He is the butt of almost every joke. The main wellspring of the humour comes from his utter lack of comprehension at the gleeful naughtiness and informality of the concert party. At the party is an amiable jumble of hopeless young men, including a drag queen, and a boffin, as well as Indian and Burmese characters. The final episodes treats Williams as a pitiable figure and, tellingly, Muhammed the ‘chah wallah’ sets off for Britain to join his friends. It would actually be very easy to read this show as a ‘queer-positive’ satire on the fading days of a laughable empire.
Trying to map 21st century social justice ideology onto it is hilarious, and rather like — in fact, exactly like — a politician in 1972 opining on George Robey, 1922’s ‘Prime Minister of Mirth’.
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SubscribeIt Ain’t Half Hot Mum – surely the Right Honourable member for Wokesborough means It Ain’t Half Hot, Gestational Parent. The same for Non-Birthing-Parent’s Army.
Lol. Non-gestational Parent’s Army, Some Birthing People Do Have ‘Em.
I wonder when the left-wing publication Mother Jones will change its name to keep up with the times.
And then there’s ‘Some Birthing Parents Do ‘Ave ‘Em!’.
A pathetic attempt at being on trend which should consign Mordaunt to the depths of the backbenches, with constituency invitations to speak at Tory fete openings where she can boast about her wokeness as she gives out prizes for the best Victoria sponge.
When I did my Pre Sandhurst training at the then Guards Depot, Pirbright, our Lance S’arnt PTI nick named me ‘ Sooty’ as I had a ‘ foreign name, part Italian as it happens! I thought it was actually very funny.. and he was a lovely man..
It’s very risky, to write something serious about humour. It’s all too easy to fall flat on your face. Lefties do it with monotonous regularity, but then the poor ducks really do struggle with a sense of humour. The basic problem is that they take themselves far too seriously.
The point, surely, about Dad’s Army and It Ain’t Half Hot Mum is that they are realistic portrayals of wartime service. Patriotism, discomfort, frustration, incompetence and boredom are all mixed in with the very occasional flash of terrifying danger. For every Jack Hawkins, looking stern on the bridge of a warship, there were fifty stokers in the engine room, who had not the foggiest idea what was going on.
However, “What all these shows do have is a sense of community and togetherness among those at the bottom of the heap, and a generous, big-hearted spirit.” Spot-on, Mr. Roberts.
I do agree with you David except that most stokers would be found in the boiler room(s)
What is wrong with these feeble politicians that that they cannot see that these old series were a poke at the eccentricities of normal British people, What with the problems this country, along with many others, face we need tough robust minded leaders not self serving wimps.
Agree 99% with this article, but subtle than ‘we were laughing at Williams’ indeed quality writing is always better than that. Sgt Mjr Williams is also loved and we don’t laugh AT him when he says, “You.. is a poof” it’s just funny because it’s true, Windsor Davies was a funny man, and we were just less worried then, saw the silliness of it all. Viewers are not laughing at outrageous homophobia being lampooned, that’s deluded and reading back into something that wasn’t there. But that doesn’t make it homophobic in any meaningful sense. Everyone gets the mick taken, nobody gets it taken too badly. We’re all in it together. Protected characteristics should not mean immunity from humour.
It’s not homophobic because as the article rightly says, it’s all done in warmth and love and Gloria is loved and accepted, actually by Williams also deep down. Despite their differences they work, somehow, and it’s heartwarming to see.
Except to Penny, who thinks Dad’s Army is too white, too straight, too whatever, and as is rightly argued, it’s like trying to get votes from people by telling them you basically hate everything they love, and by extension, them. Not a great move really.
Yeah, my recollection of the final episode is that they had all been ready to tell Williams all sorts when they get demobbed, but instead, seeing him out of uniform, they can’t bring themselves to do it. Williams ends up going off with the one who was hinted at being his illegitimate son (I forget the names) to see the lad’s mother.
There should be no “protected characteristics”. Period.
The idea that some people deserve more legal freedom and protection than others is just wrong.
Some might even point out that it’s discriminatory.
As demonstrated here, in her earnest and humourless attempt to appeal to people who will always despise her and her party, Penny M entirely misses the point about It Ain’t Half Hot Mum (ah, happy childhood memories). I’m reminded of those who condemn as racist those other classics, Til Death Us Do Part and Love Thy Neighbour, because they used the N-word and other now-proscribed language. In reality both programmes satirised white working class bigotry – Alf Garnett was ridiculed by his lefty son-in-law (played by the future father-in-law of Tony Blair), and the black couple in Love Thy Neighbour were delightful, attractive and intelligent, the polar opposite of their white neighbours.
Most people forget, or did not ” get” the last episode of Dad’s Army, when to the Pooteresque snob Captain Mainwaring, his much derided clerk and Sergeant appears for his wedding in his WW1 uniform as a Captain in The Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) replete with Military Cross!!!!
Dad’s Army is actually an excellent primer in leadership. For all his self-importance and pretension, Mainwaring always does his duty and leads from the front. When there is a dangerous task to be undertaken, e.g. climbing up a telegraph pole to deal with an unexploded bomb lodged in the wires, it’s Mainwaring who does it. Yes, he’s something of a figure of fun – but a brave one.
Mordaunt seems to be humour-free, which is a big flaw for someone in public office. Could explain why she hardly ever smiles. More than this, she’s FAKE – she’s trying to now present herself as someone she isn’t.
‘… Mordaunt describes It Ain’t Half Hot Mum as “a full-house bingo card of… casual racism, homophobia, white privilege, colonialism, transphobia, bullying, misogyny and sexual harassment”.’
Don’t believe anyone who asserts that wokery is confined to Left Wing, ‘progressive’ political parties. The Woking Class is very much alive and kicking hard throughout the rank and file of the Tory Party.
God help us if this woman becomes PM!
More like this please. Mordaunt would be the fourth Tony Blair tribute act in a row from our ‘Conservative’ party and it’s laughable that she’s being so talked up by journalists (who naturally fawn all over her because she says everything they think).
It should be mandatory for all serious politicians to love this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvmRI6K8TS8
Kemi would never have said that.
I’m not going to comment on PM’s baffling war for woke. She is my neighbouring MP in a constituency she has done well to hold her majority. But it’s still a marginal, bellwether one. If the Tories lose, ok they will lose next election, they will lose their leader
Great article. I could not agree more. To judge past times by today’s values is so unfair. What is wonderful about British humour is that it is often self-deprecating and revels in the ridiculous. However, Penny Mordaunt is the judgemental voice of the next generation who are undoubtedly ‘woke’.
Presumably she thinks she might appeal to the young people who might join the Tory Party. That won’t happen. If they join anything it will be Labour/Lib Dem/Greens.
TYPICAL COMMENTS ! for gods sake give them the chance at least ,stop judging until you have something to judge !!!!!
Actually all she’s saying is that doesn’t find the shows funny. Nothing wrong with that. Her reasons for this may be unfathomable to the likes of you, but that’s humour for you.