| abstract | - Yet another vintage BBC sitcom from before the days of political correctness. It Ain't Half Hot, Mum was written by the creators of Dads Army and featured many of the same tropes and stock characters. The show, which broadcast between 1974 and 1981, was about the adventures of a Royal Artillery Concert Party stationed in India (later Burma) during World War II. Main characters were:
* Lieutenant Colonel Charles Reynolds - stereotypical, stiff-upper-lip British army officer
* Captain Jonathan Ashwood - Reynolds' none too bright second in command
* Sergeant Major "Shut Up" Williams - hard as nails, the only true soldier among the main cast
* Bombardier "Solly" Solomons - Jewish bombardier (equivalent to a corporal)
* Gunner/Bombardier "Gloria" Beaumont - very effeminate, played the female lead in every show
* Gunner "Lofty" Sugden - short and fat, used to comic effect
* Gunner "Parky" Parkins - believed by Sergeant Major to be his son
* Gunner "Paderewski" Graham - upper class, university educated
* Gunner "Atlas" Mackintosh - tough Scotsman
* Gunner "Nobby" Clark - performed a whistling act, later a George Formby act
* Gunner "Nosher" Evans - always eating
* Rangi Ram - Indian "bearer", confidante to all
* Mohammed - Indian "char wallah", sells tea from a kettle. Later appointed to bearer in Rangi's stead
* Rumzan - Indian "punkah wallah"
* Ah Syn - Chinese cook, replaced Rumzan for the final series Common plot devices included conflict with the Indian locals, Sergeant Major's belief that Gunner Parkin might be his son, and his attempts to have the Concert Party "posted up the jungle". Eventually he was successful, and from the fifth series onwards the action relocated to Burma. The Concert Party would usually perform a musical number Once an Episode.
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