The Navy Lark

THE NAVY LARK The Navy Lark was a radio sit-com about life aboard a British Royal Navy frigate named HMS Troutbridge, based in HMNB Portsmouth, though in series 1 and 2 the ship and crew were stationed offshore at an unnamed location known simply as "The Island." In series 2 this island was revealed to be owned by Lt Cmdr Stanton. The series was transmitted on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently BBC Radio 2. It was produced by Alastair Scott-Johnston, and written by Laurie Wyman (with George Evans from the 12th Series onwards). For most of its run, it starred Stephen Murray, Jon Pertwee and Leslie Phillips. Plot Programmes were self-contained, although there was continuity within the series, and there would sometimes be a reference to a previous episode. A normal episode consisted of silly-ass Sub Lieutenant Phillips, scheming Chief Petty Officer Pertwee and bemused Lt. Murray trying to get out of trouble they created for themselves without being found out by their direct superior, Commander (later Captain) "Thunderguts" Povey. Scenes were frequently stolen by a string of priceless eccentric characters,often played by Ronnie Barker. CAST * Dennis Price ..... Lieutenant Price ('Number One') (Series 1) * Leslie Phillips .... Sub Lieutenant Phillips * Jon Pertwee ..... Chief Petty Officer Pertwee / Commander Weatherby / Vice-Admiral "Burbly" Burwasher * Stephen Murray ... Lt/Lt Commander Murray ('Number One') * Richard Caldicot ... Commander/Captain Povey * Ronnie Barker .... Able Seaman Johnson/Lt Commander Stanton / Commander Bell / Lieutenant Queeg * Heather Chasen ... Mrs. Ramona Povey / WREN Chasen / Lady Toddhunter-Brown * Tenniel Evans .... Able Seaman (later Leading Seaman) Taffy Goldstein / Admiral Ffont-Bittocks / Sir Willoughby Toddhunter-Brown * Michael Bates .... Able Seaman Ginger / Lt. Bates / Rear Admiral Ironbridge / Padre / Captain Ignatius Aloysius Atchison * Judy Cornwell .... WREN Cornwell * Laurie Wyman .... Inspector Burt Tiddy / various Production The series relied heavily upon extreme accents and voice impediments for its humour, as well as a good deal of innuendo. The programme featured musical breaks with a main harmonica theme by Tommy Reilly and several enduring catchphrases, most notably from Sub Lieutenant Phillips: "Corrrrr"..."Ooh, nasty...", "Oh lumme!" and "Left hand down a bit". "Ev'rybody down!" was a phrase of CPO Pertwee's, necessitated by a string of incomprehensible navigation orders by Phillips, and followed by a sound effect of the ship crashing. Also, whenever Pertwee had some menial job to be done, Able Seaman Johnson was always first in line to do it, inevitably against his will: "You're rotten, you are!". The telephone response from Naval Intelligence (Evans), was always an extremely gormless and dimwitted delivery of "'Ello, Intelligence 'ere" or 'This is intelligence speakin'" Other recurring verbal features were the invented words "humgrummits" and "floggle-toggle" which served to cover all manner of unspecified objects ranging from foodstuffs to naval equipment. With the death of Tenniel Evans on June 10, 2009, Leslie Phillips is the last surviving male cast member. Reception The series made household names of Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Richard Caldicot, but Ronnie Barker's versatile contributions were only recognised after he had become better known through television comedy. Michael Bates later appeared on television as Blamire in Last of the Summer Wine and as Rangi Ram in It Ain't Half Hot Mum. Judy Cornwell was later to appear in the short series Moody and Pegg, but became best known when she was cast as Daisy, one of Hyacinth Bucket's sisters in Keeping Up Appearances. Dennis Price returned for a guest appearance in the fourth series episode A Hole Lieutenant. Repeats can regularly be heard on BBC7. Sequels and adaptations There were several radio sequels, including The Embassy Lark and The Big Business Lark. The TV Lark was intended to be a replacement for The Navy Lark starting with what would have been the series' fifth season. The entire cast had been drummed out of the service (as the announcer puts it) and hired by Troutbridge TV Ltd. However, each episode veered closer and closer back to its Naval origins — until finally the ongoing plot was that Murray, Phillips, and Pertwee were in charge of producing a weekly TV show about life in the Navy! At some point, probably due to public pressure, the production team of Sir Alastair Scott-Johnston and Laurie Wyman gave in, and episode ten of The TV Lark revealed that CPO Pertwee had arranged to get the entire crew demobbed so he could flog almost the entirety of HMS Troutbridge. In 1959 a film version was made, written by Laurie Wyman and Sid Colin and directed by Gordon Parry. It starred Cecil Parker, Ronald Shiner, Leslie Phillips and Nicholas Phipps. Wyman wrote for a television sitcom HMS Paradise (Associated-Rediffusion, 1964-5) set in a naval shore establishment in which Caldicot played Captain Turvey, but only one series was made. In 1977, an episode was written for and about, Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee and broadcast on BBC Radio 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Navy_Lark Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.