MovieChat Forums > It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974) Discussion > Can you rank the 'seasons' best to worst...

Can you rank the 'seasons' best to worst?

posted 13 years ago by Scrugulus
11 replies | jump to latest

Hi,

I was interested to get the opinion from people who know all or most of the "seasons" of this show.
I have read elsewhere that 5-8 are supposedly less enjoyable than 1-4. I, however, have only seen 1-4 so far, and, to be honest, while I found the third series extremely mediocre, found the fourth almost unbearably bad.
Now, having heard that 5-8 are allegedly inferior to the first four "seasons", I am naturally hesitant to buy any more of the DVDs, in spite of the degree of amusement I got from the first two "seasons", in particular.

"I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me."
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[–] Anton_Kreitzer 11 years ago

I recently finished watching the programme, and while it is hard to rank by series, generally the Deolali years were better, although the Burma years came into their own after a couple of seasons, and the show is good until the very end.

[–] DSNForever 11 years ago

I liked the change to Burma, no modern show would ever completely change the setting of their series! I've often wondered if the writers were inspired by the Phil Silvers Show, where they moved camps halfway through the series.

[–] laurence01 10 years ago

I liked the change to Burma, no modern show would ever completely change the setting of their series! I've often wondered if the writers were inspired by the Phil Silvers Show, where they moved camps halfway through the series.

I think you will find that the change in setting was simply inspired by what really happened at that point during the war.

Let Zygons Be Zygons.

[–] samson_k 10 years ago

I do remember reading in an interview with Croft that part of the change was due to the fact that Michael Bates was very ill with cancer and it seemed as though he wasn't going to appear in the 5th series and the writers could not imagine the Deolali camp without his character being present.

Bates did manage to appear in one season set in Burma before he died but I think that his illness was one of the main reasons for the change.

[–] Scrugulus 11 years ago

Thank you for your answers.

As I said, I found seasons 1 and 2 superior to 3 and 4.
I am currently stuck in the middle of my "You Rang, M'Lord?" box set. Once I'm finished, maybe I'll rewatch some of "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" and then decide whether to buy additional seasons - although they'd need to be pretty cheap to tempt me, I suppose.....

"I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me."
4

[–] icequeen_vienna 10 years ago

I actually preferred the later seasons - there seemed to be more shows performed which were hysterically funny!

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

i personally like the first two seasons with bombadier solomons the most.

[–] Scrugulus 8 years ago

Yupp, Solomons is a big reason why I prefer those two seasons. He is not even THAT great a character on his own. But he sort of provides a lot of balance to the rest of the characters, a balance that seems to go missing later.

"I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me."
 4 

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

Yes, that's it. he's not particularly funny, but somehow he holds things together.

personally i didn't care much for the later seasons, though they have their moments.

[–] HollingsWolves 8 years ago

Exactly. I do think he's funny, personally, but it's maybe in a more subtle way than some of the others. I did read that GL wanted to leave because he felt he wasn't getting enough 'funny lines', and that it was only years later that he appreciated that the character had been one of the lynchpins.

Solly and Gloria were also something of a double act and invariably paired together in S1 + 2, so that seemed to leave Gloria a bit lost sometimes from 3 onwards?