Left Hand Down a Bit

Driving to work early on a wednesday morning is a particular treat for me.

The car radio tuned into BBC 4extra on my short commute to the office starts up with a jaunty sea shanty type melody.

Although concentrating on keeping up with the rush-hour traffic I am transported back with the distinctive theme to a sunday lunchtime with my parents and siblings in the early 1970's.

In my early teens I was just one of an estimated 22  million radio listeners who enjoyed the comedy broadcasts of The Navy Lark before sitting down to a formal meal or if our Father was late back from the pub, during the main course .

I came to be a fan of the series quite late as it had already become established on the BBC Light Programme from its launch in 1959.

It revolved around the incompetent, bungling and misdemeanours of the officers and crew of a fictional naval frigate HMS Troutbridge.

The cast included well known actors from television and film such as Jon Pertwee (later to become Dr Who and Worzel Gummidge), Leslie Phillips, Tenniel Evans, Heather Chasen , Richard Caldicott and introduced Ronnie Barker.

The skill and craft of this tight knit group produced 550 different characters over the 18 years of the show and its 244 episodes.

The idea for the Navy Lark was from a chance meeting in 1958 between the BBC Head of Light Entertainment and a script writer for Jon Pertwee. The likes of The Army Game and Much Binding in the Marsh already represented two of the armed forces and so using the Royal Navy was a natural progression.

The late 1950's was still a time for National Service and so many called up to the military could identify with the subject matter of the show, although hopefully not to the same degree of mayhem and madness in reality.

The main writer Lawrie Weinman had been on the payroll with Tony Hancock and brought some of the chaotic style of comedy and its delivery from that background. Although under threat from television and the decline in the sunday lunch as a main family get together The Navy Lark became a firm favourite.

It has remained foremost in the minds and memories of those who heard it the first time around and the current re-runs are as funny and memorable as they were then.

Catchphrases, often overused and relied upon in modern comedy writing, originating from The Navy Lark have become firmly embedded in colloquial English.

Leslie Phillips as the enthusiastic but hapless Sub Lieutenant responsible for navigating Troutbridge
coined the phrases of "left hand down a bit" and "ooh, nasty" which were inevitably followed by a barrage of sound effects leaving the listener to easily visualise the impact of the ship with the Portsmouth naval dockyard, dock gates, bits of the UK coastline, other navy ships and many other maritime obstacles. The motto for Troutbridge soon became "Everybody Down" in anticipation of some momentous impact.

The other cast members developed their own characters to a similar comedic level. Commander Povey was the hard pressed senior ranking officer on shore and at the beck and call of his rather dominant and overbearing wife, Ramona. Tenniel Evans as Goldstein was a larger than life character being a combination of welsh and jewish traits. He blamed anti-welsh and english suppression for his often beleagured role on the crew. One of his themes was trying to get Troutbridge to run on welsh coal. Heather Chasen was a shore based Wren who was the target for the philandering Phillips. Jon Pertwee brought his amazing accents and dramatic nuances portraying the scheming and unscrupulous quatermaster who made a nice living out of purloining naval supplies and also including the stuttering and confused Commander Wetherby.

Ronnie Barker as Fatso Johnson was a revelation and first introduced in the series set the tone for his distinguished comedy and writing career in the following decades.

The long running series was a great hit amongst the Senior Service who received copies of the scripts prior to broadcast for vetting and also to authenticate the technical aspects.

I admit that my drive to work on a wednesday takes exactly the same amount of time as the re-runs of The Navy Lark which is a strange coincidence given that my commute is only 3 miles and on mondays, tuesdays and towards the end of the week takes considerably less time.