‘SHOWING THE FLAG’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Series 2 of ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ is where we get into more serialised territory as opposed to episodic storytelling. By that, I mean the end of one episode leading into the next one. That’s the case with ‘Showing the Flag’. The episode finishes with the ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ gang off for the jungle.

It begins with the Sgt-Major being irritated by the Concert Party’s inability to correctly perform an evening ceremony where the British flag has to be taken down the mast. It was funny when the Sgt-Major made the assumption that ‘Lofty’ Sudgen could play the bugle when he was in the bugle band.

In actual fact, Lofty performed the drums in the band, not the bugle. I’m surprised the Sgt-Major didn’t know that from reading the records. 😀 Perhaps it wasn’t on Lofty’s record. 😐 It was also funny to see the antics between Gloria and the Sgt-Major, as they struggled in folding up the British flag. 🙂

It was also funny when the mast collapsed the wrong way. The Concert Party were meant to catch it in the other direction on the Sgt-Major’s instructions. Soon, an entertainments officer arrives from Delhi, with orders that the Concert Party has to perform in the jungle. The Sgt-Major is delighted. 😀

Barry Sinclair guest stars as Nigel, the lieutenant colonel who is the entertainments officer from Delhi. The episode also features Ishaq Bux as a fortune-telling Wallah who predicts Glora’s future. This is the second time Ishaq Bux has appeared in ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’, since he was in Series 1. 🙂

He was in ‘The Road to Bannu’ as the stationmaster. He would go on to be in three more episodes of ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’. When the Sgt-Major tells the Concert Party are to head off into the jungle, he also takes advantage of making Parkin stay in the Deolali depot, saying he has a case of dandruff.

Eventually, when the Concert Party are to head off into the jungle, Colonel Reynolds informs everyone that he, Captain Ashford, the Sgt-Major and Parkin are accompanying them too. The Sgt-Major is displeased, since he wanted to get rid of the Concert Party and remain at the Deolali depot.

After the episode’s end credits, we see the Concert Party heading off and leaving the Deolali depot. Before the end credits, Rangi Ram breaks the fourth wall by telling us an Indian proverb. This isn’t the first time that Rangi would break the fourth wall to us, as it would become a reoccurring pattern.

‘Showing the Flag’ rating – 8/10