The Navy Lark | All The Tropes Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia All The Tropes Wiki File:Navy lark 9770.jpg Ladies and Gentlemen, we present... the Navy Lark. A radio comedy produced by The BBC which ran from 1959 to 1977 starring Leslie Phillips, Stephen Murray, Jon Pertwee, Richard Caldicott, Ronnie Barker, Heather Chasen, Tenniel Evans and loads of others. The Navy Lark followed the adventures of the Royal Navy's least wanted crew on HMS Troutbridge [1] as scheming Commander (promoted over the course of the series to Commodore) Povey tried to dump them overboard and they tried to avoid life on civvy street. Generally these were interspersed with CPO Pertwee's doomed-to-failure get-rich-quick schemes and Sub-Lieutenant Phillips' equally doomed attempts to chase down WRN Chasen. Tropes Include The Baroness - A Lighter and Softer version in the form of Forbodian spy Natasha Snogitoff. Bonnie Scotland - At one point Troutbridge is assigned to hunt for the Loch Ness monster.

Brits With Battleships - Mostly dented by Sub-Lieutenant Phillips, who caused more damage to naval property than two World Wars. Can't Hold His Liquor - Sub-Lieutenant Phillips, half a lemonade shandy and he is anyone's. Captain Crash - Sub-Lieutenant Phillips. He's cause more damage to Royal Naval property than both World Wars. Catch Phrase - Sub-Lieutenant Phillips' "Left hand down a bit", CPO Pertwee's "Everybody down!!", and Able/Leading Seaman Goldstein's "Starboard lookout here, Able Seaman Goldstein chatting". Ceiling Banger - The thin bedroom walls (and the requisite banging) were one of the reasons Commander Murray was so keen to move out of his parents-in-law house Chronically Crashed Frigate - Poor old HMS Troutbridge, the only ship in the Royal Navy with a corrugated iron-effect hull. The Clan - There are Pertwees in every branch of the UK services, all dedicated to running it for their own profit. Cloudcuckoolander - Sub-Lieutenant Phillips.

When it comes to this trope, Vice-Admiral 'Burbly' Burwasher takes the biscuit, the set of chunky tumblers and the collection of World Cup Winners' medals with three Bobby Charltons and still no Bobby Moore. They are, of course, kindred spirits: Birwasher: Hello, I like this fellow with the blond rinse. Yes... he doesn't know what the hell's going on either! Lt Cmdr Bell, during his time as the mostly-absent captain of Troutbridge, also counts. Comically Missing the Point - Phillips is prone to this, what with his being a Cloudcuckoolander and all. Companion Cube - Troutbridge herself is treated like this. Cryptid Episode : In one episode, the Troutbridge crew is reassigned to find the Loch Ness Monster. The Danza - All three of the central characters have the same names as the actors who played them. Did I Just Say That Out Loud? - Vice-Admiral 'Burbly' Burwasher who used to deliver all of his stream-of-consciousness internal monologues out loud, apparently completely unaware that he was doing it. Drill Sergeant Nasty - C.P.O.

Bull in the episode set during Phillip's naval training. Well at least according to Phillip's recollection anyway.. The Drunken Sailor - Several, but star example is Vice-Admiral Prout whose liver can be used to sole and heel boots. Eagle Land - Any visiting American character ended up here. Usually with only barely authentic American accents. Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" - "The Lad", the only member of Troutbridge's engineering crew who actually knows how the ship runs. Executive Meddling - It was decided halfway through the run that forces based humour had had its day and that the series would therefore be Retooled to be set in a tv studio and called The TV Lark. A few episodes were recorded before sanity prevailed and the whole ghastly thing became Canon Dis Continuity . The official Retcon in the last episode of The TV Lark showed it to be a particularly ambitious scheme by CPO Pertwee. Henpecked Husband - Povey. Honest John's Dealership - CPO Pertwee can sell anything from a can of beans to a battleship. Often without the previous owner knowing.

Would have had a minor Crowning Moment of Awesome by requisitioning all the Royal Navy's higher-class chairs to resell -- if Povey hadn't caught on. Incredibly Lame Pun - Number One was a frequent dealer of these. It was a Running Gag that he'd laugh at his own joke, and in everyone else there'd be an awkward silence. Insane Admiral - Too many to count, although Admiral Ffontbittocks can be disturbingly sane on occasion. Interactive Narrator and Lemony Narrator - in one episode having the cast abandon the story to go look at the narrator's dirty calendar. Not dirty, but a "Saucy Lillian Gish" calendar. Large Ham - Everyone, frequently leading to Ham-to-Ham Combat . Leaning on the Fourth Wall - Frequently. The characters often interacted at the beginning of the show, with the show's announcer, interrupting him during the show's introduction.

One episode has the characters engage in an Overly Long Gag wondering if they can pick up The Navy Lark on the radio, with Sub-Lieutenant Phillips and CPO Pertwee remarking on the quality of the characters of "The silly-ass Sub-Lieutenant" and scheming CPO, respectively. Lethal Chef - Johnson's attempt at pie making produced some very convincing substitutes for limpet mines. Lighthouse Point - One episode had Pertwee becoming a lighthouse keeper to try and become a smuggler. Limited Advancement Opportunities - Averted and played straight. Certain characters are introduced at the same rank they finished with (CPO Pertwee, Sub-Lieutenant Phillips), but others such as Commander, then Captain, then Commodore Povey and The Second Number One Lieutenant, then Lt Cmdr, then Commander Murray rise up the ranks as much as they would in the real navy. Notice however that the two straight examples of this trope are a petty crook and a cretin, respectively; who'd want to promote them? Phillips was supposed to go before a promotion board in one episode, but ended up being court-martialled instead thanks to some kind of paperwork screw-up and nothing ever came of it.

And Pertwee was a career NCO. As a Chief Petty Officer, he is pretty much at the top of his career tree. ...Unless the RN is totally different from the USN, that's inaccurate. Chief is topped by Senior and Master Chief PO. The RN is totally different from the USN. At the time Chief Petty Officer was the highest NCO rank in the Royal Navy. The modern form of Warrant Officers (originally called Fleet Chief Petty Officer) were not introduced until 1973, and the older form was abolished in 1949. One could be commissioned from CPO at this time, but that was only available to certain branches. Long Runner The Master - a recurring oriental/FuManchu villain. Funnily enough, The Master was played by Jon Pertwee, who would star in another show with an archvillain called "The Master"... Of course The Master had a Distaff Counterpart in the form of the imaginatively named The Mistress (played by Heather Chasen with an equally OTT accent), although the character was actually a case of The Dragon Lady .

My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels - CPO Pertwee's less-than-helpful Chinsese phrasebook. Noisy Shut Up - A bickering meeting of Mad Brass is brought to silence by the shout of "SHUT UP or I'll lock up the Gin". Any time Fatso Johnson is about to let the cat out of the bag on Pertwee's latest scheme, he is shut up with a very loud and rapid fire "BELT UP!!" from the panicked CPO. No Sense of Direction - Sub-Lieutenant Phillips, once mistook Shanklin (Isle Of Wight, just off England) for Shanghai amongst other blunders. Yes, he is the navigation officer. Sub-Lieutenant Phillips: Assuming we're not going down a one-way channel, and allowing for a nor'easterly up our Faroes -- they're the people who live next door to the Cromarties, they often play whist together. Not the Egyptian Pharaohs, because they're dead anyway. Now, if we hoist over our fast nets, I reckon that Portsmouth should be that way, or that way, or that way, but definitely not that way, because that's where we just come from.

So what we need now is a little touch of the old -- left hand down a bit... CPO Pertwee: Left hand down a bit -- eventually -- it is, Sir! Commander Murray: The awful thing is, he calls this "navigation". Sub-Lieutenant Phillips: If you think you can do better, sail on! See if I care! Commander Murray: Oh, no, no, no! I hate to interfere! The only thing that baffles me is how you know Sardinia is behind us, and why we're not sailing that way? Porky Pig Pronunciation - Commander Weatherby from Intelligence. Cmdr Weatherby (trying to buy an airline ticket to the Digital Islands):""I'd like a return ticket-t-t-t-t-t-ticket-t-t-t-t-t to the Digital-Digital-Digital I-mbrI-mbrI-mbrI-tidley-I-tidley-I, the Digital-mbrDigital-mbr-Digital-mbrI-tidley-tidley-mbro-mbro-mbro to hell with the Digital Islands, I'll go to Jersey". —The Admiral(explaining Weatherby's job): "No wonder he's head of security.

By the time he finished telling secrets to a foreign power they'd be out of date!" Then, there was CPO Pertwee doing a spot-on impression of Weatherby singing in the tub. After attempting to get, repeatedly through the first few words of 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," he ends with "oh, to Hell with it -- I've lost the soap!" Put on a Bus - The first Number One Lieutenant Price is put on loan to the US Navy at the end of series one. Later in the run they would try to do the same with Mister Phillips, but he accidentally got on a Forbodian ship and was kidnapped leading to a Pity the Kidnapper plot as he managed to sink half their fleet with his navigation and Troutbridge was forced to accept him back. Reassigned to Antarctica - How Povey ended up in charge of the Troutbridge mob to start with, and it almost happens to all of the cast at some point. Refuge in Audacity - How Pertwee usually ends up explaining things. Toward the beginning, they would refer to having seen the latest Carry On movie (e.g. Carry On Caveman) with that stupid blond with the mustache.

Sickeningly Sweethearts : Sub-Lieutenant Phillips and WRN Chasen when they finally make up. Pertwee responds with audible retching. Soldiers At the Rear : C.P.O. Pertwee dreads the spectre of active service, mainly because he's making a very good living selling navy stores on the black market. Despite his best efforts HMS Troutbridge eventually does put to sea. Sound to Screen Adaptation - There was a movie, but it replaced virtually all the voice-actors with more telegenic cinema-actors and is pretty much an In Name Only adaptation. Suspiciously Similar Substitute - The lead officer was changed from Lieutenant Price to Lieutenant Murray after season 1. Talking to Himself - Usually averted, as even though the main cast played other characters, the scripts rarely had those characters interact (for instance, CPO Pertwee was almost never in the same scene as either The Master or CMDR Weatherby). Teeth-Clenched Teamwork - Whenever the crew and Povey are forced to work together. Theme Tune Cameo - Sub-Lieutenant Phillips whistling the show's theme music as a "Ditty" he'd picked up somewhere.

He's promptly told to stop it by the rest of the cast as it sounds silly and annoying . Those Wacky Nazis - Literally, in one episode, as Troutbridge manages to capture a straggler U-Boat from World War Two , with hijinks and poor German accents abounding. Please note, the episode was set in and aired in 1960... They'd been convinced the war was still on and were being resupplied by (what they thought was) a Dutch Nazi-Sympathiser...called Pertwee . True Companions - Once Murray joined they started hanging together no matter what Povey and the Admiralty threw at them, Price was more willing to let Phillips and Pertwee take the fall for their misdeeds. Verbal Tic : CPO Pertwee had a habit-t-t-t of rolling his 't's, either when nervous or mocking. Also, there was Commander Ignatius Aloysius Atchuson, who suffered from a tendency to sneeze himself through his sentences. Atchuson: Atchually, I shuffer from a vitchus attack of...of...of...haychfever!

Phillips: It's more than an attack, man...you're a one-man epidemic! Whole-Episode Flashback - Mr Phillips At Dartmouth recounts how Navigation Officer Phillips got lost on his way to Sandhurst and landed up at Dartmouth Naval College. World of Ham - It had to be a radio comedy, The BBC would never have been able to stand the scenery costs of a live action series. The Navy Lark: Back from the Antartic Volume 18 : George Evans : 9781846071461 Humour About George Evans The Navy Lark is the second longest-running comedy in British radio history (the topical Friday night show, Week Ending, which ran from 1970 to 1998, is currently the longest). In 1958, writer Laurie Wyman announced that he wanted to build a series around talented comic actor Jon Pertwee.

Having secured Pertwee as the lead, he looked for other main characters and is quoted in the Radio Times as saying 'I felt we needed an idiot, and there was no one better at playing idiots than Leslie Phillips - so we got him.' The first episode of the series went out on 29 March 1959 and, from the start, the light-hearted and affectionate spoof on the Senior Service won many fans - some of the highest order! On the occasion of the show's 21st anniversary, for example, the crew were asked by WRNS to put on a special performance. They duly obliged, and in the audience that night at the Royal Festival Hall was Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother. Sir Charles Lambe, who was the first Sea Lord at the time, had also visited the studio during rehearsal. The crew of HMS Troutbridge were a motley bunch: Jon Pertwee, who actually served in the Navy during the Second World War, played the conniving Petty Officer and was established as a household favourite by the series. Leslie Phillips was the vague chinless wonder Sub-Lieutenant.

His parrot cry of 'left hand down a bit' has passed into A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, whose author Eric Partridge writes 'within two years, it was a standard piece of Navalese'. The young Ronnie Barker (long before attaining fame as a television comedy actor) also appeared in the series, playing two parts: (Un)Able Seaman Fatso Johnson and Lieutenant-Commander Stanton. The Navy Lark gripped the nation for the best part of twenty years. Its signature tune, composed by Tommy Reilly and James Moody, was the jaunty Trade Wind Hornpipe and did much to contribute to the popularity of the series. The key to the show's popularity, though, was its irreverent but essentially gentle humour and, most of all, the many-voiced talents of its stars. As Leslie Phillips remarked in 1987, 'I caused more damage to Naval property than the Navy had done in two world wars'. The final episode was broadcast on 18 January 1976. However, the crew all jumped on board one last time for a Jubilee Special on 16 July 1977.

show more Follow us The Navy Lark (Series) | Everybody Down - The Navy Lark Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Everybody Down - The Navy Lark Wiki Cast members of The Navy Lark, together with the emblem of HMS Troutbridge . From left to right; Back: Ronnie Barker , Jon Pertwee , Michael Bates , Tenniel Evans . Center: Stephen Murray , Richard Caldicot , Leslie Phillips . Front: Heather Chasen and Judy Cornwell . Contents Edit The Navy Lark was a BBC radio comedy written by Laurie Wyman and George Evans about the crew of The Royal Navy ship HMS Troutbridge , (a pun on HMS Troubridge, an actual Royal Navy destroyer) 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 Cdr Stanton. The series was transmitted on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently BBC Radio 2. It was produced by Alastair Scott-Johnston . Laurie Wyman conceived the idea and wrote the scripts (with George Evans from quite early on, but who was not name checked until the 12th Series onwards).

For most of its run, it starred Jon Pertwee , Leslie Phillips and Stephen Murray . The show was first aired on The Light Programme in 1959 and ran for thirteen series until 1976 making it the second longest running radio programme the BBC has made. The main characters of The Navy Lark are: Chief Petty Officer Pertwee , played by Jon Pertwee ; Sub Lieutenant Phillips , played by Leslie Phillips and The Number One, which was played by Dennis Price in the first series and Stephen Murray from then on. The rest of the regular characters were played by Richard Caldicot , Ronnie Barker , Tenniel Evans , Michael Bates and Heather Chasen . [1] Plot Edit Programmes were self-contained, although there was continuity within the series, and sometimes a reference to a previous episode might be made. A normal episode consisted of Sub Lieutenant Phillips , scheming Chief Petty Officer Pertwee and bemused Lt. Murray trying to get out of trouble they created for themselves without their direct superior, Commander (later Captain) "Thunderguts" Povey finding out.

Scenes frequently featured a string of eccentric characters, often played by Ronnie Barker or Jon Pertwee Edit The Republic of Potarneyland, a country situated somewhere on the Indian subcontinent, is featured in several episodes. Over the course of the series, it is revealed that Potarneyland had recently been granted independence from Great Britain, and had joined NATO because the Potanis considered it to be a "free gift scheme". During Series 3 of The Navy Lark, a Potarneyland frigate, the Poppadom , appears in several episodes manned by various Potani officers voiced by Michael Bates and Ronnie Barker. Cast Laurie Wyman – Inspector Burt Tiddy / various Production Edit The series used accents and characterised voices to supplement the humour, as well as a good deal of innuendo. The show's theme tune was a traditional hornpipe called St Ninian's Isle. The programme also 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 (Ronnie Barker), was always an extremely gormless and dimwitted delivery of "'Ello, Intelligence 'ere" or "This is intelligence speakin Template:'" . 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. Reception Edit 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 BBC Radio 4 Extra . Sequels and adaptations Edit 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. This situation came about due to the head of light entertainment believing that "forces" based humour had had its day and television was the next "big thing" so Lawrie was told to create a show with the same cast in an independent TV station situation. Alastair Scott Johnston and Lawrie Wyman tried to stop this folly but were overruled, hence the arrival of The TV Lark. The entire cast had been drummed out of the service (as the announcer puts it) and hired by Troutbridge TV Ltd. Janet Brown joined the cast due to the absence of Heather Chasen for this season.

However, mainly due to public pressure, the production team of Alastair Scott Johnston and Lawrie Wyman managed to revert the show back to nautical capers, even though episode ten of The TV Lark revealed that CPO Pertwee had arranged to flog almost the entirety of HMS Troutbridge. Storylines in The TV Lark nudged back to Naval origins across the ten shows until they were finally reunited with Troutbridge and acceptable storylines once more. 10 episodes were made but unfortunately Episode 9 is lost. 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 , Elvi Hale, Leslie Phillips and Nicholas Phipps. Wyman co-wrote with three other writers 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. The entire series has been wiped, but a rumour exists that one episode still exists.

The show was condensed from 30 to 27 minutes by Transcription services, then the discs were then exported around the world except for South Africa. As Springbok Radio was a commercial station the BBC refused to allow the station to re-broadcast the British shows so the station acquired the scripts from Lawrie and edited them to around twenty five minutes, to accommodate the commercial breaks. The revised show was recorded by them in front of a live audience. All the UK associations were kept for the Durban audiences which must have been incomprehensible on occasions. Excerpts of these broadcasts can be heard on the Springbok celebration site and occasionally Pumamouse. Episode guide Tenniel Evans: Taffy Goldstein in 'The Navy Lark' | The Independent Tenniel Evans: Taffy Goldstein in 'The Navy Lark' Tuesday 16 June 2009 23:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online On screen, Tenniel Evans was one of those character actors with a face recognisable in dozens of television programmes but whose name was less familiar. He played doctors, police officers, judges and vicars, and even went on to be become a priest himself.

But it was out of vision, acting a look-out in the long-running BBC radio comedy The Navy Lark (1959-77), that Evans could claim to be "recognised". As Taffy Goldstein, alongside Ronnie Barker as Johnson, he was one of the two Able Seamen among an inept crew aboard HMS Troutbridge, a frigate refitted to house undesirable elements of the Royal Navy. The programme, following the motley bunch's misadventures, was devised as a vehicle for Jon Pertwee, who played the on-the-fiddle Chief Petty Officer Pertwee, in charge of stores, and also featured Richard Caldicot as Commander (later Captain) Povey and Leslie Phillips as Sub-Lieutenant Phillips. Evans was instantly identified with the line: "Starboard look-out here!" His character was constantly in search of promotion but achieved only a brief stint as Commodore. When called on, Evans also took other roles, including those of the crusty, old, gin-soaked Admiral, Lord Quirk the Sea Lord, Shamus O'Ginsburg and the Governor, Sir Willoughby Todhunter Brown.

Later, he reportedly recommended his friend Pertwee to audition as television's third Doctor Who, with both unaware that the actor was already being considered. During Pertwee's run in the role, Evans appeared in the Doctor Who story "Carnival of Monsters" (1973) as Major Daly. Walter Tenniel Evans was born in 1926 in Nairobi, Kenya, where his expatriate father eked out a living by running a farm. He was the youngest of three brothers and three sisters, including one brother who had died before Evans's birth. His parents were both English, but there was Welsh blood several generations back on his father's side. Evans's paternal great-great-aunt was Mary Ann Evans, the novelist George Eliot, and his maternal great-uncle was the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrator John Tenniel. In 1936, at the age of 10, Evans left Africa and his family after winning a scholarship to Christ's Hospital boarding school in Horsham, West Sussex. During holidays, he lived with his father's cousin and her husband, the Reverend Rupert Winser, at Allesley Rectory, Warwickshire.

Evans contrasted his African years of running around barefoot and living in a bungalow of mud and wattle walls, and a corrugated iron roof, with a more middle-class and serious life in England in his memoirs of childhood, Don't Walk in the Long Grass (1999). He was never again to see his father, who died before he visited his family in Africa 20 years after his own departure. On leaving school at the end of the Second World War, Evans went to Sandhurst (1945-46) to train as an Army officer but was discharged after collapsing during an exercise on Mount Snowdon. While studying German and economics at St Andrews University (1946-9), he found his true vocation, acting, and subsequently trained at Rada (1949-51). After graduation, he acted the Archangel Michael in a revival of the York Mystery Plays, performed in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, York, as part of the Festival of Britain (1951).

Evans then joined the repertory company at the Castle Theatre, Farnham, Surrey, where he met his future wife, the actress Evangeline Banks, daughter of the film star Leslie Banks. When work became scarce, Evans found a new job as a teacher at Spratton Hall, then a boys-only private school, near Northampton, but he eventually returned to acting in Huddersfield, before joining his wife at Northampton Repertory Theatre. He made his television début as a policeman in an episode of No Hiding Place (1960), before acting Jonathan Kail, alongside Geraldine McEwan and Jeremy Brett, in an ITV adaptation of Tess (1960, based on Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles). For 45 years, Evans worked solidly in character parts on television, flitting from one popular programme to another – and even playing Hitler in The Roads to Freedom (1970).

Occasionally, the actor found regular roles, such as John, one of the solicitor siblings, in the legal drama The Sullavan Brothers (1964-65), Sergeant Bluett in the sitcom My Brother's Keeper (1975-76), Geoff Barratt in the final series of the post-war comedy-drama Shine on Harvey Moon (1985), Teddy Haslam in the zoo vet drama One by One (1987) and Sir Edward Parkinson-Lewis in September Song (1994). He also took over from the late Patrick Troughton the role of Perce, grandfather of Ashley (Nicholas Lyndhurst), in the sitcom The Two of Us (1987-90). Evans was in few films, but he did play a detective in 10 Rillington Place (1971), a biopic of the murderer John Christie. He also acted the director of a company of theatre actors in Knots (1975), the director David Munro's screen version of a play devised by Edward Petherbridge from the "new wave" psychiatrist R.D.

Laing's book of the same name, in which thespians examine their own inner emotions as they prepare for a stage performance. On the "real" stage, Evans acted with the Royal Court Theatre company in Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen (1959), Gwyn Thomas's The Keep (1961, also Piccadilly Theatre), David Storey's The Restoration of Arnold Middleton (1967, also Criterion Theatre) and Beside Herself (1990). His other West End appearances were in the Agatha Christie play The Unexpected Guest (as Sergeant Cadwallader, Duchess Theatre, 1958), Portrait of Murder (Savoy Theatre, 1963), Hamlet (as Polonius, Cambridge Theatre, 1971) and Ten Times Table (Globe Theatre, 1978). He also enjoyed his stage roles in the Actors' Company, a collective formed in 1971 by Ian McKellen and Edward Petherbridge, and with the National Theatre as Henderson in David Hare's Racing Demon (1990) and Banks in John O'Keeffe's Restoration comedy Wild Oats (1995).

In 1985, the actor – a lifelong Christian – was ordained as a non-stipendiary Anglican priest and licensed to St Mary's Church, Beaconsfield, but continued to act on screen. His last role was in an episode of the romantic comedy-drama William and Mary in 2004, when he retired from both acting and the priesthood, suffering from emphysema. The actor's two children are the director Matthew and the actress Serena. Anthony Hayward Walter Tenniel Evans, actor: born Nairobi, Kenya 17 May 1926; married 1953 Evangeline Banks (one son, one daughter); died High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire 10 June 2009. More about: Navy Lark: Just the Ticket v. 19 : George Evans : 9781405688062 Humour About George Evans The Navy Lark is the second longest-running comedy in British radio history (the topical Friday night show, Week Ending, which ran from 1970 to 1998, is currently the longest).

In 1958, writer Laurie Wyman announced that he wanted to build a series around talented comic actor Jon Pertwee. Having secured Pertwee as the lead, he looked for other main characters and is quoted in the Radio Times as saying 'I felt we needed an idiot, and there was no one better at playing idiots than Leslie Phillips - so we got him.' The first episode of the series went out on 29 March 1959 and, from the start, the light-hearted and affectionate spoof on the Senior Service won many fans - some of the highest order! On the occasion of the show's 21st anniversary, for example, the crew were asked by WRNS to put on a special performance. They duly obliged, and in the audience that night at the Royal Festival Hall was Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother. Sir Charles Lambe, who was the first Sea Lord at the time, had also visited the studio during rehearsal. The crew of HMS Troutbridge were a motley bunch: Jon Pertwee, who actually served in the Navy during the Second World War, played the conniving Petty Officer and was established as a household favourite by the series.

Leslie Phillips was the vague chinless wonder Sub-Lieutenant. His parrot cry of 'left hand down a bit' has passed into A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, whose author Eric Partridge writes 'within two years, it was a standard piece of Navalese'. The young Ronnie Barker (long before attaining fame as a television comedy actor) also appeared in the series, playing two parts: (Un)Able Seaman Fatso Johnson and Lieutenant-Commander Stanton. The Navy Lark gripped the nation for the best part of twenty years. Its signature tune, composed by Tommy Reilly and James Moody, was the jaunty Trade Wind Hornpipe and did much to contribute to the popularity of the series. The key to the show's popularity, though, was its irreverent but essentially gentle humour and, most of all, the many-voiced talents of its stars. As Leslie Phillips remarked in 1987, 'I caused more damage to Naval property than the Navy had done in two world wars'. The final episode was broadcast on 18 January 1976.

However, the crew all jumped on board one last time for a Jubilee Special on 16 July 1977. show more Follow us The Navy Lark - Old Time Radio Network The Navy Lark by oldtimeradio The Navy Lark was a BBC radio comedy written by Laurie Wyman and George Evans about the crew of The Royal Navy ship HMS Troutbridge and their mis-adventures. The show was first aired on The Light Programme in 1959 and ran for thirteen series until 1976 making it the second longest running radio programme the BBC has made. The main characters of The Navy Lark are: Cheif Petty Officer Pertwee, played by Jon Pertwee; Sub Lieutenant Phillips, played by Leslie Phillips and The Number One, which was played by Dennis Price in the first series and Stephen Murray from then on. The rest of the regular characters (too many to list here – see the cast and crew section) were played by Richard Caldicot, Ronnie Barker, Tenniel Evans, Michael Bates and Heather Chasen. The series used accents and characterised voices to supplement the 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 (Ronnie Barker), 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.

The Navy Lark made Leslie Phillips a Household Name The series made household names of Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Richard Caldicot, but Ronnie Barker’s versatilecontributions 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. 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.This situation came about due to the head of light entertainment believing that “forces” based humour had had its day and television was the next “big thing” so Lawrie was told to create a show with the same cast in an independent TV station situation.

Alastair Scott Johnston and Lawrie Wyman tried to stop this folly but were over ruled, hence the arrival of The TV Lark. The entire cast had been drummed out of the service (as the announcer puts it) and hired by Troutbridge TV Ltd. Janet Brown joined the cast due to the absence of Heather Chasen for this season. However, mainly due to public pressure, the production team of Alastair Scott Johnston and Lawrie Wyman managed to revert the show back to nautical capers, and episode ten of The TV Lark revealed that although CPO Pertwee had arranged to flog almost the entirety of HMS Troutbridge. Storylines in The TV Lark nudged back to Naval origins across the ten shows until they were finally reunited with Troutbridge and acceptable storylines once more. 10 episodes were made but unfortunately Episode 9 is lost. The nine surviving episodes are available on YouTube. In 1959 a film version was made, written by Laurie Wyman and Sid Colin and directed by Gordon Parry. Jon Pertwee, better known to millions as Doctor Who It starred Cecil Parker, Ronald Shiner, Elvi Hale, Leslie Phillips and Nicholas Phipps.

Wyman co-wrote with three other writers 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. The entire series has been wiped, but a rumour exists that one episode still exists. The show was condensed from 30 to 27 minutes by Transcription services, the discs were then exported around the world except for South Africa. As Springbok Radio was a commercial station the BBC refused to allow the station to re-broadcast the British shows so the station acquired the scripts from Lawrie and edited them to around twenty five minutes, to accommodate the commercial breaks,the revised show was recorded them in front of a live audience before broadcasting them. All the UK associations were kept for the Durban audiences which must have been incomprehensible on occasions. Excerpts of these broadcasts can be heard on the Springbok celebration site and occasionally Pumamouse. LISTEN TO AN EPISODE: The Navy Lark – Demise Of The Depth Charges You can hear episodes of the Navy Lark daily on the British Comedy Channel…. Happy Listening! Related Posts

Question: Who played the Chief Petty Officer in The Navy Lark?
Answer: Jon Pertwee