- Start
- Product

The Navy Lark: Stranded v. 16
BBC Physical Audio (Publisher)
Published on 5. July 2004
Audio
CD-Audio
978-0-563-52426-7 (ISBN)
Description
One of radio's longest-running comedy programmes, The Navy Lark kept the nation laughing on the crest of a wave from 1959 to 1977. All at sea in the Senior Service were Stephen Murray's 'Number One', Chief Petty Officer Jon Pertwee and silly-ass Sub-Lieutenant Leslie Phillips. So climb aboard and join the merry crew in these four classic capers as Troutbridge becomes overrun by civilians, Pertwee gets into the Admiral's good books (with the help of a hip flask), Phillips finds himself in a fluster as a sandbank approaches and, with the dockyard being placed under a cloak of security, it appears that nobody can get in - or out...The episodes are: 'The Squatters' (28 December 1969), 'The Promotion Ladder' (11 January 1970), 'Stranded' (18 January 1970) and 'The Security Clampdown' (22 February 1970). 2 CDs. 1 hr 50 mins.
More details
Edition
Unabridged edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
BBC Audio, A Division Of Random House
Edition type
Unabridged edition
Product notice
Audio CD
Dimensions
Height: 151 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Duration
Dauer: 110 min
Weight
108 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-563-52426-7 (9780563524267)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Persons
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.