Mention the War: British Sitcoms and Military Masculinity - Anglistik
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
93
ANETTE PANKRATZ
Mention the War: British Sitcoms and Military Masculinity
1. Introduction
"Military virtues such as aggression, strength, courage and endurance have repeatedly
been defined as the natural and inherent qualities of manhood" and "the soldier has
become the quintessential figure of masculinity" (Dawson 1994, 1; cf. Braun 1996, 180;
Connell 2005, 73, 213). Despite the assertive tone of these statements, military
masculinity is fraught with contradictions and paradoxes. Soldiering, especially the
killing of people in combat, can be seen as morally ambiguous (Braun 1996, 180). More
importantly, the ideal type of military masculinity can never be reached and is
enmeshed in a "dense web of double binds" (Belkin 2012, 4), that is, in disciplinary
rituals that address soldiers as "girls" or "poofs" or in exercises that infantilise and
feminise them (Belkin 2012, 33). Since the abolishment of National Service in 1961,
serving in the army has become a very specialised occupation for a minority of the
population in Britain and the warrior hero has been superseded by figures such as the
"entrepreneurial individual" (Connell 2005, 254).
(British) situation comedies featuring soldiers, from The Army Game (ITV, 1957-
1966) to Bluestone 42 (BBC, 2013-2015), broach this field of tensions with comic
intent. They operate with incongruity between the exemplary figure of the warrior hero
and its real-life performance, either by turning the norm upside down or by
exaggerating and stereotyping it. The implicit juxtaposition of the ideal and its comic
Other also puts into play different versions of masculinity, from the anxiously overt or
the supposedly 'normal' to the deficient or explicitly dissident. The sitcoms connect
these comic representations of (military) masculinities with the army as a workplace
and, not always but quite frequently, with war: the First World War in Blackadder Goes
Fo(u)rth (BBC, 1989), for example, or Iraq and Afghanistan in Bluestone 42 and Gary:
Tank Commander (BBC, 2009-2012).
In that context, the Second World War seems to hold a special position. Not only
Basil Fawlty gets great mileage out of mentioning the war, but two of the most popular
sitcoms of the 1970s, Dad's Army (BBC, 1968-1977) and It Ain't Half Hot, Mum (BBC,
1974-1981), are set during that time as well. Both series were written and produced by
David Croft and Jimmy Perry and use the conventional sitcom format. Each episode is
30 minutes long, usually shot in the studio in front of a live audience, with a limited
number of sets and a fixed cast of characters. Dad's Army focuses on the adventures of
the British Home Guard of Walmington-on-Sea; It Ain't Half Hot, Mum is set in India
and features the members of an Artillery concert party. Both series create comedy by
means of non-normative masculinities, men too old or too young to fight in Dad's Army
and men unwilling to fight in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum.
At the time of their first broadcasting, both shows were highly successful. Dad's
Army attracted eighteen million viewers at its peak and brought Croft a BAFTA in 1971
and Croft and Perry the Writers' Guild of Great Britain awards in 1969, 1970 and 1971
Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 31.2 (Summer 2020): 93-109.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
94 ANETTE PANKRATZ
(Lenz 2016, 36; McCann 2002, 100; Morgan-Russell 2004, 12). It Ain't Half Hot, Mum
drew an audience of up to fifteen million. Nowadays, Dad's Army is considered a
comedy classic and regularly voted into the Top Ten of British sitcoms (Lenz 2016, 36-
37). There has been a movie remake in 2016 starring Toby Jones and Bill Nighy. In
2018, the Royal Mail issued stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the series. In
contrast to this, It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, is no longer repeated on TV and most critics
consider it offensive in its representations of ethnicity and gender.
This indicates changes in the "humour regimes," "unwritten rules stipulating who
for personal use only / no unauthorized distribution
can joke about what" (Das and Graefer 2017, 52). Jokes by white, male, heterosexual
writers and performers about minorities clearly violate the rules prevalent in 21st-
century Britain. Jimmy Perry as well as ardent (white, male) fans see this as 'political
correctness gone mad' and counter criticism by emphasising that It Ain't Half Hot, Mum
is based on authentic experiences and created in a spirit of openness and benevolence
(Morgan-Russell 2004, 90). If one accepts this information at face value and reads both
Winter Journals
series as popular mainstream texts with a liberal agenda, what inferences can one draw
about the humour regimes of the 1970s, especially in their constructions of masculinity
in relation to class, gender, ethnicity and national identity? What does that tell us about
anxieties and fault lines in British culture both in the 1970s and today?
The following analysis will take its cue from the genre specifics of sitcoms, the
combination of situation and comedy and a serial status-quo plot which always defers
narrative closure (Bennett 2015, 68; Feuer 2001, 69). In the case of Dad's Army and It
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
Ain't Half Hot, Mum, the seriousness, historicity and facticity of the situation stand in
contrast to the comedy. This can be read as analogous to the dialectic "between
embodied masculine performance and the larger webs of systemic relations within
which they operate" (Horlacher and Floyd 2017, 15). By way of the situation, both
series uphold a patriarchal (and male-centred) system as the unmarked norm; at the
same time, they destabilise notions of one uniform and stable model of masculinity. In
a similar dialectic move, the historical frame evokes nostalgia and a sense of national
importance, and, on the other hand, it emphasises the pastness of the past. The tension
between situation and comedy produces polysemy and ambivalence. The humour of
sitcoms in general is neither wholly subversive nor affirmative, it both includes and
excludes (cf. Horlacher 2009, 35-36; Mills 2009, 13). As part of the mass media,
sitcoms frame prevalent discourses in a culture as possibly not completely serious and
thus enhance divergent reading positions. They disseminate cultural knowledge and
highlight contradictions, paradoxes and anxieties in a culture and thereby prompt
flexibility, the ability to live in a changing world and to observe constructions of these
worlds by the mass media (Böhn 2009, 55; Räwel 2005, 44).
2. Sit: Army and War
While early sitcoms were usually set in families, their focus broadened in the 1960s
and 1970s. Workplace sitcoms gained more prominence and pointed towards an
opening of the comic spaces and a move towards greater diversity (Hartley 2001, 67).
The army as a traditionally all-male workplace "decentres the dominant ideology of the
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 95
family" (Gray 1994, 84; Healy 1995, 254) and – at least potentially – opens up
alternative and subversive spaces. Military rank and the fixed chains of command serve
as the precarious status quo that is undermined and restored at the end, only to be turned
upside-down in the next episode. Men living and fighting together evoke what Eve
Kosofsky Sedgwick calls the "continuum between homosocial and homosexual" (1985,
1). In a mass medium like TV, this was a rather delicate balance, as homosexuality and
queerness were kept under tight control (Morgan-Russell 2004, 81). By excluding or
marginalising women, masculinity appears as unmarked and representative; this holds
especially true for the army, which was traditionally considered "an apparent
microcosm of British society" (Stewart 1996, 85). But in its basic constellation – funny
men shouted at by their superiors (Howard and Stokes 1996, 10) –, queerness and
femininity often resurface in the form of insults.
Setting the series during the Second World War adds connotations of heroism and
patriotism. Britain won against Nazi Germany, associated with a dictatorial regime and
the industrialised mass murder of ethnic, political or sexual Others. In contrast to the
First World War, which is remembered as a traumatic caesura (Kamm 1997, 266), the
Second World War was perceived as a just war and a "People's War" (cf. Calder 1969).
It directly affected the British population, mainly due to the German air raids and the
fear of a German invasion, and everyone – at home and abroad, men, women and
children – was expected to contribute to the war effort (Kamm 1997, 268; Stewart 1996,
81). At least in war propaganda and in hindsight, this "summoned up a complex of
moral and political commitments that, for a time, could be represented as 'pulling
together'" (Howard and Stokes 1996, 5).
Both series mobilise "popular memory" (Bowes 1990, 133) of "the last time when
Britain was truly great" (Korte 2002, 12). Simultaneously, they show soldiers comically
"muddling through" (Lenz 2016, 46). When Croft and Perry first suggested this premise
for Dad's Army, BBC officials were sceptical. Head of Light Entertainment Tom Sloan
asked: "Were we making mock of Britain's Finest Hour?" (qtd. in Sommer 2011, 202).
Despite the initial doubts, the combination of reverence and mockery proved very
successful and fit the zeitgeist of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with protests against
the Vietnam War on one side and Britain's backward-looking search for its lost
greatness on the other (Korte 2002, 14). The writers and actors in both series manage
the tightrope walk between making fun of the warriors and cherishing Britain's
successful engagement in the war. But there is a difference between using the Home
Front and imperial India as a backdrop. While Walmington-on-Sea can stand for
mainstream Britain and its average men 'pulling together,' the space on the margins of
the British Empire lends itself to the representations of a more diverse spectrum of
masculinities and the spirit of a nation 'pulling together' is substituted by notions of an
eroding Empire.
2.1 Home Front
Dad's Army is set between 1940 and 1942 in the seaside town of Walmington-on-Sea.
By 1940, the German Army had invaded Poland and occupied France; the British
fought on the side of the French, but they had to retreat in May and June 1940. After
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)96 ANETTE PANKRATZ
the disastrous evacuation of Dunkirk, a German invasion was imminent and German
planes bombed British cities during the time of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain, which
led Minister of War Anthony Eden to call for volunteers to defend their country
(Sommer 2011, 199). This is replayed in abstract form in the title sequence. Arrows
move across a map of Europe (figure 1). On French territory, three Union Jack arrows
are persecuted by three snakelike and phallic arrows marked with swastikas. Before the
'Germans' can capture the 'British,' the latter shrink and deflate and flee across the
Channel. From there, one tiny Union Jack triangle takes up a defensive posture. The
precarious military situation is contrasted by the cheerful, upbeat tune performed by
Bud Flanagan, a singer known for his wartime songs. The lyrics claim: "Who do you
think you are kidding, Mr Hitler, / If you think we're on the run. / We are the boys who
will stop your little game, / We are the boys who will make you think again. / So, who
do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler, / If you think Old England's done?" (Kamm
1997, 269-270; Lenz 2016, 40).
Figure 1: The title sequence of Dad's Army (S3E1, "The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal
Jones," 0:02-0:29).
The first series is set in 1940 and replays historical events rather closely. In the first
episode, Eden's radio broadcast triggers bank manager George Mainwaring's decision
to form a branch of the Local Defence Volunteers, as the Home Guard was originally
called. The subsequent episodes follow the gradual development of the Walmington-
on-Sea platoon: getting uniforms and weapons, learning military drill and going on
patrol. The series adapts funny myths and legends around the real Home Guard, the
men use pepper and spears as weapons and requisition arms from a museum (Lenz
2016, 41; Sommer 2011, 199). The later series are less specific in time and the focus
widens on Walmington society as well as the private lives of the Home Guard.
The humour of the series is sustained by the knowledge that "Old England" was
indeed not "done" and that the British would win the war. Realistic costumes and props
as well as authentic wartime songs as incidental music further enhance the nostalgic
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 97
atmosphere (Lenz 2016, 40; Richards 1997, 360). By choosing a sleepy seaside resort
as the setting, the sitcom avoids showing death and destruction and manages to uphold
the cultural memory of the Second World War in Britain as a time of national unity and
solidarity (Crowther and Pinfold 1987, 115; Lenz 2016, 45-46; Richards 1997, 360).
2.2 Empire
The regular soldiers in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum also live far away from potentially lethal
combat, and the series evokes the patriotic wartime spirit in some of its songs and
inserted newsreels, but the situation on the whole is more ambiguous than in Dad's
Army, because it is more distant and less prone to British triumph. The sitcom is set in
Deolali in India (and later in Burma) between May and August 1945. The war in Europe
is over, but Japan has not surrendered yet. The Artillery Depot holds British troops
before they are sent to the front in Burma to support the US army.
In contrast to Dad's Army, the war waged in the background does not have much to
do with the British characters, and the soldiers going to the front are hardly ever shown.
Instead, the series focuses on the protests and demonstrations for Indian independence
and on Britain being on the cusp of losing its status as a world power. Gandhi's slogan
"Quit India" turns into the recurring phrase "British Pigs Go Home." While the fight
against the Germans in Dad's Army appears as a matter of national survival, defeating
the Japanese and upholding British rule in India seem doubtful, if not futile. This is
indicated by the title sequence of the very first episode, again featuring a map, this time
of the British Empire. To the tune of "Land of Hope and Glory," a sonorous upper-class
male voice gives a brief historic overview:
India the brightest jewel in Great Britain's crown of empire. For 200 years, many famous
heroes fought to keep the Union Jack flying over this vast continent. [Historical paintings
of the respective men replace map, A.P.] 1757, Clive of India. 1826, Colonel William
Sleeman who suppressed the thugs. 1857, General Havelock, hero of Lucknow. 1945,
this great tradition of Empire is defended by a new generation of heroes.
Then a piano sets in, seven men in purple costumes stand on a rather rickety stage,
move in unison and sing "meet the gang 'cause the boys are here, the boys to entertain
you" (figure 2). The image of British imperial masculinity and of the Empire as a
"penetrating phallic entity" (Gittings qtd. in de Waal 2017, 216) evoked by the map and
the enumeration of history book heroes is deflated by the chirpy melody and the
theatrical set-up.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)98 ANETTE PANKRATZ
Figure 2: The title sequence of It Ain't Half Hot, Mum (S1E1, "Meet the Gang," 0:03-0:47).
3. Com: Funny Soldiers
By their titles and title songs, the two series signal very clearly that they undermine
conventional notions about soldiers, soldiering and the army. The real army might still
harbour the ideal of soldier heroes; Dad's Army, however, suggests a cuddly and stuffy
paternalism. Similarly, the title It Ain't Half Hot, Mum turns the soldiers into sons
dutifully writing home and complaining about the weather. In both songs, the "boys"
exude a spirit of bravely whistling in the dark. But can "boys" be genuine heroes? And
how does one separate them from the real men?
3.1 Country of Childish/Old Men
The term "boys" attains further ironic overtones in Dad's Army, because most of the
protagonists have reached old age. Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and Sergeant
Wilson (John Le Mesurier) are in their sixties, Lance Corporal Jones (Clive Dunn) and
Private Frazer (John Laurie) are seventy. Private Charles Godfrey (Arthur Ridley) does
not talk about his age but seems to be about eighty years old. The first and very obvious
effect of the characters' age is to highlight their unfitness: they easily run out of breath,
have problems with their short-term memory or their bladders.
The series uses this for a lot of slapstick, showing the men in different stages of
undress, revealing their non-normative bodies, beer bellies and spindly legs. This is
sustained by the plots, which often focus on questions of age. In "The Showing Up of
Corporal Jones" (S1E5), army headquarters demand that Jones master an assault
course, crawling under tarpaulin and climbing over obstacles within fifteen minutes.
He only survives the test because the rest of the platoon helps him cheat. Similarly, in
"Keep Young and Beautiful" (S5E2), the War Office plans to restructure both Home
Guard and Air Raid Wardens along the lines of age and fitness. Mainwaring covers his
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 99
bald head by a toupee and Wilson starts wearing a corset. Frazer, Jones and Godfrey
use very heavy make-up and hair-dye meant for corpses (Frazer is a funeral director).
They do look younger, but the paints and fillings also hamper their facial expressions
and, as Mainwaring remarks, they look like something "out of Madame Butterfly,"
exotic and feminised. All these cases foreground mechanisms of military humiliation –
feminisation and infantilisation (Belkin 2012, 21-36) – with the double binds serving
as basis for a comic blurring of boundaries, which manages to keep the implicit
disciplinary logic intact. It is not fitness that is made fun of, but the men's attempts to
fit in.
The exceptions to this pattern of superannuated protagonists are Privates Pike and
Walker. Walker (James Beck) deals on the black market and successfully avoids
entering the regular army by means of his connections and a system of bribes and
blackmail. Pike (Ian Lavender) is seventeen and too young to be called up. Like Walker,
he is physically fit. Intellectually, however, he seems to be between ten and thirteen, a
whiny boy pampered by his mother, who forces him to wear a scarf on parade and in
one episode even insists that he wear a fluffy bunny balaclava (S1E5). What unites the
members of the Home Guard is their general boyishness. Irrespective of their age,
everyone except Mainwaring indulges in soldiering as a game. Very obviously so in
"Big Guns" (S3E7), when the platoon practices using their new heavy gun with the help
of tin cans, matchboxes, toy soldiers and toy vehicles. With zest, Jones imitates the
engine noises of his van ("num num num"), Pike complains that he is represented by a
measly soldier without a head, and the rest move their figures on the make-shift gaming
board (Morgan-Russell 2004, 43; Richards 1997, 263).
The comedy of insufficient age and "human frailty" (Terry Lovell qtd. in Morgan-
Russell 2004, 43) is enhanced by conflating the professional, private and soldierly lives
of the main characters. Jones is the local butcher and nominally too old to serve, but he
manages to bribe his way into the platoon by means of steaks and sausages for the
officers. As bank manager and supposedly very important public figure, Mainwaring
automatically assumes command of the Home Guard and expects his male staff, Wilson
and Pike, to serve under him. As the series progresses, the audience learns more about
his motivation to commit himself wholly to parades and patrols. It is not so much
patriotism or a sense of duty, but the wish to avoid his wife Elizabeth and her temper
tantrums. Mrs Mainwaring never appears on screen, but the audience sees the effects
she has on her husband, regularly sending him into a panic when she calls on the phone
and one time even giving him a black eye (S3E9).
In Dad's Army, the masculinities of the protagonists are constructed by
juxtaposition with regular soldiers and movie stars on the one hand and women on the
other. Compared with regular British soldiers or their slightly fitter comrades from
Eastgate, the members of the Home Guard appear as deficient. The German enemy
forms a category of its own. In the imagination of the characters, Germans appear as
cold and brutal, very efficient and masculine killer machines. In the reality of the show,
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)100 ANETTE PANKRATZ
however, they are not. Germans hardly ever appear, and when they do, they are often
frightened and quickly surrender.1
Explicitly heroic warrior masculinity only appears in the movies and is ineptly
adapted by the Home Guard. Especially the avid film fan Pike thrives on cinematic role
models when he fires his machine gun like a Chicago gangster or when he disguises
himself as a Native American, as seen in a Gary Cooper movie (S4E1). "The Two and
a Half Feathers" (S4E8) offers the most sustained juxtaposition of filmic ideal and
Walmington reality. The plot is loosely based on Zoltan Korda's monumental epic Four
Feathers (1939), celebrating the British victory at the battle of Omdurman under the
command of General Kitchener in 1898 (Richards 1997, 57). Jones is accused of
abandoning a comrade to save his own life in the battle. He receives anonymous letters
with white feathers, denouncing his cowardice, but in the end manages to clear his
name. While he tells the platoon what really happened, the audience sees a flashback
in which scenes from Korda's film are intercut with sequences featuring a young Jones
and his comrades from Walmington, with Air Raid Warden Hodges (Bill Pertwee) and
the rumour-monger Frazer dressed in Arab garb as the villains of the piece.
Omdurman evokes "exemplary imperial masculinity" (Dawson 1994, 83),
characterised by white British superiority, discipline, sense of duty and self-restraint.
Korda's Four Feathers perpetuates and glamorises this ideal (Richards 1997, 57). By
transferring the heroism to Jones and anachronistically projecting the rivalries and
enmities of Walmington society onto the battle of Omdurman, Dad's Army highlights
the outdatedness of imperial ideals and domesticates them. Jones risks infamy, because
he does not want to tell people about his commanding officer having an affair with the
wife of a comrade. In the light of both 1940s and 1970s culture, this decision seems
rather old-fashioned and unnecessarily chivalrous. Casting Hodges and Frazer as
enemies undermines the traditional imperial battle lines between British Self and
foreign Others and highlights internal dissensions among the British instead.
The battle of Omdurman and the theme of imperial heroic masculinity are one of
the running gags of the series. Corporal Jones loves to go into long, rambling
reminiscences about his time in the Sudan fighting the "fuzzy wuzzies." He also
remembers the First World War and the fact that the Germans were not keen on
bayonets: "They don't like it up 'em!" (cf. McCann 2002, 149; Richards 1997, 360).
Occasionally, the sexual connotations of the catchphrase gain homosocial if not
homosexual overtones when Jones informs his colleagues that the soldiers in the Sudan
were "cuddling up" in the desert (S3E2). While no one doubts Jones's heterosexuality,
other characters are given attributes associated with homosexuality. Private Godfrey is
a sweet and mild-mannered confirmed bachelor, who admits to having been a dandy in
1 With one famous exception: In "The Deadly Attachment" (S6E1), the platoon has to guard
the crew of a German submarine. Pike taunts the Germans with the popular song "Whistle
while you work / Hitler is a twerp," the U-boat commander threatens him with "Your name
will also go on the list. What is it?," after which Mainwaring commands "Don't tell him,
Pike." The punchline is considered one of the funniest moments on British TV (McCann
2002, 4; Sommer 2011, 201).
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 101
his youth, a conscientious objector in the Great War, and who has worked in a
department store (McCann 2002, 148). He brings along a duvet for weekend training
exercises and thrives on measuring and altering uniforms. Godfrey may be homosexual.
Or maybe not. The same goes for the vicar (Frank Williams). His effeminate behaviour
and enthusiasm for seeing Pike in short trousers could be read either as homosexual or
as upper-class and clerical mannerisms. Dad's Army keeps allusions to queerness sparse
and in the closet, as it were.
All these representations of deficient masculinities do not amount to a subversion
of patriarchy, though. While the 'real' men are fighting abroad, Britain is the country
for old men. At the apex of the social pyramid stand the two father figures Winston
Churchill and George VI, both visibly present by way of their portraits in the church
hall and the occasional newsreels. In some episodes, they even visit or plan to visit
Walmington-on-Sea (S1E6; S6E3). Right after them come Mainwaring and his men.
The Captain tries to maintain a statesman-like poise and when his picture is taken for
the local newspaper as "A Man of Action" (S7E2), he gives the Churchillian V sign.
Women are relegated to subservient positions as mothers, sisters, wives, secretaries or
dinner ladies. By comparison with them, the members of the Home Guard still appear
as sufficiently masculine. In "Mum's Army" (S4E9), women petition to join the Home
Guard and turn out to be even worse at the drill than the old men.2 In at least one episode
per series, the Home Guard shows genuine bravery. In "Something Nasty in the Vault"
(S3E5), for example, a bomb falls on the bank and Mainwaring and Wilson calmly and
with a stiff upper lip hold the bomb until the expert from the disposal unit arrives. The
men might be funny, but the series as a whole manages "to uphold the pre-eminance
[sic] of the ordinary, amateurish British male" (Morgan-Russell 2004, 54).
3.2 Masculinities in Hot Spaces
To a certain extent, this also holds true for It Ain't Half Hot, Mum. Most of the
protagonists represent average and supposedly normal men (Morgan-Russell 2004, 87),
but they are younger and the series as a whole presents more diverse versions of
masculinity, including queer and non-white Others. The members of the concert party
are regular enlisted soldiers and physically fit; this is emphasised by often showing
them bare-chested with glistening torsos. The men avoid being sent to the front by
performing for the troops, which brings them into conflict with shouty and aggressive
Sergeant Major Williams (Windsor Davies), who links show business with effeminacy.
Williams's bullying highlights the non-normative bodies of some of the performers,
most prominently, Gunner Sugden (Don Estelle), who is slightly overweight and
underheight, wears short trousers and a pith helmet.
Sugden's "infantilised body" (Morgan-Russell 2004, 84) contrasts with his resonant
tenor voice. The rest of the ensemble, however, are amateurs. Their incompetence
becomes very obvious in cross-dressing acts that aim at presenting stars like Marlene
2 In 1943, the Women's Home Guard Auxiliaries had been founded at the instigation of women
intent on 'doing their bit' (McCann 2002, 28), but they obviously did not have a branch in
Walmington-on-Sea.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)102 ANETTE PANKRATZ
Dietrich or Ginger Rogers. The wigs and gowns do not fit, the men cannot walk in high
heels, and by their body postures and clumsy movements they also indicate discomfort
with their roles (S2E6). The comic incongruities between role and performance, the sex
of the performers and the gender they perform at first sight naturalise and essentialise
masculinity: real men can never successfully act like women. Moreover, they obviously
do not want to.
The exception in this respect is Gunner Beaumont (Melvyn Hayes), who specialises
in female impersonation and carries over his performance of "male femininity"
(Medhurst and Tuck 1982, 50) into his off-stage life, going by the nickname of Gloria
and behaving like an oversensitive diva. But even he indicates that only women can
perform femininity properly and convincingly. Although he takes great care with dress,
make-up and hair removal, he still looks like a man in a dress (Morgan-Russell 2004,
78). His hysterical outbursts and camp effeminacy replicate stereotypes of the "sitcom
queen, all wrists and sibilants" (Medhurst and Tuck 1982, 49).
The Indians are structurally equivalent to the female characters in Dad's Army. For
the most part, they serve as exotic background. This also holds true for two of the three
regular characters, Char Wallah Muhammed (Dino Shafeek) and Punkah Wallah
Rumzan (Garbar Bhatti). They provide the occasional gag but are stuck in their roles
and positions (Rumzan quite literally so, as he has to sit outside the officers' building
and move the fan). Bearer Rangi Ram (Michael Bates) moves between and among all
the groups – Indians, officers and concert party. He often triggers the disturbances of
the status quo and closes the episodes with comments directed at the audience. As one
of the main speaking parts, Perry and Croft argued, he had to be played by a white actor
(Morgan-Russell 2004, 91).
4. Fault Lines: Stereotypes and Divisions
In the 1970s, no one, or rather, no one in a position to be heard, took offense at white
actors in blackface, exotic Orientals and sitcom queens, and most viewers were simply
amused and found everything naturally funny (Morgan-Russell 2004, 68). But from the
outset, the show was not unequivocally cherished by the queer and black community
(Medhurst and Tuck 1982, 51). Like Till Death Us Do Part (BBC, 1965-1975), the
series walks a thin line between satirising and endorsing homophobia and racism. This
points towards some of the fault lines and paradoxes of 1970s culture, the attempts to
make alternative masculinities visible without disturbing the overall system. It Ain't
Half Hot, Mum presents non-white and not-quite-straight characters, it makes fun of
British imperialism and military masculinity but still upholds the notion of a
homogenously white heteronormative British national identity.
4.1 Queerness
One of the running gags of the series is Williams addressing the soldiers as "poofs,"
"nancy boys" and "lovely boys," because they do not drill or fight, but prefer to spend
their days rehearsing and performing instead. Williams's homophobic outbursts
regularly provoke laughter from the live audience, because most of the members of the
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 103
concert party are marked as heterosexual (Morgan-Russell 2004, 83). In that respect,
'Gloria' stabilises the homosocial continuum, because the outré and stereotyped figure
ascertains the heteronormative credentials of the rest of the group by way of
comparison. But the separation between norm and dissidence is volatile and constantly
undermined.
Although the subversive potential of the stage performances is limited, the sitcom
as a whole does have a Butlerian dimension because exaggerated gender performances
appear as parodies. Beaumont's camp complements Williams's belligerent "hyper-
masculinity" (Morgan-Russell 2004, 83). Both characters are equally theatrical,
stereotypical and constantly on the brink of comic failure; the more so, when the plots
enforce slippages from homosocial to queer. Williams likes to show off his naked upper
body, and in one episode the size of his sexual organ is hinted at and admired by the
natives (S2E7). Although he despises show business, he sometimes ends up on stage
when the other performers are unfit to play and someone has to make up the numbers.
Thus, he plays a Mexican with a walrus moustache who suspiciously looks like a clone,
the gay parody of normative masculinity (S3E2). In another episode, he wears a dress,
a blond wig, sits on a swing and tries to look as dainty as possible despite his moustache
(S3E1).
Williams's masculine gruffness is related to his lower-class, no-nonsense Welsh
background, constantly emphasised by taunting "La-di-dah Gunner Graham" (John
Clegg) who holds a B.A. from Cambridge with his "h'university h'education." This also
betrays anxieties about rank and hierarchies, because Williams has to accept the "la-di-
dah"-ness of his commanding officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Reynolds (Donald Hewlitt)
and Captain Ashwood (Michael Knowles). Both are portrayed as "upper-class twit[s]"
(Morgan-Russell 2004, 85) who keep away from the regular soldiers and insist on their
privileges. The apartness of the duo also lends itself to queer readings. Especially
Ashwood shows great enthusiasm for the performers and appreciates Beaumont's acts
as "first class," accompanied by flirting glances between the two men. Ashwood and
Reynolds not only behave like a couple, they also have moments of physical closeness
with sexual innuendo, for example, when they are sharing a shower in order to save
water (S2E3).
4.2 Ethnicity
The Indian characters represent Orientalist stereotypes and are shown as "servile,
foolish, lazy or devious" (Duguid n.d.). Rangi Ram, an Indian version of the clever
servant, theoretically serves as vantage point for the audience, directly addressing them
at the beginning and end of an episode. He likes to contrast "us British" with "those
damn natives." Just as with Williams, the joke is on Ram, because his language, clothes
and behaviour mark him as one of "those damn natives," speaking with a heavy Indian
accent, using malapropisms ("cocky tails") and coughing up phlegm (Morgan-Russell
2004, 94). Try as they might, the series implies, just as men will never be able to be
women, natives can never be British. But, of course, they can be played by white British
actors.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)104 ANETTE PANKRATZ
Reiterating 19th-century stereotypes about Orientals (Sedgwick 1985, 183), the
Indian characters are feminised by way of menial tasks such as making tea or cleaning
usually associated with women. They are also de-individualised, replicating the
stereotype that 'all look the same,' because a small set of actors – Renu Setna, Minoo
Golvala, Ahmed Khalil, Ishaq Bux – takes over the roles of perfunctory Indians in
exotic scenarios, as haggling street vendors that have to be shooed away, holy men with
nail beds or snake charmers.
At the same time, the series makes very clear that it is the white British who are the
foreigners in India. They are the only ones who sweat profusely, get the "Bombay trots"
(i.e. diarrhoea) and catch infectious diseases. Only the officers think that the British are
superior and that the Empire will last another thousand years. Ashwood and Reynolds
express this politely with a condescending upper-class twang; Williams shouts it at the
top of his lungs. Together with the knowledge in hindsight that India will gain
independence in 1947 and the Empire will end, this undermines all pretensions to
imperial glory.
Hypothetically, the combination of Orientalism and anti-colonialism undermines
traditional constructions of the British Raj, the concrete results, however, appear less
clear-cut, as the title "The Natives are Revolting" (S2E3) already implies. The episode
focuses on Indian resistance against British rule. Someone has rearranged the stones in
front of the officers' building to read "British Pigs Go Home" and has replaced the
Union Jack by the Indian national flag. The concert party seems unperturbed by the
acts of sabotage and Beaumont comments sarcastically: "We all want to go home, but
we're not pigs." The only one to go berserk is Williams. He summons the Indian staff
for interrogation and rips the flag to shreds: "I will show you who is the masters here.
[...] I'll show you what I think of your tinpot rag." Enter Ashwood, Reynolds and the
new District Officer (Renu Setna), who is deeply offended by this desecration and
demands a public apology, which Williams refuses.
The set-up implies that both men are equally responsible for the impasse because
of their one-sided nationalism. Before his violent clash with Williams, the District
Officer had confronted Ashwood and Reynolds with the question what 200 years of
British rule have given India. The officers can only come up with three answers: the
end of suttee, the railways and teaching the Indians how to drink tea "properly," i.e.
with milk and sugar, bread, butter and jam. The script could have given the District
Officer some punch lines – or at least a sceptically raised eyebrow – to highlight British
hubris. Instead, his reactions indicate priggishness and ignorance:
Ashwood: We did build the railways in 1845.
District Officer: If we Indians had been in charge, it would have been built in 1825.
[Titter from the live audience.]
Ashwood: But they weren't invented then.
District Officer: That's beside the point. [Laughter from the live audience.]
The concert party manages to deflate the potentially explosive situation by singing "We
All Make Mistakes, and We're Sorry." Visibly moved, Williams shakes the hand of the
District Officer and Rangi Ram concludes: "Well, once again, we British have
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 105
compounded the situation. There is a very old Hindu proverb which says, 'If you have
to eat humble pie, make sure you have plenty of jam on it.'" The plot reduces the
colonial conflict to the formula that erring is all too human, and that both sides made
mistakes. That may well be, but it is doubtful whether an apologetic song is enough to
do justice to the fault lines of British rule in India or to multi-cultural Britain in the
1970s.
4.3 Class
Compared to Deolali, Walmington-on-Sea seems to be much more homogenous and
harmonious: all the characters are white, more or less middle-class and "suburban"
(Richards 1997, 356). Within the historical frame of the Second World War, the series
appears to affirm traditional values and solidarity across all classes. Critics have
therefore claimed that Dad's Army upholds the "social structure of the past, in which
people do not look beyond their social positions and authority is undermined, not by
deliberate subversion but by mounting, unintended chaos" (Wagg 1998, 14). But one
can also detect anxieties about social change and class divisions in the 1970s. In "War
Dance" (S3E9), Mainwaring considers Pike's choice of dancing partner unsuitable,
because the young woman's mother cleaned at the Mainwarings', an attitude that is as old-
fashioned as Jones's squeamishness about his superior's sex life in "The Two and a Half
Feathers." The longer the series goes on, the more allusions one finds to the end of the
war, the end of class barriers and more democracy, which evokes a nostalgia for the
immediate post-war period when these promises were still believed in and hoped for.
Dad's Army presents a fractured community only briefly united by a common
enemy. On the whole, there are constant fights and rivalries in the platoon based on
class and status, most obviously between Mainwaring and Wilson. The bank manager
had to work his way up from the lower-middle class, while Wilson was born into the
upper class and effortlessly went, or rather sauntered, into banking (McCann 2002, 124-
125; Wagg 1998, 13-14). Positioning the two men against their supposedly common-
sensical and natural places in society creates a precarious dynamic which highlights the
differences between nominal meritocratic rank and inherited economic, social and
cultural capital. Both as bank manager and Captain, Mainwaring feels threatened by
Wilson and compensates this by his brash and pompous behaviour. Wilson in turn
exudes superiority by his relaxed style and the smiling and polite catchphrase "do you
think that's wise, Sir?," thereby constantly challenging Mainwaring's authority. Wilson
represents an Establishment that relies on its traditional entitlement without being
willing or able to take responsibility.
When Wilson briefly leaves Walmington (S4E11), when Mainwaring loses his rank
as Captain (S3E6) or when Jones's position is challenged (S1E5; S5E6), the others
compete for their places. When they are not openly fighting one another, the members
of the platoon follow their own agendas as butcher, black marketeer or dutiful son. The
platoon, in turn, fights against other Walmingtonian institutions from the Air Raid
Wardens, whose leader they deem socially inferior because he has dirty fingernails and
runs a greengrocer's, to the vicar and verger and the town clerk, whom they think too
snobbish.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)106 ANETTE PANKRATZ
Historically, it should have been the Germans that keep the deeply divided society
united, but in most of the episodes of Dad's Army this is not enough. In order to collect
money for the Spitfire Fund, the Home Guard decides to stage the fight between St.
George and the Dragon, marked as German by painted swastikas. Of course, George
Mainwaring insists on impersonating St. George, the rest of the platoon play the dragon
in pantomime fashion. At the village fete, the platoon learn that the Air Raid Wardens
had the very same idea and the episode culminates in a showdown. What started as
patriotic gesture to bolster national unity turns into another inter-Walmington battle:
St. George fights St. George and dragon fights dragon (S9E3).
5. Conclusion
By the time of the first broadcast of Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, the soldier
as an aggressive, courageous and heroic fighter for his nation had become slightly
outdated and ridiculous. Both series debunk military masculinity, and make fun of the
army and soldiers. The sitcoms draw attention to the broad scope of masculinities and
the volatility of ideal types. But this does not mean that the patriarchal system has been
replaced. Especially Dad's Army rehabilitates the leadership of old men and both series
show ordinary men making the best of a difficult situation. Despite all their
shortcomings, the "boys" are alright and the army still serves as a microcosm of Britain.
Moreover, the figure of the warrior hero is kept in circulation by default, in Dad's Army
with additional patriotic and nostalgic overtones.
The combination of destabilising the representations of hegemonic masculinity and
purporting to keep the patriarchal system intact points towards areas of moral panic and
anxieties in the 1970s, a "new racism" (Hunt 1998, 51) personified by Enoch Powell
and later the National Front, and yet another crisis of masculinity, triggered by Second
Wave feminism and the Gay Rights Movement (ibid., 56). Compared to British culture
at large – from Glam Rock and Carry On movies to the Second Wave of playwrights –
the sitcoms offer rather tame deconstructions of normative gender models,3 but even
these mainstream media texts offer opportunities for resistant readings. It Ain't Half
Hot, Mum was one of the few TV series that showed Indians and hired BrAsian actors.
It did not really 'bring them into representation' (in the sense of Stuart Hall), but it made
the BrAsian community visible and historicised immigration (Morgan-Russell 2004,
90-91).4 To a more limited extent, this also holds true for the representation of queer
characters. Implicitly, both series also offer new, alternative models of hegemonic
masculinity: the manager and the creative artist. Mainwaring and his platoon manage
to muddle through not because of their military prowess, but because of their ability to
3 Even Peter Nichols's rather mainstream Privates on Parade (RSC, 1977) was more daring in
its strategies of representation. Like It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, the play shows the life of a
concert party, but female impersonator Terri Dennis as well as several other characters are
portrayed as openly and often flamboyantly homosexual.
4 Sharat Sardana, writer for Goodness Gracious Me (BBC, 1998-2001) and The Kumars at No
42 (BBC, 2001-2006; ITV 2014), recalls watching It Ain't Half Hot, Mum as a child and not
finding it racist: "they spoke Urdu for godsake" (Ducray and Sardana 2004).
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 107
tick the right boxes, remain polite, service-oriented and flexible. The concert party
survives the war because of show business and creative performativity both on- and,
more importantly, off-stage, rescuing difficult situations by staging the right song or
making the right face at the right moment. Both formations forego soldierly aggressive
dominance and achieve hegemony by (more or less clever) negotiation and team work
(Reckwitz 2017, 117-120).
In the context of the 1970s, It Ain't Half Hot, Mum risked more by opening to the
margins – what Dad's Army uses as material for occasional risqué jokes, returns as part
of its basic constellation of characters – and by choosing a setting that undermined
facile nostalgia, but it also replicated racist and homophobic stereotypes. Does the
series' disappearance from TV then indicate a change in the representation of non-
hegemonic masculinities? The effeminate queen still dominates representations of
homosexuality in sitcoms, whether in Gimme Gimme Gimme (BBC, 1998-2001),
Vicious (C4, 2013-2016) or Benidorm (ITV, 2007-2018), but the 'humour regimes' have
changed. The series are written by homosexual authors like Jonathan Harvey and/or
performed by openly gay actors like Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellan. In order to make
fun of minorities by way of clichés, one should belong to these minorities (Das and
Graefer 2017, 52).
At the same time, the soldier and military masculinity have seen a comeback since
the 1980s. In the USA, Vietnam action heroes like Rambo indicate a
"remasculinization" (Jeffords 1989) which, to a certain extent, has been exported to the
West in general. In Britain, the Falklands War and recently the 'War on Terror'
revitalised notions of heroic soldiering (Bennett 2015, 72). This also feeds into recent
sitcoms. In contrast to the Home Guard and the Artillery concert party, the characters
in both Bluestone 42 and Gary: Tank Commander are professional soldiers fighting in
Afghanistan and Iraq. The war may be unjust and the situations absurd, the two series
imply, but at least the soldiers deserve respect, for 'doing their bit' (Bennett 2015; de
Waal 2017, 257).5
But those funny soldiers no longer represent the most popular sitcom figures the
way they did at the time of Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot, Mum. Aggression and
bullying are rather associated with spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) in
Armando Iannucci's political satire The Thick of It (BBC, 2007-2012). Mainstream
masculinities are better (and more successfully) represented by incompetent managers
like David Brent (Ricky Gervais) in The Office (BBC, 2001-2003) or Ian Fletcher
(Hugh Bonneville) in Twenty-Twelve (BBC, 2011-2012) and W1A (BBC, 2014-2017).
Moreover, recent sitcom smash-hits feature funny women, from the BAFTA and Emmy
winner Fleabag (BBC, 2016-2019) to Derry Girls (C4, 2018-). They may not be
"doomed" (as Private Frazer would put it), but mentioning the war and soldiering are
no longer necessary to keep the nation amused.
5 Intriguingly, with the character of translator and wheeler-dealer Faruq Harrif (Keeno-Lee
Hector), Bluestone 42 brings back the sly native, using many of the stereotypes represented
by Rangi Ram.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)108 ANETTE PANKRATZ
Works Cited
Belkin, Aaron. Bring Me Men: Military Masculinity and the Benign Facade of
American Empire, 1898-2001. London: Hurst & Company, 2012.
Bennett, Bruce. "The Comedy of Terror: Gary: Tank Commander and the TV Sitcom's
'Discourse of Impropriety.'" The 'War on Terror': Post-9/11 Television Drama,
Docudrama and Documentary. Eds. Stephen Lacey and Derek Paget. Cardiff:
University of Wales Press, 2015. 65-80.
Böhn, Andreas. "Subversions of Gender: Identities through Laughter and the Comic?"
Gender and Laughter: Comic Affirmation and Subversion in Traditional and
Modern Media. Eds. Gaby Pailer et al. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. 49-64.
Bowes, Mick. "Only When I Laugh." Understanding Television. Eds. Andrew
Goodwin and Garry Whannel. London: Routledge, 1990. 128-140.
Braun, Edward. "Stereotypes and Other Types: The Portrayal of the Army in British
Television Drama." Acts of War: The Representation of Military Conflict on the
British Stage and Television since 1945. Eds. Tony Howard and John Stokes.
Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996. 179-191.
Calder, Angus, The People's War: Britain, 1939-45. London: Jonathan Cape, 1969.
Connell, R.W. Masculinities. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005.
Crowther, Bruce, and Mike Pinfold. Bring Me Laughter: Four Decades of TV Comedy.
London: Columbus Books, 1987.
Dad's Army, created by Jimmy Perry. BBC1, 1968-1977.
Das, Ranjana, and Anne Graefer. Provocative Screens: Offended Audiences in Britain
and Germany. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Dawson, Graham. Soldier Heroes: British Adventure, Empire and the Imaginings of
Masculinities. London: Routledge, 1994.
De Waal, Ariane. Theatre on Terror: Subject Positions in British Drama. Berlin: De
Gruyter, 2017.
Ducray, Armandine, and Sharat Sardana. "Ethnic Minorities, Comedy and British
Television: Interview with Sharat Sardana." 26 November 2004. Revue LISA. Web.
[accessed 25 October 2019].
Duguid, Mark. "Race and the Sitcom." n.d. BFI Screenonline. Web.
[accessed 10 October 2019].
Feuer, Jane. "Situation Comedy: Part 2." The Television Genre Book. Eds. Glen
Creeber, Toby Miller, and John Tulloch. London: Routledge, 2001. 67-70.
Gray, Frances. Women and Laughter. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia,
1994.
Hartley, John. "Situation Comedy: Part 1." The Television Genre Book. Eds. Glen
Creeber, Toby Miller, and John Tulloch. London: Routledge, 2001. 65-67.
Healy, Murray. "Were We Being Served? Homosexual Representation in Popular
British Comedy." Screen 36.3 (1995): 243-256.
Horlacher, Stefan. "A Short Introduction to Theories of Humour, the Comic, and
Laughter." Gender and Laughter: Comic Affirmation and Subversion in Traditional
and Modern Media. Eds. Gaby Pailer et al. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. 17-47.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)MENTION THE WAR: BRITISH SITCOMS AND MILITARY MASCULINITY 109
Horlacher, Stefan, and Kevin Floyd. "Introduction." Contemporary Masculinities in the
UK and the US: Between Bodies and Systems. Eds. Stefan Horlacher and Kevin
Floyd. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 1-18.
Howard, Tony, and John Stokes. "Introduction." Acts of War: The Representation of
Military Conflict on the British Stage and Television since 1945. Eds. Tony Howard
and John Stokes. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996. 1-26.
Hunt, Leon. British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation. London:
Routledge, 1998.
It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. BBC1, 1974-1981.
Jeffords, Susan. The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989.
Kamm, Jürgen. "'Oh What a Funny War': Representations of World War II in British
TV Comedy." Modern War on Stage and Screen. Eds. Wolfgang Görtschacher and
Holger Klein. Lewiston, ME: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. 265-283.
Korte, Barbara. "Wars and 'British' Identities from Norman Conquerors to Bosnian
Warriors: An Overview of Cultural Representations." War and the Cultural
Construction of Identities in Britain. Eds. Barbara Korte and Ralf Schneider.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002. 9-24.
Lenz, Bernd. "'Your Little Game': Myth and War in Dad's Army." British TV Comedies.
Eds. Jürgen Kamm and Birgit Neumann. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 36-50.
McCann, Graham. The Story of a Classic Television Show: 'Dad's Army.' London:
Fourth Estate, 2002.
Medhurst, Andy, and Lucy Tuck. "The Gender Game." BFI Dossier No 17: Television
Sitcom. Ed. Jim Cook. London: BFI, 1982. 43-55.
Mills, Brett. The Sitcom. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
Morgan-Russell, Simon. Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2004.
Räwel, Jörg. Humor als Kommunikationsmedium. Konstanz: UVK, 2005.
Reckwitz, Andreas. The Invention of Creativity. Translated by Steven Black.
Cambridge: Polity, 2017.
Richards, Jeffrey. Films and British National Identity: From Dickens to 'Dad's Army.'
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial
Desire. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
Sommer, Roy. Von Shakespeare bis Monty Python: Eine transmediale Geschichte der
englischen Komödie zwischen pragmatischer Poetik und generischem Gedächtnis.
Trier: WVT, 2011.
Stewart, Ian. "Presenting Arms: Portrayals of War and the Military in British Cinema."
War, Culture and the Media: Representations of the Military in 20th Century
Britain. Eds. Ian Stewart and Susan L. Carruthers. Trowbridge: Flicks Books, 1996.
75-90.
Wagg, Stephen. "'At Ease, Corporal:' Social Class and the Situation Comedy in British
Television." Because I Tell a Joke or Two: Comedy, Politics and Social Difference.
Ed. Stephen Wagg. London: Routledge, 1998. 1-31.
Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)Anglistik, Jahrgang 31 (2020), Ausgabe 2
© 2020 Universitätsverlag WINTER GmbH Heidelberg
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)You can also read
