I was in my office one day and a friend dropped by, an ex copper. He sighed the kids today, they should bring back National Service, that would sort them out.
I decided to have some fun with him. So I said, you were born in the 1960s, what do you know about National Service? I got silence.
Then I came up with my standard retort. You do know that the Kray twins and their gang, their rivals did National Service? It is there they learned how to use guns, handy when it came to robbing banks and the like such as extorting money.
With Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum a success on the BBC. Get Some In was ITV's chance to get into the Army Game. There is also an element of Porridge as the young intake might as well be in prison.
The first episode sees the new recruits arrival at their base, their new home for two years. The most famous of the conscripts is Jakey Smith (Robert Lindsay) a teddy boy. Sixth former Ken Richardson (David Janson) causes trouble in the first day by arriving late. Vicar's son Matthew Lilley is the lamb to the slaughter. Corporal Marsh (Tony Selby) is there to make life hell for them. He spells out his first name, it be begins with B and ends with a D.
Marsh has trouble at home with his wife who mocks his manhood and is looking for a posting to a warmer climate like Hong Kong. Something Richardson messes up by blurting it out in front of another corporal.
Written by the team of John Esmonde and Bob Larbey who did The Good Life. The first episode quickly hit its stride once the recruits arrives. There is no soft soaping here, these young people are treated like muck. No wonder Conservative politicians are so nostalgic about it. Probably reminds them of their time fagging in public school.
Talfryn Thomas who specialised in playing Welsh soldiers pops up in the first episode. He was also in Dad's Army.