Flicking through the TV channels today, you’re more than likely to stumble across repeats of Croft and Perry’s other sitcom creations Dad’s Army and Hi-de-Hi! on BBC Two and GOLD, but It Ain’t Half Hot Mum is nowhere to be found. That’s because the show has been gagged and barricaded into the BBC archive vaults, under the assumption that its humorous depiction of British colonialism would be too offensive for modern viewers.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

Contrary to popular belief, some were heralding the show as racist when it was still being produced. In 1979, the Campaign Against Racism in the Media broadcast a public access TV programme entitled It Ain’t Half Racist, Mum which deconstructed the subtle and explicit racism encoded in the popular comedy shows and the serious current affairs programmes of the time, fronted by academic Stuart Hall.

 

Hall himself suggested that ‘comedy naturalises racist ideologies’ and by being able to ‘laugh at them on TV reinforces and reproduced negative racial stereotypes’ **

 

However, where most of the criticism for the show originates is from white actor Michael Bates’ portrayal of the bearer Rangi-Ram in blackface, incidentally, the only actor in the show to ‘black-up’ (all he “wore was a light tan”, writer Jimmy Perry claimed).

 

The show’s writers have both defended the decision to cast Michael Bates in the role, based on the fact that there were very few experienced Asian actors available in the early 1970s, despite conducting a search before the show went into production:

 

“in 1972 there were very few Asian actors and, sadly, not one experienced enough to play a leading comedy role” – Jimmy Perry, 2002***

 

“Jimmy knew Michael Bates, who had been born in India, served with the Gurkhas during the war and spoke the language [Urdu]. He had been more or less raised by a bearer like Rangi.” – David Croft, 2004****

 

In addition to the show’s controversial tones of sympathy towards imperialism – a consequence of its national stereotyping and patronising humour - its perpetual incarceration has also been exacerbated by its perceived use of homophobic language. Specifically, the Sergeant Major frequently referring to his troupe as a “load of poofs!”

 

Again, co-writer Jimmy Perry defended the show’s use of homophobic language as being an authentic representation of how people spoke during the forties:

 

“People complain that the language was homophobic and it was, but it was exactly how people spoke. And I should know – I was in a Royal Artillery concert party that travelled around India. We had a sergeant-major who hated us. He’d say: ‘No man who puts on make-up and ponces about on a stage is normal – what are you? ‘We’re a bunch of poofs!’ we’d reply. And those experiences are ones that enabled me to write It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.” – Jimmy Perry, 2003

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

Despite the series’ latter-day condemnation, the series was extremely popular, not just with British viewers, but the Asian audience the BBC are now petrified of offending:

 

“The people who said this were all British and it was purely based upon ignorance…the strange thing is that British Asians loved it – and still do – they call it “our programme” – Jimmy Perry, 2002***

 

The series was considered as a fair portrayal of Indians at that time** and garnered a positive reception from Asian families, most likely because it was one of the few representations of Asian people on TV at the time, as Neil Biswas corroborates with Mind Your Language:

 

“When I think back and wonder why my parents enjoyed it so much, I can only come up with one answer. They recognised themselves in Mind Your Language… For them, it was a representation of their own situation… For me, it’s my earliest memory of seeing Asians on TV.” – Biswas, 2003 (p.11) *****