Navy Lark

A 60th anniversary celebration of the much-loved nautical comedy, featuring six classic episodes plus bonus material

On 29 March 1959, The Navy Lark sailed the airwaves for the very first time. Starring Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and Stephen Murray, with regular appearances from Ronnie Barker and Heather Chasen, it soon became a radio favourite and ran for 18 years – one of the longest-running BBC sitcoms.

This anniversary collection comprises a special radio programme presented by Leslie Phillips, Left Hand Down A Bit, in which he takes us on a voyage through six of the best episodes from the iconic series – Operation Fag End (5 April 1959), The Hank of Heather (17 May 1959), The Lighthouse Lark (29 January 1960), A Deliberate Bashing (19 April 1963), Mr Phillips at Dartmouth (29 October 1967) and The Jubilee Navy Lark (16 July 1977).

Bonus items include a mini-episode from The Light Entertainment Show; two crossover episodes from spin-off series The Embassy Lark: National Grumpschnog Week (12 April 1966) and Sub-Lt Phillips Drops In (16 April 1968), and a discussion from Bob Holness Presents: Farewell to the Paris, which sees Leslie Phillips and Jon Pertwee reminiscing about the making of The Navy Lark. So step aboard HMS Troutbridge for laughs ahoy!

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 in 1976. However, the crew all jumped on board one last time for a Jubilee Special in 1977.