Which Way to the War
Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox television
Which Way to the War is a British television sitcom pilot episode that was broadcast on 19 August 1994 on ITV. It starred William Tapley, Simon Baker Denny, Terry John and Robert Hands, and was written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft.[1]
Plot
Set in Libya in October 1942, during the Western Desert campaign, a party of British "Desert Rat" soldiers and a party of Australian soldiers are holed up in a remote building, when an ambulance of Italian "nurses" arrive.
Cast
- William Tapley as Corporal Roy Muller
- Simon Baker Denny as Private Stan Hawke
- Terry John as Corporal Tony Genaro
- Robert Hands as Private Jock Stewart
Also featured were Sarah Payne as Mara, Nadia Sawalha as Lucia, Elisabeth Bolognini as Little Anna, Valeria Fabbri as Carla, Amanda Weston as Theresa, Jason Hall as Captain Gregory Swift and Martin Sadler as Able One Charlie.[2]
Production
The pilot episode, written with the intention of developing a full series,[1] was Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft's final sitcom set during wartime, and their only sitcom produced by the ITV network.[3] It had a working title of Mammary Mia.[4]
The pilot was based on an idea by Roger Mirams, who was a producer with Reg Grundy Productions.[5] The pilot's director, Roy Gould, had worked for Croft and Lloyd previously at the BBC on programmes Are You Being Served?, Hi-de-Hi!, 'Allo 'Allo! and Oh, Doctor Beeching!.[6] Terry John, who portrayed Corporal Genaro, would later appear as Percy in Croft's final television series, Oh, Doctor Beeching!, from 1995 to 1997.[6][7]
Reception
The pilot was poorly received, and thus a series was not commissioned.[8] Memorable TV described the pilot as a "typical" show by the writers, but noted that it was broadcast when the writers' style of comedy was "somewhat out of favour".[9]
Jasper Rees, writing in The Independent, criticised the racial stereotyping of the characters, particularly the Italian prostitutes, and the predictability of their being a "houseproud homosexual" character, Private Jock Stewart, in a Croft and Lloyd series. Rees felt that certain "promising" moments in the episode were not properly capitalised on in order to reach "the point of maximum comic potential" and believed that the overall humour was cheap and vulgar.[4]
References
External links
- Template:Trim/ Template:Trim at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:WikidataCheck
- BBC Comedy Guide: Which Way To The War
Template:Jeremy Lloyd Template:David Croft
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- Pages with script errors
- ITV sitcoms
- World War II television comedy series
- British English-language television shows
- Military comedy television series
- Television series by Yorkshire Television
- Television pilots not picked up as a series
- Television series created by David Croft (TV producer)
- Television series created by Jeremy Lloyd
- Pages with reference errors