INTERVIEW
series, and it was being written by David Croft and
Jimmy Perry. I was given the part of Gloria, and I
had never done anything like it before, but it was a
start of many happy years.
“I think it is sad the BBC will not repeat it. These
days there are many performers on television who
are outrageously camp and say things over and above
anything that was said in It Ain't Half Hot Mum. But
I understand the BBC will not repeat the series for
two reasons; one that Michael Bates was a white man
playing a black man, Bearer Rangi Ram, even though
he was born in India and speaks perfect Hurdu.
“The second reason was because Windsor Davies Battery Sergeant Major 'Shut up' Williams - called us
‘puffs’, and I think that is a ridiculous excuse. David
and Jimmy said the series was their favourite of
everything they wrote, but unfortunately it doesn't
seem that it will ever be repeated here even though it
was popular across the world.”
I asked Melvyn if he had a particular favourite of
all the roles he has played in his many years as an
actor. He replied: “I always say whatever I am doing
at the moment. If it is a major part or a one-line
‘voice-over’ I have to put everything into it.
“But if I had to pick just one part then it would
be in ‘The Bespoke Overcoat’ which was originally
done with Alfie Bass and David Kossoff. It is only a
30-minute play about a Jewish tailor and a guy who
comes back from the dead. I had waited 50 years
to play that part and Leonard Fenton, who played
Dr. Clegg in Eastenders, and I did it in a theatre in
Hampstead.”
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