History Series / GetSomeIn

* StealingTheCredit: After he is transferred to RAF Midham and is able to start with a clean slate with a new CO, Marsh engages in credit-stealing at every available opportunity to make himself look better, and continues this trend when the same CO, Group Captain Ruark, happens to be in charge of RAF Druidswater. For example, in "Morgue" from Series 5, he claims to have skipped breakfast so that he can personally re-organise the medical storeroom to make things easier to find and otherwise keep track of, whereas the reality is that he press-ganged a group of National Servicemen to do all the work while he sat back and relaxed.

''Get Some In!'' was a British sitcom written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey (best known as the writers of ''Series/TheGoodLife'') which aired on Creator/ThamesTelevision for five series between 1975 and 1978. It followed the trials and tribulations of a group of Royal Air Force National Service recruits in 1955 (between 1949 and 1960, all healthy males between the ages of 17 and 21 were required to serve in the British military for two years), and starred Tony Selby as Corporal Percy Marsh, the RAF's version of a DrillSergeantNasty. The recruits included snarky Teddy Boy Jakey Smith (Robert Lindsay), well-spoken grammar school graduate Ken Richardson (David Janson), naive vicar's son Matthew Lilley (Gerard Ryder), and pessimistic Scot Bruce Leckie (Brian Pettifer).

''Get Some In!'' was a British sitcom written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey (best known as the writers of ''Series/TheGoodLife'') which aired on Creator/ThamesTelevision for five series between 1975 and 1978. It followed the trials and tribulations of a group of Royal Air Force National Service recruits in 1955 (between 1949 and 1960, all healthy males between the ages of 17 and 21 were required to serve in the British military for two years), and starred Tony Selby as Corporal Percy Marsh, the RAF's version of a DrillSergeantNasty. The recruits included snarky Teddy boy Jakey Smith (Robert Lindsay), well-spoken grammar school graduate Ken Richardson (David Janson), naive vicar's son Matthew Lilley (Gerard Ryder), and pessimistic Scot Bruce Leckie (Brian Pettifer).

* TheDandy: Like most Teddy boys, Jakey places a great deal of importance on fashionable clothing and hairstyles when he is called up (although, also like most Teddy boys, he does not shy away from potentially clothing-damaging violence). In the first episode of Series 1, "Callup", he receives a TraumaticHaircut (see corresponding entry) as his "duck's arse" falls victim to the barber's scissors, and in the next episode, "Kit", his main objection to the RAF uniforms is their lack of style. When he encounters a group of his former fellow Teddy boys while on leave during the Series 1 finale, "36-Hour Pass", they taunt him for his now uncool clothes and hairstyle.

** Jakey is choleric. He is by far the most charismatic and savvy of the four, but also has the shortest temper (having been a Teddy boy before conscription), even venting his anger against the other three in some of the early episodes (such as when Matthew keeps accidentally splashing water over his boots while they are mopping the bathroom in "Medical").

** He addresses Teddy boy Jakey as "Ted" and "King Edward VII" as well as "Three-F Smith" after Jakey introduces himself as "Smif" and, in a moment of SnarkToSnarkCombat, responds to Marsh's question of whether he spells it with one or two Fs with "Three."

* ThereWillBeToiletPaper: In "Kit" from Series 1, Marsh finds a straight razor in Teddy boy Jakey's coat during their first morning ablutions and threatens to put him on a charge for having an unauthorised weapon. Jakey claims he was going to use the razor to shave (which, as he has just been seen putting a blade in a safety razor, is clearly not true). Marsh orders him to do so, and when the flight return to their barracks after their ablutions, Jakey's face is covered in squares of toilet paper.

* TraumaticHaircut: In the first episode, "Callup", Jakey shoves his way to the front of the queue for haircuts and gives the barber detailed instructions as to how he wants his "duck's arse" (the standard Teddy boy haircut) styled. The barber then grabs the front of Jakey's hair and chops it off completely, causing Jakey to roar with horror as he sees himself in the mirror.

* BrickJoke: One brick joke in the series took three years to reach its payoff. In what seems like a throwaway joke in "Medical" from Series 1, MO Squadron Leader Baker's incompetent assistant, Rankin, tells his superior that he wants to be a bandsman after watching the band at RAF Skelton assemble for rehearsal; Baker just groans, "Oh, ''shut up.''" In "Crisis" from Series 5, Rankin returns as a psychiatric patient at RAF Druidswater, still harbouring ambitions of being a bandsman and eventually threatening to jump off a window ledge if he can't be a musician. Jakey forces Marsh to give him 32/6 to buy a trombone for Rankin... who, inevitably, is a DreadfulMusician.

However, the ''News of the World'', citing audience figures of over 14 million, successfully petitioned Thames to uncancel the series, and the fifth series saw the four National Servicemen (with Jakey now played by Karl Howman, Robert Lindsay having departed to take the lead role in ''Series/CitizenSmith'') recalled to Britain and posted to the fictional RAF Druidswater in the west of England, where they once again crossed paths with Marsh, who had apparently risked his life to save that of a superior officer and returned to Britain as a hero and a Corporal once again. Viewing figures plummeted, and the series was cancelled for a second and final time without a definite resolution.

* SelfServingMemory: In "Labrador" from Series 5, Marsh has been invited to speak at Matthew's father's church about his heroics in saving Wing Commander Pinkerton while he was posted to Labrador. In a series of flashbacks, we see that while Marsh claims that it was Pinkerton whose miscalculation caused their snowmobile to overturn and that he kept a cool head to carry Pinkerton on his back until they were rescued, in reality it was Marsh's fault the snowmobile overturned, he couldn't think through the panic (at one point trying to de-ice the radio with a pickaxe, smashing it beyond repair), and Pinkerton carried ''Marsh'' on his back until he collapsed, just moments before they were rescued.

However, the ''News of the World'', citing audience figures of over 14 million, successfully petitioned Thames to uncancel the series, and the fifth series saw the four National Servicemen (with Jakey now played by Karl Howman, Robert Lindsay having departed to take the lead role in ''Series/CitizenSmith'') recalled to Britain and posted to the fictional RAF Druidswater in Scotland, where they once again crossed paths with Marsh, who had apparently risked his life to save that of a superior officer and returned to Britain as a hero and a Corporal once again. Viewing figures plummeted, and the series was cancelled for a second and final time without a definite resolution.

* FakeUltimateHero: Marsh is hailed as a hero when he returns in "V.I.P. Guard", the first episode of Series 5, in which he is reported as having risked his life to save that of a superior officer. However, in "Labrador", Matthew discovers that Marsh did nothing of the kind, and simply spun what really happened to restore himself to his former rank of Corporal. Marsh does not take kindly to the discovery of his deception.

* NotNowKiddo: When Marsh wakes up the Group Captain at Skelton to tell him Bruce has committed suicide, he takes him to the barracks and tries to spin the story to incriminate Jakey, Ken, and Matthew as the ones who drove him to take his own life. However, Bruce is very much alive, and unsuccessfully tries to get Marsh's attention but is shouted down every time until finally the Group Captain demands to know the name of this interrupting troublemaker. Marsh identifies him as Leckie, the one who killed himself... [[DelayedOhCrap and realisation finally dawns on him]]. The unamused Group Captain orders him outside to give him a dressing down.

* SideBet: When Marsh is put on a charge for cheating on the nursing exam in "Exam Results" from Series 4, Ken is convinced that he will finally lose his corporal's stripes. Jakey believes that Marsh might as well be made of asbestos for all his ability to deflect "fire" from above, and bets Ken half a crown[[note]] Two shillings and sixpence[[/note]] that Marsh will still have his corporal's stripes when he returns to their shared dorm room. Sure enough, Marsh is still wearing his stripes, and a disappointed Ken hands half a crown to an equally disappointed Jakey... until they see Marsh take out a pair of scissors and begin cutting the stitches of the stripes on his greatcoat. They grin triumphantly as Jakey flips Ken's money back to him and slaps his own half-crown on top of it.

* KickedUpstairs: In "RAF Midham" from Series 3, the CO at Midham, the [[ResonableAuthorityFigure genial Group Captain Brice]], gives a welcome/farewell speech to the new arrivals at the camp in which he mentions the Air Ministry have kicked him upstairs, so they will be the last new arrivals he welcomes to Midham. His departure kicks off a TyrantTakesTheHelm story arc as his successor, Group Captain Ruark, is far less genial and agrees to Marsh's request to instill some good old-fashioned military discipline in the airmen at the camp.

In the first two series, they went through basic training at the fictional RAF Skelton somewhere in the south of England; at the beginning of the third series, they were assigned to a nursing training course (along with Marsh, who had requested a transfer) at the fictional RAF Midham in Lancashire, where they remained until the end of the fourth series. In an ostensible GrandFinale, the four National Servicemen were posted to the non-fictional RAF Luqa in Malta, while Marsh was demoted to Aircraftman First Class for cheating on the final nursing exam and [[ReassignedToAntarctica posted to Labrador]], and that seemed to be that for the series.

* YouLookFamiliar: John D. Collins played the Medical Officer at RAF Skelton in the Series 1 episode "Medical", then showed up as recurring character Squadron Leader Baker (another medical officer) at RAF Midham in Series 3 and 4.

* TrashTheSet: The Series 3 opener, "Erks", is the next-to-last to be set at RAF Skelton, and after the four aircraftmen learn that Marsh lied about Flight Lieutenant Grant's terminal illness to motivate them to win the shield for highest end of basic training test scores and get him a promotion to Sergeant, Bruce gets drunk and douses the floor of their barracks hut with petrol. Jakey, Ken, and Matthew manage to stop him and set about mopping up the petrol, but then Marsh arrives, taunts them with the knowledge that they helped him get his promotion, and lights a celebratory cigar as the four airmen scramble for the door... just in time for Marsh to unwittingly throw the lit match into the puddle of petrol, burning the hut to the ground.

* IronicFear: Despite being in the Royal Air Force, Corporal Marsh is paralytically terrified of flying. When he is forced to accompany the aircraftmen on a flight helmed by former Lancaster pilot Wing Commander Birch in the Series 2 episode "Flight", he spends the entire flight rigid with fear, and babbles to a bewildered Bruce that Birch has shrapnel in his head from the war and is flying the plane into the Sun. When Ken tells the other recruits that Birch will be showing them how the aeroplane flies with only three engines, Marsh screams, "HE'S MAAAAAD!" and runs into the toilet, where he remains locked in for the rest of the flight.

* IronicFear: Despite being in the Royal Air Force, Corporal Marsh is paralytically terrified of flying. When he is forced to accompany the aircraftmen on a flight helmed by a former Lancaster pilot in the Series 2 episode "Flight", he spends the entire flight rigid with fear, and babbles to a bewildered Bruce that the pilot has shrapnel in his head from the war and is flying the plane into the Sun. When Ken tells the other recruits that the pilot will be showing them how the aeroplane flies with only three engines, Marsh screams, "HE'S MAAAAAD!" and runs into the toilet, where he remains locked in for the rest of the flight.

* PlayingSick: In "Medical" from Series 1, Jakey tries to get himself disqualified from National Service on medical grounds by pretending to be hard of hearing. The Medical Officer tells him to repeat what he says, then whispers, "Six pounds of lettuce." Jakey replies, "Whenever you're ready, Sir!" Finally, the MO tells Jakey to sit down, and Jakey complies... giving away the fact he can hear perfectly well. His ploy of swallowing cotton wool so that it shows up as a shadow on his lungs in his chest X-ray is also recognised straight away, and he passes his medical with flying colours.

* ArmedFarces: In the RAF of ''Get Some In!'', the officers are [[UpperClassTwit toffee-nosed buffoons]], the [=NCOs=] are [[TheBully petty sadists]], the men in the Regiment are animalistically savage, and the young new recruits are gullible naifs.

** Jakey is choleric. He is by far the most charismatic and savvy of the four, but also has the shortest temper (having been a Teddy boy before conscription), even venting his anger against the other three in some of the early episodes (such as when Matthew keeps accidentally splashing water over his boots while they are mopping the bathroom).

** Matthew is phlegmatic. He firmly believes in forgiving and forgetting (even using those exact words when offering an olive branch to Marsh during their farewell scene in "Exam Results"), but is also socially awkward as a result of his somewhat sheltered upbringing and by far the most gullible of the main four, a trait of which Marsh often takes advantage. His lack of natural leadership inspires Marsh to put him in charge of the title event in "Field Exercise" purely to set him up to fail.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In the Series 1 episode "Medical", Marsh claims that the entire flight could be dismissed from National Service if one of them were to commit suicide. When Bruce returns from a round of punishment for mistakes made during earlier drills, he snaps that he might as well shoot himself... and the other airmen (except for Matthew, who was also being punished) seem to egg him on. When he disappears along with his rifle and a round of live ammunition is reported missing, the airmen are horrified by the thought that they might have helped to drive Bruce to suicide. Fortunately, the missing round of ammunition was just miscounted, and Bruce has actually been talking to a fellow Scot in the armoury about how not to make the same mistakes with his rifle again.

* ArmedFarces: In the RAF of ''Get Some In!'', the officers are [[UpperClassTwit toffee-nosed buffoons]], the [=NCOs=] are [[TheBully petty sadists]], the men in the regiment are animalistically savage, and the young new recruits are gullible naifs.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Matthew refuses to use even mild profanity, as Marsh discovers when he tries to browbeat him into saying "blimey" in the Series 1 episode "Boots" (though this refusal is on religious grounds, as "blimey" is a corruption of "God blind me", which the devoutly Christian Matthew regards as blasphemous), mostly restricting himself to such euphemisms as "blink", "blooming", and "flip". He drops the equivalent of a ClusterFBomb when the regiment at RAF Skelton appear in the undergrowth near the end of "Field Exercise" in Series 2... in this case, a Cluster "Flip" Bomb.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: In the final scene of "Field Exercise" from Series 2, in a hitherto unseen display of courage, Matthew charges at the RAF regiment members standing between him, Jakey, Ken, and Bruce and the finish line of their field exercise to return to camp. The regiment promptly engulfs him and strips him of everything except his beret, which he uses to [[HandOrObjectUnderwear preserve his remaining modesty]] as Marsh and the regiment members laugh uproariously. Fortunately, the distraction has allowed the other three to become the first National Service recruits in RAF Skelton history to successfully complete the field exercise, and Matthew proudly puts his beret on and salutes a flabbergasted Corporal Marsh - then remembers what he was using his beret to cover and immediately "replaces" it.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In the Series 2 episode "Field Exercise", the four main aircraftmen are the only ones left "alive" on the field exercise when they encounter Marsh at a pub. Marsh laughs that when he joined the RAF, he and his fellow recruits ran rings around the regiment members playing the "enemy" by using their initiative. As he says this, a bus bound for Skelton pulls up behind him. The four aircraftmen run for the bus, claiming to be using their initiative, and ride it back to the camp's perimeter fence as Marsh rides after them on his bicycle screaming in anger.