Trivia / It Ain't Half Hot, Mum

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Sergeant Major Williams' iconic Character Catchphrase of "lovely boys" was thought by Windsor Davies during his audition.
  • Melvyn Hayes came up with a gag about Gloria falling into a river during location filming of one episode, but regretted this when the scene was filmed at six in the morning on a freezing cold day when he was unable to wear a wetsuit like everybody else. Hayes also tried to emulate his Aunt Elsie when applying his make-up on-screen.
• Character Outlives Actor: Michael Bates, who played bearer Rangi Ram, died of cancer in 1978 between Series 5 and 6. The character was written out of the remaining three series.
• Creator Backlash:
  • In his autobiography, David Croft admits that while Kenneth MacDonald would later do great work in Only Fools and Horses, he regrets how he was never able to write him a part better than "bit of a nutcase who occasionally made very realistic bird noises".
  • Croft also thought the last three series suffered without Michael Bates on the cast.
• Creator Couple: John Clegg's wife Mavis Pugh played Chief Commander Crisp in "Ticket to Blighty".
• Creator's Favourite Episode: Melvyn Hayes' was "Gloria's Finest Hour".
• The Danza: John Clegg as Gunner Jonathan Clegg.
• Hostility on the Set: No one was expecting Michael Bates, who was suffering from cancer at the time, to return for Series 5, so David Croft didn't include him in a picture for the front cover of the Radio Times alongside his costars, Windsor Davies, Melvyn Hayes, and Don Estelle. Bates did end up returning and was understandably furious at his absence, but never voiced his opinion on the matter.
• Irony as She Is Cast: John Clegg, who played the piano-playing Gunner Graham, couldn't play a note in real life.
• Missing Episode: Two episodes from Series 1, "A Star is Born" and "It's a Wise Child", were wiped or otherwise lost after broadcast.^note  The peculiarity of just these two episodes going missing casts doubt on the notion that they were deliberately wiped; "It's a Wise Child" in particular includes a pivotal moment in the "Williams thinks Parkin is his son" subplot: not only do Parkin and his fellow Concert Party members learn about Williams' relationship with Parkin's mother, but they consult their medical records and establish that Williams cannot be Parkin's father. The only surviving copies were returned to The BBC by an Australian fan who recorded them on VHS when they were re-run by the Seven Network in 1988; Seven itself no longer has the master tapes, and since they are advertiser funded, each episode is missing about five minutes' worth of scenes to accommodate ad breaks. The low-quality recordings were included as extras on the series' DVD release.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Leonard Rossiter was the first choice for Sergeant Major Williams. Rossiter read the script, only to complain that the character was too much of a caricature, and then demolished the script from beginning to end. Windsor Davies was the next choice and was so well-liked that the character was changed from Cockney to Welsh.
  • David Croft considered John Inman to be the obvious choice to play Gloria but thought he was already too well established in Are You Being Served?. Melvyn Hayes was cast in his place.
  • Before it was decided to film exterior shots in some woods near King's Lynn, David Croft thought about filming in Kew Gardens.
  • A Stunt Double was booked for Michael Bates during Series 5, as he was suffering from cancer at the time. He went unused, however, as Bates found the strength to do it all himself.
  • Croft and Jimmy Perry had the idea to do an After Show about the concert party running a theatre after the war. This never got further than discussions, however, as Perry realised that realistically only Gloria would still be in showbusiness after the series and would be a big star.
  • A repeat run of the first series was due to air but dropped from the schedules after a bomb was set off in a pub in Soho due to fears that it was due to a racial conflict.
• Word of Gay: Of the depiction of "Gloria" Beaumont, Croft told interviewer Simon Morgan-Russell that the character "never expressed any interest in other males" and, in fact, "was a transvestite, not a homosexual".
• Write Who You Know:
  • The character of Rangi was based on similar Boomerang Bigot Indians Michael Bates had encountered while growing up in British India.
  • Jimmy Perry was inspired to create the series by his own experience in a concert party during World War II, and most of the characters in the series were based on people with whom he had performed (Bombardier Solomons was based on a real Jewish Bombardier). He even named Rangi Ram after the man who had been bearer to the real Concert Party.
• You Look Familiar: Renu Setna played six different characters throughout the series.

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