Get Some In! is a British television sitcom about National Service life in the Royal Air Force, broadcast between 1975 and 1978 by Thames Television. Scripts were by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, the team behind sitcoms such as The Good Life.
The programme drew its inspiration from late 1950s – early 1960s National Service situation-comedy The Army Game and from nostalgic BBC TV sitcom Dad's Army but the RAF setting gave it enough originality not to seem formulaic. Thirty-four (commercial) half-hour episodes were made.
The title is a contraction of "Get some service in!", which was a piece of Second World War-era military slang sometimes shouted by conscripted soldiers at civilians of conscription age whom the conscripts may have believed were avoiding call-up. By the 1960s the expression had a clear and self-evident sexual connotation which replaced the original meaning and resulted in a convenient double entendre for the programme.
The series has never been repeated in full on terrestrial TV in the UK, although the UKTV Gold cable channel has aired the episodes uncut. The whole series was shown on Forces TV (UK) in 2016 and again in 2019, and on Talking Pictures TV in 2019, 2021 and 2022. It was screened in Australia in the early 1980s.
Premise
The overarching concept follows a single hut of recruits at RAF Skelton in 1955. They are a group of social misfits of which, through default, Jakey Smith is the alpha male. Most stories concern their ongoing conflict with the sadistic corporal who runs the hut. The corporal lives in married quarters on site, and this female dimension gives an occasional sexual dimension to the plots.
Relocation in series 3 to RAF Midham next to a WAAF station allowed an additional sexual angle, as did Corporal Marsh moving into married quarters on-site (albeit a caravan). Marsh also decides to retrain and effectively becomes an equal rather than superior to the other boys as all train to be medics. Series 4 ends with the main group posted to Malta as medics.
Series 5 is effectively a hospital comedy, and whilst the characters are the same, the change of atmosphere and recasting of Jakey Smith impact heavily and detaches this series from the first four.
Characters
National Service recruits
Ken Richardson. A former grammar school pupil, Ken is very well-mannered much to the disgust of Corporal Marsh. Due to his education, he often finds himself on the receiving end of insults from Corporal Marsh such as "poofhouse" and "Nance" (short for "Nancy Boy", i.e. homosexual). Far from being homosexual, Richardson falls quickly for the charms of Lilley's sister Agnes, and later for Mrs. Fairfax - an officer's wife. Richardson is kind to all the other national servicemen, despite exhibiting obvious differences from them. Played by David Janson. Jakey Smith, a former Teddy Boy from London. Jakey soon finds himself at odds with Corporal Marsh, and dislikes the whole concept of National Service. He has little or no respect for authority but is at heart a decent individual. Marsh delights in calling him "Edward VII", an allusion to his former Teddy Boy culture, though on leave Jakey finds himself no longer accepted amongst the Teds. Played by Robert Lindsay (Series 1–4) until Lindsay left to star in his own show Citizen Smith, and then by Karl Howman (Series 5). Matthew Lilley, a vicar's son who plays the harpsichord and is very well-mannered. Raised to be God-fearing, Lilley prides himself on not hating anybody - not even Marsh. Though naturally shy, Matthew is usually the first to object to Corporal Marsh's shady schemes. Marsh sometimes calls him "Holy Joe" or "Christopher Robin" - the latter an allusion to the poem Vespers by A.A. Milne (in which the first and final stanzas end with the line "Christopher Robin is saying his prayers"). In series 3 and 4 Lilley shows a phobia for blood and body parts which causes him to faint but nevertheless he scores high as a medic and passes the exam. Played by Gerard Ryder. Bruce Leckie. A Scotsman from Glasgow, Bruce has a very cynical view of life and is a pessimist. Cpl. Marsh called him "Jockstrap" and "Jock". Like Jakey, he does not like being conscripted for National Service. Bruce is very shy around women but eventually falls in love with and finds happiness with Corporal Wendy (Jenny Cryst), though this happiness is short-lived as after Bruce completes his trade training they are both posted to different RAF stations, but get married in series 4. Played by Brian Pettifer.