Still laughing

Like many others, I was saddened to hear of the death of Jimmy Perry last weekend. Comedy writers of his calibre are rare indeed.

There wasn’t a great deal that me and my Dad had in common. I had a minor, grudging, appreciation for classical music that I tried not to show, but beyond a shared enjoyment of custard, we mostly couldn’t have been more different in our views on the world.

Clearly, anything I decided was cool was pretty much an aberration from his point of view: Clothes, my taste in ‘music’ (“You can’t even understand the words!”) and even haircuts. The slightest hint of bad language on the TV meant it was immediately turned off, and Top of the Pops was endured, but only if the volume was down sufficiently low that I had to guess what the songs were.

If that makes it sound like I didn’t like him, then I’m doing him a massive injustice. I loved my Dad, and the last couple of paragraphs (bar the TOTP reference, perhaps) probably apply to many young people as they reach teenage years and find their own identity. It’s usually notably at odds with that of their parents.

There was one area where we were definitely in agreement though. Family comedy on the tele. Morecambe & Wise was a favourite, and so was Dad’s Army.

The misadventures of the Walmington-on Sea Home Guard, so brilliantly created by Jimmy Perry and brought wonderfully to life through his partnership with David Croft, was essential viewing.

Four decades on from laughing hysterically on the family settee at Captain Mainwaring, Jones, Pike and the gang, I find myself doing the exact same thing.

My Dad is no longer with us, but every time – and I mean EVERY time – I see the famous “Don’t tell him, Pike!” sketch, two things happen; Firstly, even though I know it word-for-word and must have seen it hundreds of times, I still laugh out loud. And at the same time, I remember my Dad, sat in his armchair, doing the same thing.

That a show that started whilst I was still in nappies is still being repeated on prime-time TV shows just how good it was. The characters are fantastically written, the plots mad but all too believable, and the one-liners so good they leave you laughing until it hurts.

There’s a warm afterglow with Dad’s Army as well. You can’t watch an episode without feeling happier afterwards.

So thank you, Jimmy. Along with your other brilliant shows such as It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Hi De Hi, you made millions of people happy, still do, and will doubtlessly continue to do so for many years to come.

And every time I watch a frosty German Officer, Mainwaring and Pike have their little exchange, I’m reminded of my Dad and those moments we shared, all those years ago.

An afterglow that never fades. Not a bad legacy, that.

This post first appeared as my 'Thank grumpy it's Friday' column, in the North West Evening Mail, on the 28th of October 2016. 

They re-titled it as 'Laughter rings down the years', although the (again, hard to find) version on their website was called 'Still laughing after all these years'.

I was startled to discover how emotional writing this one made me. Dad died 21 years ago, and I don't think about him as much as I probably should. I forgot to mention one other shared trait - I've grown fond of mint imperials too. Thanks, Dad.

(CD A-Z: The Knack's "Get The Knack". "My Sharona" is actually pretty rude, when you think about it... )