The Navy Lark

I'm just listening to the Navy Lark Reunion on Radio 4 Extra.

There were loads of great comedy actors in this including Ronnie Barker, Leslie Phillips, June Whitfield and Jon Pertwee.

Also there was an actress called Heather Chesen. I remember her well from this show which apparently would get 22 million listeners at Sunday lunchtimes.

Heather played most of the female characters so I Googled her. I never realised though that she was in the remake of Crossroads and also appeared with Harry Hill and in EastEnders.

She still seems to be going strong at 87.

Dunno why, but that is one of the radio comedies from the Golden Age that never appealed to me, and the one that I haven't got an example of in my large collection.

I know it is popular and had some great people in it, but..........

Judy Cornwell, who played Daisy in Keeping Up Appearances and Mrs Santa Claus in Santa Claus The Movie, is still working too.

I heard that she was in it in this reunion but I don't remember her in it.

A wonderful programme. I have all of them on CD and I have listened to every one.

In the documentary they mentioned Jon Pertwee's character Commander Weatherby.

He was a character they couldn't completely script as Pertwee had created the strange way he spoke.

I regularly listen to R4E comedies and there's much gold there but stuff like The Navy Lark and The Goons haven't aged well yet Hancock has.

'Left hand down a bit!'

It's always Leslie's show to me, although Pertwee makes a strong case!

Quote: Teaspoon @ 2nd September 2024, 3:04 AM

'Left hand down a bit!'

It's always Leslie's show to me, although Pertwee makes a strong case!

View original

Leslie only played one part I think whereas Jon played several.