"Lads Army" (2002) TV series 2002-????

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Directors:

Charlie Clay
Chris Cottam

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Genre:

Reality-TV

Plot:

Documentary series following 30 bad lads over a four-week period as they go through army basic training 1950s style.

Plot Keywords:

Training | Recruit | Humiliation | Salisbury | Discipline

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Dennis Waterman

...

Narrator (24 episodes, 2002-2008)

Also Known As:

"Bad Lads Army" (UK) (second season title)
"Bad Lads Army: Extreme" (UK) (fourth season title)
"Bad Lads Army: Officer Class" (UK) (third season title)

Runtime:

60 min (including commercials) (8 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, UK

Company:

Twenty Twenty Television

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Screenwipe: (#5.4)" (2008)

Bad Lads Army

UKTV here in New Zealand started broadcasting a rather enjoyable reality TV series, called "Bad Lads Army", in which a group of English yobbos (or do we call them Asbos or Scallies now?) volunteer to go through a few weeks' of 1950s-style national service in the army, to see whether they could be made real men out of. Never mind that it never worked in the 1950s and the army then had better things to do (and thought it could better spend its time and resources elsewhere) than to babysit ne'er-do-wells. But I guess the idea was irresistible to programme producers who may have detected an eagerness among the general public to get back at those surplus males.

And what an enjoyable sight that meted-out humiliation is. The first episode focused on the natural exhibitionist streaks and one-upmanship one encounters whenever groups of males are out of sight of females. They tested their manhood against the alpha males - the rather unassuming looking but hard-as-nails corporals and other officers in charge - when settling in their new surroundings. The first half hour was an almost constant stream of bleeped out swear words, and it got so bad in the second half they didn't even bother bleeping anymore, which actually made for much more natural coverage of events without drawing too much attention to the vocabulary used. I was a little disappointed in the physical condition of a large part of the recruits, but perhaps I was expecting the extraordinary - not all of current 18 to 24 year olds are rugby players or porn stars, although a lot of them looked they were spending at least some time thinking about grooming, physical fitness and general personal hygiene.

The medical was a hoot, especially when the doctor asked one of the recruits, who had excellent eye sight: "Don't you masturbate?" The embarrassed silence on the boy's face was priceless.