It Ain’t Half “Inappropriate”, Mum.

Windsor Davies died yesterday, aged 88. Hugely famous back in the 70s for his starring role in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum. A sitcom so popular that it spawned this No.1 hit, though it has since fallen out of favour. This is because Windsor Davies’s co-star Michael Bates “browned up” to play an Indian character. In the retrospective outrage, it’s been conveniently forgotten that in the UK in 1975, there were very few Indian actors. Michael Bates was brought up in India and spoke fluent Hindi. His authenticity is why he got the part. But the fake tan on his face, which offended nobody at the time, has since been deemed offensive. Really? I’m not sure. Though Windsor Davies referring to the more effete soldiers as “pooftahs” definitely sounds very wrong today. And rather ironic because, until now, I’d never noticed how camp he was on Top of the Pops.