Then Churchill Said to Me

1980s British tv sitcom

Private Percy Potts plays a unimportant part in the most important place in whole Britain during World War 2 - the underground bunker of Winston Churchill.

Frankie Howerd once again reprises his routines known from such series as Up Pompeii or Whoops Baghdad - the likeable low class character, who shares his views with the audience by breaking the fourth wall and making small jokes. This time again it takes place in the past, but not as far back as before - during the World War 2 he plays Private Potts, who is a batman (a valet to officer) in the underground bunker that is headquarters of Winston Churchill. And again, like in the previous series, his character is avoiding being overworked, do anything brave or too difficult. But, just like in case of Whoops Baghdad, without the scripts from Talbot Rothwell (that made Up Pompeii such success) this project was based completely on the talent of Howerd, which wasn’t enough to keep it fresh and interesting. The atmosphere was not so good, jokes too rare, the characters not well developed, the dialogues just mediocre - it was simply not a very good idea for the show, so even Frankie Howerd could not make it likeable.

This was the last show of Frankie Howerd, who died in 1992, and unfortunately it wasn’t aired before his death due to political atmosphere. The episodes were filmed in 1982, but soon the Falkland War has started and show about the war wasn’t considered to be a good idea at that moment. Overall it is forgettable sitcom, especially comparing to Up Pompeii - it has some good moments, Frankie Howerd did his best, but with rather poor scripts and not very good characters it was simply doomed to fail.

Rating	4.8
Funny	4 / 10
Entertaining	3 / 5
Characters	2 / 5
Nonrepetitive	3 / 5