551 A J Wentworth B.A.

First  viewed  : 13  July  1982

Anyone  who  writes  about  telly  will  at  some  point   end  up  lamenting  the  TV  companies'  wiping  policies  that's  consigned  so  much  great  material  to  oblivion. On  the  other  hand,  there  are  some  programmes  of  which  all  trace  should  have  been  obliterated  and  this  is  one  of  them.

A J  Wentworth  B.A.  was  the  final  comedy  vehicle  for  the  great  Arthur  Lowe  who  had  died, three  months  before  it  was  first  broadcast. Lowe had  had  serious  problems  with  alcoholism  since  the  end  of  Dad's  Army  five  years  earlier  and   that  shows  here. He's  overweight , slurs  his  lines  and  looks  about  20  years  older. Harry  Andrews  played  the  headmaster.

The  series was  based  on  a  reputedly  funny  column  in  Punch   in  the  1950s  about  an  incompetent  teacher  in  a  1940s   public  school.  None  of  that  humour  made  it  across  to  the  series; the  opening  episode  was  completely  witless. Wentworth  falling  into  a  laundry  basket  was  as  good  as it  got. There  was  no  laughter  track. I don't  know  if that  was  intentional  or  there  actually  was  a  studio  audience  who  were  numbed  into  silence.

Thankfully  only  six  episodes  of  this  sad  embarrassment  were  made. For  any  fans  of  Dad's  Army  this  is  a  must  to  avoid.