Which Way to the War

Which Way to the War is a British television sitcom pilot episode that was broadcast on 19 August 1994 on ITV. It starred William Tapley, Simon Baker Denny, Terry John and Robert Hands, and was written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft.^[1]

Which Way to the War
Series title card
Genre	Sitcom[1]
Based on	an idea by Roger Mirams
Written by	Jeremy Lloyd David Croft
Directed by	Roy Gould
Starring	William Tapley Simon Baker Denny Terry John Robert Hands
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	1 (pilot)
Production
Executive producer	Don Reynolds
Producer	David Croft
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes[1]
Production companies	Yorkshire Television Reg Grundy Productions
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	19 August 1994 (1994-08-19)

Plot

Set in Libya in October 1942, during the Western Desert campaign, a party of British "Desert Rat" soldiers and a party of Australian soldiers are holed up in a remote building, when an ambulance of Italian "nurses" arrive.

Cast

• William Tapley as Corporal Roy Muller
• Simon Baker Denny as Private Stan Hawke
• Terry John as Corporal Tony Genaro
• Robert Hands as Private Jock Stewart

Also featured were Sarah Payne as Mara, Nadia Sawalha as Lucia, Elisabeth Bolognini as Little Anna, Valeria Fabbri as Carla, Amanda Weston as Theresa, Jason Hall as Captain Gregory Swift and Martin Sadler as Able One Charlie.^[2]

Production

The pilot episode, written with the intention of developing a full series,^[1] was Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft's final sitcom set during wartime, and their only sitcom produced by the ITV network.^[3] It had a working title of Mammary Mia.^[4]

The pilot was based on an idea by Roger Mirams, who was a producer with Reg Grundy Productions.^[5] The pilot's director, Roy Gould, had worked for Croft and Lloyd previously at the BBC on programmes Are You Being Served?, Hi-de-Hi!, 'Allo 'Allo! and Oh, Doctor Beeching!.^[6] Terry John, who portrayed Corporal Genaro, would later appear as Percy in Croft's final television series, Oh, Doctor Beeching!, from 1995 to 1997.^[6][7]

Reception

The pilot was poorly received, and thus a series was not commissioned.^[8] Memorable TV described the pilot as a "typical" show by the writers, but noted that it was broadcast when the writers' style of comedy was "somewhat out of favour".^[9]

Jasper Rees, writing in The Independent, criticised the racial stereotyping of the characters, particularly the Italian prostitutes, and the predictability of their being a "houseproud homosexual" character, Private Jock Stewart, in a Croft and Lloyd series. Rees felt that certain "promising" moments in the episode were not properly capitalised on in order to reach "the point of maximum comic potential" and believed that the overall humour was cheap and vulgar.^[4]