Bootsie and Snudge | |
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Also known as | ''Bootsie and Snudge in Civvy Life (series 1)'' |
Genre | Sitcom |
Created by |
Marty Feldman Barry Took |
Starring |
Alfie Bass Bill Fraser Clive Dunn Robert Dorning |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 4 |
No. of episodes | 104 |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company(s) | Granada Television |
Release | |
Original network | ITV |
Original release |
First run: 23 September 1960 - 30 May 1963, Second run: 16 October - 20 November 1974 |
Chronology | |
Related shows |
The Army Game Foreign Affairs |
Bootsie and Snudge was a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1960 to 1963 and in 1974. The show is a spin-off of The Army Game, a sitcom about soldiers undertaking national service, and follows two of the main characters (played by Alfie Bass and Bill Fraser) after they returned to civilian life. The first series is titled Bootsie and Snudge in Civvy Life. Between the 1963 and 1974 series, a spin-off called Foreign Affairs was broadcast.
Private Montague 'Bootsie' Bisley and Sergeant Claude Snudge are two of the main characters in the successful sitcom The Army Game that aired from 1957 to 1961. Snudge enjoys his position of superiority over Bootsie, whilst Bootsie feels comfortable in his position as it allows him to mock and hate Snudge (and attack authority in general). Clive Dunn - later best known as Corporal Jones in Dad's Army - plays 83-year-old Henry, despite at the time being only 38. in 1961 a comic strip was published in TV Comic telling the story of how Bootsie and Snudge began.
A large team of writers wrote for the series over its 104 episodes. Those that wrote for the 1960-63 episodes were Marty Feldman, Barry Took, John Antrobus, Ray Rigby, David Cumming, Derek Collyer, Peter Miller, James Kelly, Peter Lambda, Stanley Myers, Tom Espie, Jack Rosenthal, Harry Driver, Patrick Ryan, John Smith and Doug Eden. The 1974 series was written by David Climie, Ronnie Cass and Lew Schwarz.
Bootsie and Snudge are de-mobbed from their national service and are employed as handyman and hall porter respectively at the Imperial, a Pall Mall gentleman's club run by hot-headed secretary Hesketh Pendleton. One of their colleagues, the bumbling Henry Beerbohm Johnson, has worked at the Imperial for 40 years and to begin with believes Snudge is Lord Kitchener. Storylines revolve around the club's members and guests and the relationships between the four members of staff.