Épisode #1.1

To the reviewer complaining about PC additions and historical inaccuracy. 1662 was when black people were first incorporated into the British army by Charles II.

Britons have a nostalgia for National Service that was introduced after the end of the second world war. It even afflicts people who were born after National Service ended. It might sort out the scum of society by giving them discipline.

Of course after two years of National Service they also get combat training, weapons training, use explosives. All the toolkits to become a bank robber.

Most people who did National Service are vocal about how much they hated it.

Privates is set in the early 1960s just as National Service has been abolished by the government.

The new intake are almost certain to tbe the last. Sergeant Butcher is to take them to through basic training.

Just as they line up. New recruit Private Keenan sees someone familiar and chases Lance Corporal Jimmy Hobbs causing chaos.

The first episode introduces the characters and they are very much stereotypes. There is the posh one, a crooked one who knows the Krays, Keenan is the pacifist. The Sergeant is mean and mouthy.

Overseeing all this is Captain Gulliver who has marital problems.

There is a lot of rock and roll music in the soundtrack and it's very much the non ironic kind.