It Ain’t Half Hot Mum actor John Clegg dies aged 90

Beloved BBC actor John Clegg has died aged 90.

The star, who was best known as La Di Da Gunner Graham in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum star, passed away peacefully and a private funeral will be held on August 29 in West Sussex.  

An announcement on Tuesday said he ‘died peacefully in care’ and ‘will be missed by all his friends from the theatre, his friends in Chichester and his family.’

BAFTA member Morris Bright MBE paid tribute to John on X, penning: ‘We is very sorry indeed to hear that La Di Da Gunner Graham, actor John Clegg, has gone to that great concert party in the sky, aged 90. He certainly was one of the boys who entertained us.’

Tributes then poured in for the star, with the British Comedy Society posted on X: ‘We’re saddened to learn of the death of actor John Clegg, best known as It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’s Padrewski, Gunner Graham. He was 90.’

Beloved BBC actor John Clegg has died aged 90

The star, who was best known as La Di Da Gunner Graham in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum star, passed away peacefully in care

John, born to English parents in Murree, Punjab, India in 1934, played Gunner ‘Paderewski’ Graham in the classic sitcom. 

He also appeared in episodes of Dad’s Army and Mr. Bean, and more recently in romantic comedy film Bridget Jones’s Diary.

John was married to fellow sitcom star Mavis Pugh, until her death in 2006, with both starring in 1988’s You Rang, M’Lord and 1972’s Are You Being Served?

Pugh also appeared in Fawlty Towers while Clegg had a smaller part in 2001’s Bridget Jones’ Diary.

In October 2017, Clegg gave a talk called ‘My Life as an Actor’ to the Chichester Literary Society detailing his career that began at the prestigious RADA drama school in London. 

He entertained an audience with tales including his encounter with a young Dame Judi Dench who said she didn’t think he was suited to traditional Shakespearean roles.

As a fan of Rudyard Kipling, Clegg also co-produced a one-man show with wife Mavis, based on the storyteller, that achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1980s.

Tributes poured in for the star, with the British Comedy Society posted on X: ‘We’re saddened to learn of the death of actor John Clegg, best known as It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’s Padrewski, Gunner Graham. He was 90’

It Ain’t Half Hot Mum was first broadcast in BBC One in 1974 and ran over 56 episodes before ending in 1981.

The comedy, set in India during the closing months of the Second World War, attracted up to 15 million viewers at its peak in the 1970s.

But it is often considered too offensive for today’s more woke sensibilities – particularly because white actor Michael Bates darkened his skin to play Indian character Rangi Ram.

But British-Indian comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar, who found fame in the comedy series Goodness Gracious Me, says the comedy should not be banned from repeat channels or streaming platforms.

‘There’s been those discussions about programmes that have been removed,’ he said, adding that he understood that ‘in this day and age’ some classic shows are considered unacceptable.

But he explained: ‘I’ve always defended It Ain’t Half Hot Mum. My argument was always that first of all, Michael Bates could speak Urdu fluently.

It Ain’t Half Hot Mum was first broadcast in BBC One in 1974 and ran over 56 episodes before ending in 1981

The BBC has reportedly deemed classic sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum too racist to ever air again. But the show has received support from British-Indian comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar (Above Windsor Davies, left, and Michael Bates in the TV series)

‘He served in the Army in India and he could speak the language. And secondly, within that programme, the character he was playing wasn’t the butt of the joke… He [Rangi Ram] was the fixer, he was the one who sorted things out.’

Speaking to fellow comedian Rob Brydon on his podcast in 2022, he said it was also important not to erase old programmes as they offer an insight into the past.

‘Context is everything,’ he said. ‘My argument has always been about trying to judge things from that time, to understand what the social climate was like with regards to entertainment. Society moves on and it evolves.

‘The problem for me with removing them completely is that they are part of the story, the social story of where we’ve got to now… I’m all for putting up disclaimers, putting up all those kinds of things, but I think erasing it kind of erases some of that journey.’