HMS Troutbridge is stationed off Portsmouth, where its inhabitants are always getting themselves out of trouble - trouble that they have usually caused.

The comparison with The Goons, though, only goes so far, because writer Laurie Wyman, though expert - you try writing 240-odd episodes of anything and be funny - was no Spike Milligan. More reliable, perhaps, and more consistent, but the Navy Lark simply doesn't stand up against its more famous confrere.

Both were children of their times, but The Goons transcended theirs.

The Navy Lark relied far too heavily on accents, and speech impediments. The sexism was rife - fair enough in the 1950s, but it's uncomfortable now to hear the women involved treated almost literally as card-carrying morons.

The performing was everything, and they poured enough power into their playing to make the series - mostly - still very listenable and funny, if prompting a lot of groans along the way.

The Navy Lark was an early spinoff machine, with The Embassy Lark, The Big Business Lark and The TV Lark as well as a Navy Lark movie being made in 1959.

But its roots were on HMS Troutbridge, and that's where all the best Larks were had.