Winning Through

Many years ago,

   when things were in black-and-white

      and our licence was for monochrome,

         I had a namesake, nearly;

            a distinguished character actor,

                famous for wearing khaki

                   and a lugubrious mien,

                     while saying ‘We’re all doomed’.

And yet,

these bumbling men,

these little Britons,

a random collective,

somehow always won through:

in just half-an-hour,

despite themselves.

But Mainwaring always lost.

  And Private Walker never won.

    We should be kinder,

      we should be more Sgt Wilson

        - and maybe a little less Pike,

           and I think, perhaps,

             we might, one day,

               win through ourselves.