Silvers Screen

I am old enough to remember one of the first great TV shows: The Phil Silvers Show. But was it really as good as I remembered? Sgt. Bilko: 50th Anniversary Edition gives me a chance to find out.

It was. Possibly better. Phil Silvers' Master Sgt. Ernie Bilko is an over-the-top always hustling huckster with a mile-wide smile and a never-ending flow of flattery. But it's the subtle things:

• We see him smile as he listens to the WAC who is is competition for a jeep. Then we hear his teeth grinding.
• Trying to resist the temptation to play cards with the recruits money, Bilko deals himself a hand of stud: hole card, Ace. Beat. Ace.
  
• He tries to hide the recruit's money, but it keeps sticking to his hand. He tries to shake it off, but it sticks to his mouth.
  
• After a bit of business, he goes back to dealing the hand. Another Ace. He turns over the hole card. An Ace.

The stories are the classics of sit-com. For example, Bilko buys a racehorse. Did everyone really want to own a racehorse in the 50s? In sit-coms, everyone eventually did. But they are carried off with great style - the Bilko-has-a-fatal-illness episode has all the requisite twists, turns and returns, played with great sweetness and pathos.