TELEVISION'S Lads Army series was an interesting look back to National Service days.

I caught a train from Scunthorpe en route for Blandford, where I was to begin a two-year stint in an REME uniform.

The six weeks' basic training was a shock to the system, especially as most young recruits would be living away from home for the first time.

Marching wasn't really my game. Nor was folding bedding into neat parcels. But I could pull a trigger with the best of them.

I spent the last 17 months at a Group HQ in Kimberley, Nottinghamshire.

This was an easy camp, crawling with top brass. No one wanted to rock the comfortable boat.

Almost everyone speaks with affection about National Service now. Roof over your head, three meals a day, little responsibility. There were even women soldiers at Kimberley.

But, at the time, many marked the days off on the calendar. Perhaps the compulsion bugged us to a greater extent than the bromide drugged us.

I lost my group photo taken at Blandford in October, 1951. I'm sitting with crossed sticks in the middle of the front row. Does anyone have a copy?

MAX NOTTINGHAM,

Lincoln.