We the undersigned wish to petition ITV to comission a new series of Bad Lads Army.

Bad Lads Army is a British reality TV programme shown on ITV based on the premise of subjecting delinquent individuals to the conditions of British National Service of the 1950s in order to rehabilitate them. The programme came from Lads Army (a programme name which is itself a play on Dads Army) which put some volunteers into National Service conditions.

The belief expressed by some that National Service would sort out young people if it was still used today naturally led to a repeat of the experiment with the volunteers being petty criminals. The programme format is simple. The "recruits" are issued clothing of the era and fed and quartered according to the standards of the time.

Their free time is limited to visits to the NAAFI with period refreshments and facilities. The recruits form a single platoon made up of two sections each under the care of a section leader. By turns the recruits compete as sections against other building a sense of competition but also of teamwork and loyalty.

Success brings modest rewards. Praise is given for whole-hearted attempts at tasks. Each series had a slightly different format to its predecessors. The show is now in its fourth series Bad Lads Army: Extreme Within each series a small number of recruits have either walked out (after a 24 hour cooling off period, generally in the guard house), or been ejected.

The majority of the remainder claim some benefit from the experience and some have chosen the British Army as a career at the end of it.

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