 The programme was derived from an earlier one called simply "Lads Army" (a play on "Dad's Army") in which a number of volunteers underwent four weeks of basic training for 1950s National Service.Unlike the three sequel series (the ones whose titles began with "Bad"), the original programme's experiment was merely to see if 18-24 year old members of the modern British public could cope with the 1950s training, and how they compared to the public of that period.The success of the original series led to the experiment being repeated with the recruits having committed criminal offences, often given the option to undergo the training by courts as an alternative to serving pending sentences, to explore the proposition that it would be beneficial to reinstate National Service for petty criminals and delinquents as an alternative to more conventional sentences.