Dad’s Army


What do you get when you put Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ian Lavender (a very nice man in real life),Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Tom Courtney and Michael Gambon together into in a film? You get Dad’s Army. The TV series was great fun when first broadcast and the constant reruns to this day prove what a timeless masterpiece of comedy it was. As part of my life on both Radio and TV since the 1960s, I was both drawn to and repelled by this cinema reboot of favourite characters. Over the years many sitcoms were made into films with but limited success when removed from the tightness of the thirty minute slot. To be honest they were turkeys.

This of course was even more daring with the well known stars replaced by fresh faces. I needn’t have been remotely worried it was excellent capturing the spirit, warmth and humour of all the characters I have loved for so many years.

The story takes place in 1944 just before the Normandy landings and revolves around the search for a Spy after a message from a Nazi submarine is intercepted. What follows, the suspicions, the mistaken arrest all make for the gentlest of comic humour.

Ian Lavender makes a cameo as Brigadier Pritchard, providing a link with the original series and Frank Williams reprises his role as the Vicar. Mrs. Mainwaring, who was never seen in the original appears as a pompous volunteer in the ATS. The only character missing is that of the Verger.
It is a lovely warm-hearted film. Well worth a watch over the coming festive season.
Four stars

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