Dad's Army!

Dads Army.

As far as i’m concerned Dads Army is one of the best-ever comedy programmes, and it’s on again tonight at 7pm. Far better than it’s contemporary; It ain’t half hot mum. Others may think otherwise, but Dads Army is repeated again and again…

Great stories Paul.

There was a story in the legal press recently about a big City law firm. Being a partnership, the senior partner is elected by the partners. The firm has several hundred partners, a majority probably British, but a good chunk from other mainly European countries.

A meeting was held in a large hall in London for the contenders for the senior partner job to address all the partners. One of the contenders was from the German office. He made his speech and then asked for questions. As it was a large hall, he explained, and there were so many people there, could anybody who asked a question please say who he was and from which office.

Someone asked a question. The German says “Thank, you, that is a very good question but before I answer it, can you say what is your name”.

A voice floats up from the back, “Don’t tell him, Pike”

The hall disolves in laughter, leaving a bemused German to ponder English humour.

And the thing is, you can this story without having to explain why it is so funny. It is one of those things that unites people of a certain generation. But not just those people. My two sons, 8 and 13, are keen watchers. At school, they were discussing other religions the other day. Somebody in the class mentioned whirling dervishes. My 13 year old commented, as you would, that “they don’t like it up them”. The response showed that he was not the only one in the class who is a regular viewer.

Paul

Now then, if we are talking radio comedy…….but I think that’s for another thread, don’t you?:eek:

Errrr, No,no,no,no,no,no,YES, Oh, sorry, off topic, damned Vicar of Dibley:D

Jim,.

Lincoln .7

Dads Army

Its a classic and perhaps thats the best thing we do is have the ability to laugh at ourselves. I always watch the repeats still laughing at the same jokes even though you remember it from the last time.

Is it true that when they cast the original TV series they had John Le Mesurier in mind for Capt Mainwaring and Arthur Lowe in mind as Sgt Wilson, ie a reverse of what actually happened?

No. See the real story on my forum page here that clears up such misconceptions that the media and public have perpetuated.
http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/Dads%20Army%20Misconceptions.html

Dad’s Army, Steptoe and Son and Yes Minister are all available here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/genres/comedy/current

I don’t know about ratings but they all turned up regularly on BBC7. I have just discovered that BBC7 has disappeared!! It now appears to be BBC Radio 4 Extra.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/genres/comedy/current

And these shows have all come out on Tape and CD in the BBC Radio Collection I think.

Is it true that when they cast the original TV series they had John Le Mesurier in mind for Capt Mainwaring and Arthur Lowe in mind as Sgt Wilson, ie a reverse of what actually happened?

I remember Yes Minister, but had no idea the others were also broadcast on radio. How successful were they?

Not necessarily, a lot of TV shows have later been adapted to radio, including:
Yes Minister
Steptoe and Son
One Foot In The Grave
Fawlty Towers
Last of the Summer Wine

The latter two however were using the TV soundtrack with added narration by Manuel and Clegg respectively. The others were new recordings.

How interesting. And, perhaps, unusual for a TV series to graduate to radio, rather than the other way round.

Dad’s Army had a very popular radio series with 67 episodes over three series. The great thing about these are they recored most of the TV scripts again, adapted for radio audience, and so all the lost shows were adapted (except the 1968 Christmas Night With The Stars episode but thankfuly a great recording of that episode’s soundtrack emerged 18 months back). Many of the radio shows differ with new angles and twists put into the plots, some combining two TV episodes into one radio plot to cut out stuff too visual for radio. Sadly there are downsides, Jimmy Beck only made a handful before he fell ill and died. He was very quickly replaced by the first guy they could find as there were in a recording phase when he took ill and Graham Stark plays Walker for a few episodes, and he was dire. A pity because he was in the radio version of the lost The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker.

Later Larry Martyn was cast to take over the role of Walker and he was perfect. Larry had already appeared in the TV series many tiems as various parts, and he was not only a fine mimic of Jimmy Beck but was actually one of Jimmy’s best mates in real life. They had worked together in the theatre, and Jimmy and his wife and Larry and his wife lived in the same street. They used to be drinking buddies and were very close. Jimmy’s widow Kay told me that when Jimmy was ill and dying, Larry was at his bedside every day. So to step into the famous shoes of your best mate must have been hard and challenging but he pulled it off wonderfully. Larry was such a success that when later episodes that never had Walker in were adapted for radio, Walker was written in for Larry to be included.

Another sad thing was the BBC Radio producers and heirachy were very anal about who they hired and they liked to keep radio in-house using their own rep actors, so some of the lesser cast were recast. Janet Davies who was just brilliant as Mavis Pike was dumped and older, battleaxy Pearl Hackney was cast, ruining the character for me. The lovely Pam Cundell was dropped in favour of over-acting Mollie Sugden. And Eric Longworth who played the hilarious Town Clerk Claude Gordon was dropped and a whole different Town Clerk, Mr Upton, was stangely created. No-one seems to like Julian Orchard in this role. And the Welsh Private Cheeseman never made it to radio as Walker carried on as the ‘seventh man’.

If you’ve never heard the radio version it plays regularly on BBC7 which you can listen to online, and you can buy BBC CD sets of it too. Well worth it and recommended to all fans to listen in.

Pete you realy are going to get a slap, theres no end on here thats got nowt to do with D/A.

And you know what that stood for in the 60s.:p
Jim.

Lincoln .7.
:diablo:

Now then, if we are talking radio comedy…….but I think that’s for another thread, don’t you?:eek:

[QUOTE=tornado64;1756777]

the thing that was a crime for fans of this show was that the last ever episode was absolutely dire ( even compared to the rest of the final run ) it was as if they didn’t actualy care about the signifficance of it !!

although no matter how good the stars were it lost it’s way once compo and nora had gone !!

From what I heard Roy Clarke had written another 5 or 6 shows that would of brought it to a more natural end. However the BBC wanted to end show sooner.
I feel its a Shame that such a long serving show was dumped the way it was it should of been allowed a more natural end.

And the connection with Dad’s Army is……..??;):confused:

Pete you realy are going to get a slap, theres no end on here thats got nowt to do with D/A.

And you know what that stood for in the 60s.:p
Jim.

Lincoln .7.
:diablo:

[QUOTE=duxfordhawk;1756309]

Roy Clarke wrote some real gems, early Last of the Summer Wine (before it became the elephants graveyard for old English actors) was superb. .

the thing that was a crime for fans of this show was that the last ever episode was absolutely dire ( even compared to the rest of the final run ) it was as if they didn’t actualy care about the signifficance of it !!

although no matter how good the stars were it lost it’s way once compo and nora had gone !!

And the connection with Dad’s Army is……..??;):confused:

No Ones mentioned “Journey into space” on the radio.

Jim.

Lincoln .7

As with so many actors who have a distinguished career away from “popular” television, in the theatre, film and in his case radio as the Padre, Able Seaman Ginger and 2 or 3 other parts in the long-running Navy Lark, it is a pity the breadth of his work is so little known. And it was very sad that cancer took him at the young age of 57.