23. BBC WAC: Audience Research Report (VR/73/628, 22 November 1973).
24. Peter Black, Daily Mail, 1 November 1973, p. 25.
25. Shaun Usher, Daily Mail, 28 November 1973, p. 35.
26. Source: BBC Daily Viewing Barometers, 31 October – 12 December 1973.
27. Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
28. Ibid.
29. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
30. Ibid.
31. The trailers were broadcast at various times during the days leading up to the first episode. The exhibition at the Imperial War Museum ran from 17 October 1974 to 29 June 1975.
32. BBC Daily Viewing Barometer, 15 November 1974.
33. Source: BBC Daily Viewing Barometers, 15 November – 23 December 1974.
34. David Croft, interview with the author, 23 May 2000.
35. Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
36. Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 202.
37. Confirmed by Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
38. John Laurie, quoted by Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 201.
39. David Croft, interview with the author, 23 May 2000.
40. Arthur Lowe, quoted by Pertwee, Dad’s Army, p. 26.
41. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
42. BBC WAC: Audience Research Report (VR/75/513, 29 September 1975) on Dad’s Army, Ring Dem Bells’. The estimated audience was 11,312,000, and the Reaction Index was 72.
43. BBC Daily Viewing Barometer, 10 October 1975.
44. Source: BBC Daily Viewing Barometers, 5 September – 10 October 1975.
45. BBC WAC: Audience Research Report (VR/75/581, 16 November 1975), on Dad’s Army, ‘The Face on the Poster’.
46. ‘My Brother and I’, first broadcast on BBC1, 26 December 1975.
47. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
48. Peter Black, The Biggest Aspidistra in the World (London: BBC, 1972), p. 225.
49. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
50. Arthur Lowe, quoted by Pertwee, Dad’s Army, p. 104.
51. John Laurie, quoted by Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 211.
52. Arthur Lowe, in the Foreword to Perry and Croft’s Dad’s Army, p. 7.
53. All in the Family ran from 1971 to 1992 on CBS; it reached number one in the ratings during its first season, and stayed there for five years.
54. Sanford and Son ran from 1972 to 1977 on NBC; it reached number two in the ratings during its first season.
55. Love Thy Neighbor lasted from June to September 1973 on ABC.
56. Information from Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
57. Arthur Julian had appeared as an actor in a number of movies (such as How To Stuff a Wild Bikini, 1965) and televised situation-comedies (such as Bewitched), but he was best known, and respected, for his writing, which included scripts for M*A*S*H and Hogan’s Heroes.
58. Although the term ‘Home Guard’ had been used by various groups at various times in US history, the nearest American equivalent to Britain’s wartime Home Guard was the State Guard, a subset of the National Guard, organised for home defence during the First and Second World Wars.
59. The Rear Guard (Herman Rush Associates in association with Wolper Productions), written by Arthur Julian, broadcast in the US by ABC on 10 August 1976. (The script is reproduced in Webber’s The Complete A – Z of Dad’s Army, pp. 252–5.)
60. Ibid.
61. David Croft, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
62. Ibid.
63. Cotton, The BBC as an Entertainer, p. 49.
64. ‘The Love of Three Oranges’, first broadcast by BBC1 on 26 December 1976, was watched by an estimated audience of 13,685,500.
65. Huw Wheldon, quoted by Bill Pertwee, interview with the author, 27 May 2000.
66. It Ain’t Half Hot Mum – inspired by Jimmy Perry’s memories of the time he spent in the Royal Artillery Concert Party in Deolali, India, and David Croft’s spell as a military entertainments officer in the same area, ran on BBC1 for eight series, between January 1974 and September 1981. (See Perry’s memoir in Radio Times, 22–8 October 1977, pp. 4–5.)
67. Are You Being Served? ran on BBC1 for ten series between March 1973 and April 1985. A ‘sequel’, Grace and Favour, ran on BBC1 for two series between January 1992 and February 1993.
68. There was, for example, a movie version of Are You Being Served? (which was released in 1977), and a very unconventional – and, as it turned out, injudicious – sci-fisituation-comedy, written by Croft and Lloyd, called Come Back Mrs Noah (the pilot of which was broadcast on 13 December 1977; one series followed in July 1978).
Chapter XIV
1. William Hazlitt, ‘On the Fear of Death’, in Table Talk (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1959), p. 323.
2. Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
3. Episode 1 of Series 1 was set in May 1940. Episode 2 of Series 6 was set near the start of 1942 (with the arrival of the first wave of US servicemen in Britain).
4. Joan Le Mesurier, Lady Don’t Fall Backwards, p. 184.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 185.
7. John Le Mesurier, A Jobbing Actor, p. 144.
8. David Croft, interview with the author, 23 May 2000.
9. Arthur Lowe, quoted by Stephen Lowe, Arthur Lowe, p. 147.
10. David Croft, interview with the author, 23 May 2000.
11. Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
12. Croft’s previous production assistant, Harold Snoad, had become a producer-director in his own right. Bob Spiers, whose first association with Dad’s Army was as an assistant floor manager on the 1971 special ‘Battle of the Giants’, took over as production assistant from Series 6.
13. Accounts vary as to when, and how firmly, the decision was actually expressed. Clive Dunn remembered the cast being told at the Bell Hotel in Thetford during June 1975 (see Permission to Speak, p. 212); Bill Pertwee, on the other hand, told me that the cast was consulted about the future of the show at the same location in the summer of 1977 (interview with the author, 27 May 2000); while Ian Lavender did not recall being told that the show would definitely never return until early September 1977, following the death of Edward Sinclair (interview with the author, 29 May 2000). What is clear, however, is that Croft and Perry had certainly informed the cast at some point between June and September 1977 that they were not planning another series in the foreseeable future (interviews with the author, 23 May and 27 August 2000).
14. Arthur Lowe, quoted in the Daily Mirror, 1 October 1977, p. 15.
15. John Le Mesurier, A Jobbing Actor, p. 145.
16. Sinclair, who had been in indifferent health for some time, died, from a heart attack, while visiting relatives in Cheddar (see Guardian, 1 September 1977, p. 2).
17. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
18. Daily Mirror, 1 October 1977, p. 15.
19. Peter Tinniswood, Radio Times, 1–7 October 1977, p. 17.
20. ‘Wake Up Walmington’, first broadcast on BBC1, 2 October 1977.
21. ‘The Making of Private Pike’, first broadcast on BBC1, 9 October 1977.
22. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
23. Source: BBC Daily Viewing Barometers, 2 October – 13 November 1977.
24. Joan Le Mesurier, Lady Don’t Fall Backwards, p. 185.
25. Dennis Potter, Sunday Times, review section, 16 October 1977, p. 37.
26. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
27. David Croft, interview with the author, 23 May 2000.
28. ‘Never Too Old’, first broadcast by BBC1 on 13 November 1977.
29. BBC Daily Viewing Barometer, 13 November 1977.
30. BBC WAC: Audience Research Report (VR/77/626, 21 December 1977), on Dad’s Army, ‘Never Too Old’. The Reac
tion Index was 77.
31. Peter Fiddick, Guardian, 14 November 1977, p. 10.
32. Bill Pertwee, interview with the author, 27 May 2000.
33. The Daily Mirror organised the event (see pp. 16–17 of its 14 November 1977 edition).
34. Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 213.
35. John Le Mesurier, A Jobbing Actor, p. 145.
36. Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 213.
37. David Croft, interview with the author, 23 May 2000.
38. Arthur Lowe, quoted by Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 213.
39. Arthur Lowe, quoted in the Daily Mirror, 14 November 1977, p. 16.
40. John Le Mesurier, quoted ibid.
41. Clive Dunn, quoted ibid.
42. Ian Lavender, quoted ibid., p. 17.
43. Recalled by Clive Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 213.
44. Ibid.
45. John Le Mesurier, A Jobbing Actor, p. 145.
46. The Morecambe & Wise Show was broadcast by BBC1 on 25 December 1977.
Chapter XV
1. R. G. Collingwood, An Autobiography (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), p. 98.
2. Michael Mills, quoted by Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 27 August 2000.
3. David Croft had produced summer shows for a holiday camp during the 1950s; Jimmy Perry, in the same decade, had worked as a Butlin’s Redcoat. Hi-de-Hi! was set in the late 1950s, and featured the fictional Maplin’s holiday camp, run by Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell) and his troupe of ‘Yellowcoats’. The show ran for eight successful series on BBC1 between February 1981 and January 1988.
4. John Laurie, quoted by Stephen Lowe, Arthur Lowe, p. 115.
5. See Stephen Lowe, Arthur Lowe, pp. 154–6, for an explanation of this policy.
6. Lindsay Anderson, speaking in The Arthur Lowe Story, BBC Radio 2, 28 December 1993. Britannia Hospital was released in 1983; Lowe’s other movies during this period included the remake of The Lady Vanishes (1979) and Sweet William (1982). He turned down an offer from Warren Beatty to appear in Heaven Can Wait because there was no role for his wife, Joan Cooper.
7. Bless Me, Father, written by Peter de Rosa, ran on ITV for three series from September 1978 to August 1981; Potter, written by Roy Clarke, ran on BBC1 for two series from March 1979 to April 1980 (a third series, made after Lowe’s death, saw Robin Bailey take over the role); and A. J. Wentworth, B.A., adapted by Basil Boothroyd from H. F. Ellis’ Punch short stories, was screened posthumously on ITV between 12 July and 23 August 1982.
8. Arthur Lowe, quoted in Daily Mirror, 14 November 1977, p. 16.
9. Letter from John Le Mesurier to Arthur Lowe, date unknown, quoted by Stephen Lowe, Arthur Lowe, p. 183.
10. Quoted by Joan Le Mesurier, Lady Don’t Fall Backwards, p. 174.
11. Ibid., p. 186.
12. Ibid.
13. Le Mesurier appeared as ‘Hugo Buxton’ in Series 3, Episode 2 of Hi-de-Hi!, first broadcast by BBC1 on 7 November 1982.
14. Joan Le Mesurier, Lady Don’t Fall Backwards, p. 186.
15. Bill Pertwee’s books include a history of seaside entertainment, Promenade and Pierrots (Devon: Westbridge, 1979), By Royal Command (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1981) and Dad’s Army: The Making of a Television Legend.
16. John Laurie, quoted by Hart, Dad’s Army, p. 31.
17. Laurie’s contribution to The Old Boy Network was broadcast by BBC2 on 21 September 1979.
18. See Daily Mirror, 14 November 1977, p. 17.
19. Arthur Ridley, quoted by Hart, Dad’s Army, p. 33.
20. There were several occasions when two or more former members of the Dad’s Army cast contributed to the same projects: Bill Pertwee and Arthur Lowe, for example, toured together during 1978 in the play Caught Napping, and both John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn had cameo roles in The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu, but It Sticks Out Half a Mile was the only bona fide Dad’s Army-related reunion.
21. See Snoad’s summary in Pertwee, Dad’s Army, p. 176.
22. See Stephen Lowe, Arthur Lowe, p. 164.
23. The pilot was produced by Jonathan James Moore on 19 July 1981.
24. Lowe was appearing at the venue in a play called Home At Seven.
25. Daily Mirror, 16 April 1982, p. 2.
26. Clive Dunn, quoted in Guardian, 16 April 1982, p. 3.
27. Joan Cooper, quoted by Pertwee, Dad’s Army, p. 176.
28. Episode 1 – the pilot – was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday, 13 November 1983, at 1.30 p.m.; the series continued, with one seven month break, until October 1984. After John Le Mesurier’s death, a television pilot, starring Michael Elphick and Richard Wilson, called Walking the Planks, was broadcast by BBC1 on 28 August 1985; when BBCTV passed on the series, Yorkshire TV bought the idea, retitled High and Dry and now starring Bernard Cribbins and Richard Wilson, and broadcast one series at the start of 1987.
29. See Joan Le Mesurier, Lady Don’t Fall Backwards, p. 189.
30. The Times, 16 November 1983, p. 14.
31. John Le Mesurier, quoted by Joan Le Mesurier in her Epilogue to John Le Mesurier’s A Jobbing Actor, p. 152.
32. Derek Taylor, quoted by Joan Le Mesurier, Lady Don’t Fall Backwards, p. 192.
33. Ibid., p. 191.
34. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
35. Arthur Lowe, quoted by Pertwee, Dad’s Army, p. 24.
36. Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
37. Jimmy Perry, interview with the author, 22 November 2000.
38. Dunn, Permission to Speak, p. 240.
39. You Rang, M’Lord? was set in the late 1910s/early 1920s inside the Meldrum residence: ‘upstairs’ characters included Lord George Meldrum (Donald Hewlett) and his lascivious brother, Teddy (Michael Knowles); ‘downstairs’ characters included the ‘head of the household’, James Twelvetrees (Jeffrey Holland) and the butler, Alf Stokes (Paul Shane); Bill Pertwee played PC Wilson, and Frank Williams appeared as the bishop. The hour-long pilot episode was broadcast by BBC1 on 29 December 1988, and four series followed between January 1990 and April 1993.
40. David Croft, interview with the author, 23 May 2000.
41. A 1978 rerun of the ninth series was watched by a weekly audience that rose from 6,942,600 to 9,604,800 over the course of six episodes (source: BBC Daily Viewing Barometers, 11 September–16 October 1978).
42. ‘A Man of Action’, for example, was repeated on 28 November 1989 and was seen by 11,200,000 people. Six more repeats in this run also attracted over ten million viewers each (BBC Daily Viewing Barometers, 7 November – 19 December 1989).
43. Most episodes now exist on video. The first (NTSC format) DVD compilations were released in Canada as a three-disc box set by BBC Worldwide/BFS Video in 2000.
44. An earlier attempt, in 1989, was unsuccessful. The Croft and Perry-endorsed Dad’s Army Appreciation Society was set up in 1993 by Tadge Muldoon, who ran a skip-hire business in Keighly (see the ‘Peterborough’ column in the Daily Telegraph, 19 August 1993, p. 24, and Pertwee’s Dad’s Army, p. 200). In 1995, following Muldoon’s death, Bill Wheeler took over the running of the society (the current contact address is: 8 Sinodun Road, Wallingford, OXON, OX10 8AA; e-mail [email protected]; website www.dadsarmy.cwc.net). A New Zealand branch was formed in March 1995 (the current contact address is: DAAS NZ, c/o Dave Homewood, 69a Vogel Street, Cambridge, New Zealand; e-mail dave [email protected]; website www.whispersfromwalmington.com/daasnz/).
45. Aside from terrestrial broadcasters, BBC Prime screens the show to a wide range of countries, including, since 1998, Croatia.
46. Frank Williams, interview with the author, 4 October 2000.
47. See my ‘Don’t bury your treasures’, Financial Times, 28 June 2000, p. 22.
48. On 27 January 2001, for example, a Dad’s Army repeat went out on BBC1 at 6.45 p.m. and attracted an audience of 6,633,000 viewers (source: BBC Daily Viewing Barometer).
49. See Guardian, 6 September 2000, p. 3.
50. J
immy Perry, interview with the author, 22 November 2000.
51. See the Eastern Daily Press, 15 May 2000, p. 9.
52. Frank Williams, interview with the author, 4 October 2000.
53. Clive Dunn, quoted in Perry and Croft, Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes, p. 8.
EPILOGUE
1. Wheldon, The Achievement of Television, p. 18.
2. Henry James, ‘The middle years’ (1893), in The Figure in the Carpet and Other Stories (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), p. 258.
3. Recalled by Ian Lavender, interview with the author, 29 May 2000.
4. Wheldon, The Achievement of Television, p. 14.
5. See Perry and Croft, Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes, p. 115.
6. Tom Sloan, Television Light Entertainment.
About the Author
Graham McCann is the author of numerous biographies, including Cary Grant: A Class Apart, Morecambe & Wise, Frankie Howerd: Stand-Up Comic and Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas. His other books include Spike & Co, The Essential Dave Allen and the Amnesty compilation A Poke in the Eye.
His work has also been used as source material for several TV and radio documentaries, including BBC1’s Hollywood Greats, BBC2’s Reputations and Channel 4’s Frankie Howerd: The Lost Tapes.
By the Same Author
Do You Think That’s Wise?: The Life of John Le Mesurier
A Poke in the Eye
Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas
Spike & Co
The Essential Dave Allen
Frankie Howerd: Stand-Up Comic
Morecambe & Wise
Cary Grant: A Class Apart
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
Dad's Army Page 35