How long did dads army run

Episodes Browse episodes. Top Top-rated. Photos Top cast Edit. Arthur Lowe Capt. George Mainwaring as Capt. George Mainwaring …. John Le Mesurier Sgt. Arthur Wilson as Sgt. Arthur Wilson …. Clive Dunn LCpl. Jack Jones as LCpl. Jack Jones. John Laurie Pte. James Frazer as Pte. James Frazer …. Arnold Ridley Pte. Charles Godfrey as Pte. Charles Godfrey …. Ian Lavender Pte. Frank Pike as Pte. Frank Pike …. James Beck Pte. Joe Walker as Pte. Joe Walker …. Janet Davies Mrs. Mavis Pike as Mrs.

Mavis Pike. Robert Raglan the Colonel as the Colonel …. Such a negative report could well have stopped the show going ahead but the production team sneakily sat on it until the first episode had been broadcast. Immediately well received, the show went on to regularly gain audiences of 18 million viewers.

The very first episode of Dad's Army, The Man and the Hour, begins with a scene set in the 'present day' - , when the show was first broadcast. In the scene, an elderly Mainwaring gives a patriotic address recalling his time in the Home Guard as a way to endorse Harold Wilson's "I'm Backing Britain" campaign. So all that follows - over the whole of the 80 episodes of the sitcom - is technically a flashback!

There were Dad's Army spin offs including a film and a revue-style stage show but there was also a bona fide sequel in the form of a BBC radio sitcom called 'It Sticks Out Half a Mile' which aired after the TV show ended. The pilot episode followed Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson after the war but, when Arthur Lowe died in , the show was recast to include the characters of Warden Hodges and Private Pike, along with Wilson, and broadcast in Erected in Thetford, Norfolk - which doubled for Walmington-on-Sea in the exterior shots of the show - the statue features Mainwaring sitting to attention on a bench at the end of a winding pathway decorated with the Union Flag arrow head as featured in the opening credits of Dad's Army.

The role of Sergeant Wilson was also originally envisaged for prolific TV actor Robert Dorning who went on to appear in the classic episode "Something Nasty in the Vault" as a bank inspector. Skip to main content Home Main Menu. Search gold. The origins of this TV phenomenon are recorded in pink folders containing yellowed press cuttings, letters from viewers and internal memos typed on paper so flimsy the letter O sometimes goes right though like a bullet hole.

Asked to defend Walmington-on-Sea while the real men are away, bank manager Captain Mainwaring acts out a fantasy of military command. He thinks the main reason is that it was written to have universal appeal. Archived memos show that Paul Fox, controller of BBC One, was so concerned about potential offence to viewers who served in or were bereaved by the war , he ordered the removal of footage of Nazi troops and displaced refugees from the opening titles.

Lavender says he only learned about these tensions through later books and documentaries. Yet one curling cutting in the file makes anyone who has worked as a reviewer want to stand and salute. In those days, critics phoned in reviews immediately after transmission. The show quickly became a hit with the very audience the BBC had worried about: those with direct experience of the events it depicted.

They know nothing of those daft days but they enjoy the programme just the same!