This is Your Life

Arnold Ridley

A superb short video of Arnold Ridley on This is Your Life has been posted on YouTube. The clip is approximately eight minutes long and features all the regular Dad's Army cast. You can view the video by clicking on the video below.

Special Announcement

Dad's Army Podcast site 'upgrades'

Hello everyone.

Just a quick message for those of you who are wondering what's happened to the main podcast site ! Well, I'll try to explain.

PodOmatic, the company who hosts this podcast in cyber world, ‘upgraded’ their site last weekend. Now there may be very few noticeable differences to listeners, but there are a whole host of changes been made in the way podcast hosts maintain their pages. ‘Glitches’ podOmatic all them – I call them something altogether more rude!!

Anyway, the two main differences you’ll notice are;

1) All your past comments have disappeared. I have however, been informed that this is purely temporary. In fact, I can still see them when I log into the site to update it. I just can’t publish them – neither can listeners leave new comments for the time being.

2) The podcast player that opens when you hit ‘Play’ has changed. It looks flashier, but unfortunately misses the first few seconds off from each episode. Similarly, some episodes drop off half way through. These problems I am also assured are temporary. In the meantime, the best way to listen to the podcasts maybe through iTunes or Myspace.

Now I have already uploaded Episode 22 to the podOmatic server and it is still due to be made available to listen to this weekend however - I have described just two of the changes you’ll see – there are hundreds of changes for me in the way I publish episodes! So if I have difficulty, please bear with me. Episode 22 is a cracker so I hope any problems you experience will be worth it.

If these problems do not rectify themselves, then I will look for an alternative host – so thank you for you patience. Hopefully things will be back to the ‘smooth, well-oiled machine’ you are used to very soon.

Special Edition of the Dad's Army Podcast now online

Frank Williams and Harold Snoad join DAAS members on locations tour

As mentioned in my last posting (Location, Location, Location...) we at the podcast were lucky enough to attend a guided tour of locations used whilst filming Dad's Army all those years ago.

Accompanied by my trusty MP3 recorder, I managed to speak to Frank and Harold as they recounted their memories of filming. The Dad's Army Appreciation Society were also on hand and jammed-packed full of Dad's Army trivia which the attendees lapped up.

Click on the cover-art above to be redirected to Episode 21 of the Dad's Army podcast. Please feel free to let me know what you think of this podcast, especially as it's the first massive departure from our regular format - my e-mail address is james@dadsarmypodcast.com Feedback is always welcome, be it positive or negative. Alternatively, you can leave your comments on this blog by clicking on the 'comments' tag at the foot of each posting.

In a fortnight's time, Episode 22 will be on-line and will feature the speeches and interviews made at the DAAS members meal. It will be the most star-laden podcast yet and will include discussions with David Croft, Jimmy Perry, Michael Knowles, Pamela Cundell, Harold Snoad - and a University Professor who lectures in Dad's Army!!

Location, Location, Location....

Tour of Dad's Army film locations

On Saturday 10th May 2008, the Dad's Army Appreciation Society (DAAS) organised a tour of locations in and around Thetford that were used in the series . A old red routemaster collected a group of DAAS members and their guests at around 11:00am. We were accompanied by Frank Williams (the Vicar) who was able to entertain us with stories about the cast and crew whilst filming was taking place, and by Harold Snoad who was responsible for suggesting Thetford be used for external shooting all those years ago. Harold was also responsible for finding suitable locations for non-studio bound scenes in series 1 to 4 - unfortunately we only visited one location used during Harold's time on the programme and that was Brandon station, used in The Big Parade.

Other locations visited included;

Elvedon Hall (the tower is pictured above and in the final scenes of Battle of the Giants)

The field where Mainwaring is chased by a dog with a grenade in his mouth in Fallen Idol

The bridge where the fire engine used in Brain vs Brawn was stopped by the Army

The green where the pageant was held in Knights of Madness

The church used for the external Church scenes in Ring Dem Bells and The Captain's Car

The Anchor Hotel which featured in The Man and the Hour and was used as cast and crew accommodation

Both Tony and I from the Dad's Army podcast were invited to come along and we managed to secure a number of recordings with the event organisers and Frank and Harold. You will be able to hear those interviews on episode 21 of the podcast due for release over the next few days.

Pictures taken on the tour were few in number as I was so busy making recordings, but click on the slideshow to your right to see the photos we did manage to take. If you were with us on the tour and took some pictures and would like to see them on this page, then please e-mail them to me at james@dadsarmypodcast.com - we will credit all photographs we recieve.

All slideshow photos taken by James at the Dad's Army Podcast

Writing duo receive BAFTA

Croft and Perry receive special award


Prolific sit-com writers David Croft and Jimmy Perry have received a special award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). The award was made on Sunday 11th May - the same day as the Croft and Perry Day at Bressingham Steam museum. Dad's Army received a BAFTA in 1971 for best comedy and this new award will be seen by some as very overdue. You can read the official BAFTA statement on their website - there is also a video of about 8 minutes showcasing pieces of their work intercut with interviews of Ian Lavender, Su Pollard and Ruth Madoc.

I was lucky enough to be sitting at the same table as David Croft at the annual Dad's Army Appreciation Society dinner the night before the award was announced, and I recorded a brief interview with him.* Unfortunately I was unaware that the award was being made the following day so did not speak to him about it at all!

Congratulations to both Jimmy and David - I am sure their work will be enjoyed by many for generations to come.

* This interview will feature on a future Dad's Army podcast due for release very soon

Bressingham is coming.......

Croft and Perry Day, Sunday 11th May 2008

The year's highest-profile Dad's Army event is taking place at Bressingham Steam Museum next Sunday.

This year will be particularly special as it's the programme's 40th anniversary. Guests invited include Jimmy Perry, David Croft, Harold Snoad, Ian Lavender, Bill Pertwee, Pamela Cundell, Eric Longworth, Michael Knowles and John Clegg. There will a whole host of other stars there too from many other Perry and Croft programmes.

I have included few pictures of previous Bressingham events in this posting - my usual podcast co-presenter Tony is pictured with Jones' van. There is also a picture of a house in Nether Row - the road was used in many episodes taken in Thetford town centre.

If you are planning on coming to Bressingham then please come up and say hello - if we're not roaming the museum looking for interviews then we'll be in or aound the DAAS tent.

There is special mini-podcast previewing the event with Tony Pritchard, one of the day's organisers available on the main podcast page. This brief podcast gives you a little bit of history about the event and offers an insight into how much planning goes into putting on a really spectacular day.

For more information about the event, hop over to either the Dad's Army Appreciation Society's page, or the Bressingham Steam Museum site.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Walker first past the post

Walker takes over a third of your votes in popularity contest

Joe Walker, played by James Beck (pictured), has been voted the most favourite of the regular Dad's Army characters by readers of the blog. Eighty-five votes were cast and 39% of you said Walker was your favourite member of the platoon. Pike and Godfrey attracted just 2% of your votes each. You can see all the results in the poll section to your right.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the poll. Make sure you cast your vote in May's poll for the most popular non-regular character.