Visit to James Beck's Memorial Tree
Article and photo by Katie - site owner of the James Beck MySpace page
My friend and I went to St Paul's on Saturday afternoon (dodging the thundery downpours!) and after some digging around and getting rather muddy, we found Jimmy's Memorial plaque but sadly no tree.
Jimmy's plaque, which was in remarkably good condition, was on it's own in a flowerbed. The nearest tree was very large and was far too old; a smaller tree directly behind the old tree (surely not a spot you'd choose) and one other tree some distance from the plaque, which could possibly have been about the right age but had other dedicates and plaques attached to it. So it was all rather confusing!
My friend and I did manage to find someone inside the Church to ask about the Memorial Gardens. Unfortunately, this guy thought it was all rather hilarious (apparently 1973 is 'the dark ages'!!) and just kept saying that in the eyes of the Church none of the plaques exist and we could more or less choose any tree and stick the plaque in front of it!! My friend commented that it felt a bit like being in the middle of a Monty Python sketch!
Since getting home, I have contacted The Rector in the hope there maybe some Church records showing which tree is Jimmy's but I have not heard back from him yet. This is the photo I took of the plaque. While taking the photo, the sun came out for the only time in the whole day!
Many thanks to Katie for the article - feel free to e-mail in your Dad's Army stories or pictures to james@dadsarmypodcast.com
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
James Beck
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Tour Marches On
Windsor Dates added to Dad's Army Stage Play Tour
Six extra dates have been added to the touring stage play. The production will now call at Windsor and play at the Theatre Royal. The tour, already into its second leg was originally intended to finish after the curtain went down on the evening performance at Malvern on the 7th June this year.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
The View from Scotland
The Edinburgh News reviews Stage Play
Liam Rudden of the of the Edinburgh News has written a comprehensive review of the touring play when it performed in Belfast last week. Quite why a Scottish paper sent a reporter to Belfast to see the play when the production plays at Newcastle next month is not made clear! The review however is positive, and it is good to see the show is still attracting publicity half way through the current run.
You can read the review by clicking on the Edinburgh News logo.
**Updated 17 April 2008**
Liam Rudden, the writer of this article has contacted us at the podcast after reading our original post above. Liam says in his e-mail;
"Just to answer you query, the Edinburgh Evening News didn't sent me to Belfast to review Dad's Army. I love the series and Belfast was the earliest chance on the tour I had to catch it. The piece I wrote was for my weekly column, and the point I suppose I was making locally was that such a brilliant piece of family entertainment deserves to tour north - at the moment there are no Scottish dates."
Many of our listeners north of the boarder will agree that is a pity that the stage play has not visited a theatre in Scotland on either of its runs.
Thanks to Liam for getting in touch.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
New Dad's Army Podcast
Episode 18 now on-line
Episode 18 of the podcast is now available to listen to on-line or to download from www.dadsarmy.podomatic.com
Friday, 11 April 2008
Dirty Don enrols at Oxford
Dad's Army play arrives in Oxford
Katherine MacAlister of the Oxford Mail has interviewed Leslie Grantham prior to the play opening at the New Theatre next week. Grantham still manages to come up with something different each time he's interviewed about his part as Walker, and the way MacAlister writes her story makes Grantham
sound almost like a normal person. You can read the article by clicking on the Oxford Mail's logo.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Purveyor of essential supplies on-line
James Beck on MySpace
I recently discovered a comprehensive tribute on the MySpace 'social networking' site to James Beck and his career. The page is maintained and updated regularly and has a number of really interesting features about the actor. Katie, the site owner, chronicles Beck's career - which extends vastly beyond Dad's Army. I recommend that any James Beck fans heads on over to www.myspace.com/jamesbeck29 to take a look.
More Time on Your Hands?!
Due to a technical glitch (okay, a cock-up on my part) our discussion about Time on My Hands (see blog entry 24 March 2008) for Episode 19 of the podcast is going to be re-recorded. For this feature, I will be joined once again by Paul Carpenter of the Dad's Army Appreciation Society. Paul is a fountain of knowledge of all things Dad's Army, so if you have any questions about this episode that you would like me to put to him, please e-mail them to me at james@dadsarmypodcast.com We are due to record next Tuesday (one week from today) so please let me have your questions, or indeed any other comments you may have about this episode before the 15th. You can listen to the latest podcast by clicking on the badge below, and Podcast number 18 will be on-line some point over this coming weekend.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
End of an era
Never Too Old
It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Not that I’m feeling particularly old you understand but yesterday’s showing of Never Too Old on BBC2 evoked a rather surprising emotion. I felt as if I was experiencing the end of an era. Silly you may think, given that this episode went out originally in 1977 and I have seen it more times than I can remember on VHS and DVD – but perhaps the knowledge that I was just one of many thousands of viewers watching it at the same time had a strange effect on me. Television usually feels such an intimate, personal pastime and it’s generally only when there are major world events reported that it feels as if you are part of an international community of viewers. However, rightly or wrongly, Never Too Old stirred up those very feelings in me. How many other viewers raised a glass with Mainwaring to Britain’s Home guard – and indeed the relatively small group of writers and actors who helped immortalise the volunteer force? I unashamedly, was one.
The fact that the cast and crew knew that this would be the last episode had something to do with the strange, epoch-ending feeling the episode has – along with the fact that every bit-member of the cast were included. It’s also very sad that Jimmy Beck was not around to witness the end of the series and see the institution that Dad’s Army became – and still is, many years after the final programme was broadcast. After watching this episode, go back if you can to the pre-credits sequence of very first episode- The Man and The Hour. This is set after the war is over and low and behold, Walker is there – minus moustache. Perhaps Walker was just away in Never Too Old – and returned to Walmington on Sea after this episode was set. It’s a grand thought isn't it?
So the programme ends forever – no more new Dad’s Army episodes were made after Never Too Old, and what finer way would there have been to end the series. I defy anyone with an affection for this programme to turn off the television after the credits have rolled for the final time with a dry eye.
