Dad's 40th (updated 11th July 2008)

40th Anniversary of Dad's Army celebrated

Yesterday (9th July 2008) saw a number of Dad's Army stars and fans celebrate the anniversary of programme at the Imperial War Museum in London. The first episode, The Man and the Hour was originally transmitted on 31st July 1968, and the Dad's Army Appreciation Society, together with the Imperial War Museum organised an celebration to remember. The event attracted significant interest from the press, and the story appeared in many of today's national dailies. The Sun's story is available on line here and focusses on some of Ian Lavender's comments - the sentiments of which he echoed when I interviewed him for the podcast. The BBC were also there, filming interviews with the cast and production crew.

In attendance were Jimmy Perry, David Croft, Clive Dunn, Ian Lavender, Bill Pertwee, Frank Williams, Pamela Cundell, Eric Longworth, Harold Snoad, Mary Husband, Jefferey Holland, Ronnie Grange and Joan Le Mesurier. We were also joined by the former forces sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn.

Tony and I from the podcast were there too with our trusty MP3 recorders, and we managed to speak to many of the stars. Look out for podcast 25 where you will get to hear the speeches made by the stars, and my interviews with them - including one with none-other than Dame Vera Lynn! I never thought I would be chatting to the person who sung the immortal words we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when about Dad's Army!!

Pictures of the event will be on the blog over the next few days. If you attended then event then please feel free to send in your photos and stories about the day to me at james@dadsarmypodcast.com - it would be great to hear from you. I'm off now to find Dame Vera's back-catalogue on iTunes....

**updated 11 July 2008**

The BBC also reported the story on-line here.

New Dad's Army Podcast on-line

Episode 24

Episode 24 of the Dad’s Army Podcast is now on-line and available to listen to or download over at the main podcast page.

This week we catch up on the latest Dad’s Army news, talk about It Sticks Our Half a Mile - the 1980’s Dad’s Army spin-off currently airing on BBC7, and have a rummage through the mailbag and read some e-mails that you have sent us. We also welcome Clare back to the podcast – she joins me to discuss the series four episode, The Two and Half Feathers.

As always, we’d love to hear from you – send your e-mails to james@dadsarmypodcast.com. The link to the BBC7 listen again site is available here.

Enjoy the podcast.

James

The Victorious Vicar!

Timothy Farthing tops the poll

The Reverend Timothy Farthing (played by Frank Williams) has topped June’s poll which asked readers of the blog to vote for their favourite non-regular character. Fifty three of you cast your vote, and the Vicar topped the table with 28%. Second was Maurice Yateman – better known as the Verger with 18% whilst Claude Gordon, the Town Clerk, brings up the rear with just one vote. In all fairness, some non-regular characters featured considerably more than others, and the only real surprise to me is Hodges coming third with roughly half the votes that were polled for the Vicar. The full results will remain on-line for a few weeks over in the poll section.

July’s poll is now on-line (just to the right of your screen) and asks readers for their favourite episode from series one. The episodes in this series are rarely discussed by Dad’s Army fans, and some claim that series 1 and 2 are the weakest of the entire nine seasons. It will be interesting to see whether or not this poll attracts as many votes as the more general polls.

Remember you can still vote for your favourite regular character – can anyone overtake Walker?!

It Sticks Out....on BBC7

Dad's Army sequal broadcasting on BBC7

It Sticks Out Half a Mile, the early 80s Dad’s Army radio-only sequel, is being broacast on the BBC digital radio station, BBC7. All 13 episodes are being aired, seemingly on Tuesdays at 17:30 BST, although this timeslot is not confirmed as being the same every week.

The first episode was broadcast on Tuesday 24th June 2008 - but don't panic, the episodes are available on BBC7's 'Listen Again' service for six days after broadcast. You can hear the latest show by clicking here at any point during the show's run.

It Sticks Out stars Bill Pertwee, John le Mesurier and Ian Lavender reprising their roles of Wilson, Pike and Hodges, intent on restoring the dilapidated Frambourne Pier. More information about the individual episodes are available on the Dad's Army Appreciation Society's website by clicking here.

New Dad's Army Podcast now on-line

Episode 23

Episode 23 of the podcast is now on-line and available to listen to or download from our main site.

This week James and Tony discuss Croft and Perry Day 2008, interview the delightful Pamela Cundell who played Mrs Fox in the series and talk about the BBC’s plans to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the show. Our featured episode this week is series four’s The Test.

The sound quality is not so good in this podcast I'm afraid - mainly because I am in the middle of decorating my office at home - it's floor-boarded and therefore very echoey. I also forgot to covert our conversation about the 40th anniversary show into stereo. Hope this doesn't spoil your enjoyment too much.

I am still experiencing problems with the upgrade of the podcast player - when listening to the show the sound occassionally drops a few seconds or sometimes just stops playing altogether. In addition, the last 30 seconds or so do not play. The best way to get around this is to listen to the show on iTunes (or another podcatcher) where these problems do not occur. Hopefully podomatic will sort this rather irritating problem soon.

We’ll be back with podcast 24 in three weeks or so when we’ll be discussing The Two and Half Feathers – feel free to let us have your comments on this episode and we’ll include them in the show. Enjoy the podcast.

TTFN,

James

Green light for Dad's Army adverts!

Dad's Army Green Cross Code adverts on YouTube

No, not new ones, but two adverts filmed when Dad's Army was being broadcast in the '70s are now on YouTube. Both films were included as extras on the Christmas Special BBC DVD released last year, but are now available to everyone on-line.





With thanks to Ian Sherwood

Croft and Perry Day 2008 - pictures

Bressingham Steam Museum - Sunday 11th May 2008

I have added some photographs taken by Tony at this year's Bressingham event. You can see the mini-slideshow on the right hand side of this blog - click on the slideshow to be taken to the public album hosted on the Picasa site. Captions are there too but only viewable on the Picasa site. I have also uploded some additional shots to the locations tour album.

Feel free to duplicate any of the photos or use them on your own website or download if you wish - but if you reproduce them on-line or in a publication, I would be grateful if you credit the podcast.

All Bressingham 2008 and Locations Tour photos taken by the Dad's Army podcast. Ian Lavender (Pte. Frank Pike) is pictured above.