Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

I’m currently in a ‘Dad’s Army’ mood! 😀 Back in May this year, we had the VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations in the UK. One of the celebrations shown on the BBC was a live concert called ‘VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember’. The King and Queen attended it. 🙂

One of the items in the concert was a recreation of a ‘Dad’s Army’ mini-episode performed live on stage with a new cast of actors playing the well-known characters live on stage. I managed to see the recreation online via YouTube just recently this November.

Here’s the recreation of that mini-episode for you to enjoy!

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I enjoyed seeing the video and recognised many of the actors playing the ‘Dad’s Army’ characters. They’re very good in their roles. The mini-episode being reenacted was one of the ‘Christmas Night with the Stars’ TV mini-episodes called ‘Broadcast to the Empire’. 🙂

It was nice to see one of my favourite mini Christmas specials of ‘Dad’s Army’ performed live for a concert to celebrate 80 years of VE Day. Sadly, the episode was truncated somewhat and I would’ve liked it if the entire mini-episode had been performed on stage.

In terms of the cast, Jim Howick plays Captain Mainwaring. I recognised Jim Howick for being in ‘Horrible Histories’, which I enjoyed watching around 2011. There’s Nigel Havers as Sergeant Wilson. Both Jim Howick and Nigel Havers excel in their ‘Dad’s Army’ roles. 🙂

Nigel Havers played Peter Dalton, Sarah Jane’s love interest in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ story ‘The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith’. He’s also been in the film ‘Chariots of Fire’, a ‘Downton Abbey’ Christmas Special and an ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ episode.

Kevin Eldon reprises his role as Lance Corporal Jones from the 2019 live-action remakes of the ‘Dad’s Army’ Series 2 lost episodes. It was great to see Kevin Eldon back as Jonesy for this ‘Dad’s Army’ VE Day Celebration. Daniel Mays also returns to play Private Walker.

Daniel Mays played Private Walker in the 2016 ‘Dad’s Army’ film. To see Kevin Eldon and Daniel Mays together, playing their ‘Dad’s Army’ characters from two different projects, and singing ‘Any Old Iron’ in this ‘Dad’s Army’ VE Day Celebration was such a joy to watch.

In ‘Doctor Who’ terms, Kevin Eldon played Ribbons in the episode ‘It Takes You Away’ with Jodie Whittaker. Daniel Mays played Alex in the episode ‘Night Terrors’ with Matt Smith. And if you think the ‘Doctor Who’ connections stop there, you’re quite mistaken. 😀

Iain Glen plays Private Frazer in the VE Day Celebration. I’ve seen Iain Glen in the 1999 TV adaptation of ‘Wives & Daughters’ and episodes of ‘Downton Abbey’. He also played Father Octavian in the ‘Doctor Who’ two-part story ‘The Time of Angels’/’Flesh and Stone’.

David Bradley plays Private Godfrey. I’ve seen David Bradley in the 1998 TV adaptation of ‘Our Mutual Friend’. He’s been in the ‘Harry Potter’ films, and I’ve met David Bradley in real life, as he played William Hartnell on TV and the First Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’, both on TV and audio.

It was amazing to see Iain Glen and David Bradley appear in this ‘Dad’s Army’ VE Day Celebration, having seen them in other productions. I never thought of them as Private Frazer and Private Godfrey respectively and I wish I can see more of them in their roles. 🙂

There’s Dylan Llewellyn as Private Pike and Larry Lamb as Chief Warden Hodges. I’ve not seen these two actors in many things, though Dylan Llewellyn has been in an episode of ‘Call the Midwife’, and Larry Lamb has appeared in ‘EastEnders’ and ‘Gavin and Stacey’.

To round off the cast, Paterson Joseph plays the BBC engineer (originally played by Peter Greene in the TV version of ‘Broadcast to the Empire’) and Alex MacQueen is the voice of the BBC producer (originally played by Michael Knowles in the TV version of ‘Broadcast’).

I’ve seen Paterson Joseph in the ‘Doctor Who’ two-part story ‘Bad Wolf’/’The Parting of the Ways’ with Christopher Eccleston as well as the 2023 film ‘Wonka’. Alex MacQueen, for me, has played the Master (well, one of them 😀 ) in the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

It’s been great to see this recreation of the ‘Dad’s Army’ mini-episode ‘Broadcast to the Empire’ for the VE Day Celebrations, which was shown back in May this year. A shame the entire mini-episode wasn’t reenacted, but the performances of the cast are amazing. 🙂

A part of me wants to see more of this new ‘Dad’s Army’ cast, either to reenact more classic episodes or perhaps do new original stories that are funny to match the TV series. Whether that will happen is another matter. At least I’m happy I’ve seen them in this recreation.

Thanks for watching and reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂