Hello everyone! 🙂

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

On Christmas Day, I saw the latest celebration documentary about ‘Dad’s Army’ and the actors’ appearances on shows outside the TV series called ‘Dad’s Army at the BBC’. I greatly enjoyed this documentary on BBC Two, and it was nice to see it on Christmas Day.

Basically, the documentary presents what TV appearances the ‘Dad’s Army’ cast have made in the contemporary TV shows made at the time in the 1970s. Some of these I’ve seen on the ‘Dad’s Army’ DVDs, some I haven’t, but it was all exciting and thrilling to watch.

The documentary is narrated by Toby Jones, who played Captain Mainwaring in the 2016 ‘Dad’s Army’ film. It’s nice that Toby Jones got to narrate this documentary. I like how he described the many TV appearances of actors such as Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier.

This included Arthur Lowe meeting up with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise on one of their TV shows, which I’ve seen. A pity the documentary didn’t show the Ernie Wise play that Arthur Lowe was in, as he was joined by other ‘Dad’s Army’ team members at the end of that.

Trust me, I’ve seen the Morecambe & Wise play with Arthur Lowe to know what I’m talking about. 😀 The documentary also included the Noel Coward tribute featuring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn in it, which is on the Christmas Specials DVD. 🙂

A particular highlight of the ‘Dad’s Army’ at the BBC documentary is the inclusion of a mini-episode featuring the ‘Dad’s Army’ cast defending Buckingham Palace at the 1970 Royal Gala. This was shown in two parts at the beginning and at the end of the documentary.

It was amusing to see Godfrey, Jones and Frazer being given cups of tea by cameos of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret whilst on guard duty at Buckingham Palace. Although we only see the back of their heads, that’s who they supposed to be in the story.

I especially enjoyed the sketch where Ian Lavender as Private Pike invaded the Lulu Show. The way Pike tried to take Lulu as his hostage was hilarious, especially as he did it in quite an awkward way. It was nice to see James Beck interviewed, albeit in black-and-white. 🙂

James Beck sadly passed away in 1973 during the making of Series 6, so it was rare to see him be interviewed for ‘Dad’s Army’ at a time before he passed away. I enjoyed it when seeing John Laurie and Arnold Ridley interviewed for TV interviews in the documentary. 🙂

I found it funny when seeing a TV appearance of co-writer Jimmy Perry receiving an award at a special event before he was joined by Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, James Beck, Arnold Ridley Ian Lavender and Bill Pertwee as their characters. An entertaining moment!

I also liked it when co-writer Jimmy Perry and co-writer, producer and director David Croft were interviewed for ‘In Vision’, bringing a more serious side to how ‘Dad’s Army’ was put together. This is especially as Jimmy Perry shared his memories of being in the Home Guard.

It was pretty surreal to see Arthur Lowe make a guest appearance as Captain Mainwaring in ‘The Generation Game’ with Bruce Forsyth. It was equally surreal to see Arthur Lowe singing opposite Barbara Windsor of ‘EastEnders’ fame, who was also in the ‘Dad’s Army’ TV series.

There was one official mini-episode from the ‘Christmas Night with the Stars’ series shown in the documentary and that was ‘Resisting the Aggressor Down the Ages’. Granted, only a portion of that mini-episode was shown, but it was still lovely to watch it.

I like that the ‘Dad’s Army’ stage show was in London back in the 1970s was included in the documentary, albeit they showed a ‘Nationwide’ clip I’d seen in the ‘Dad’s Army’ Christmas Specials DVD. I also enjoyed seeing Clive Dunn being interviewed by Terry Wogan.

It was good to see the ‘Blue Peter’ sketch where Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson examined the painting made by Class 4B of Moorlands Primary School near Reading. I also found the ‘Your Move’ sketch featuring Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender entertaining. 🙂

I liked seeing the ‘BBC Pebble Mill at One’ interview with Arthur Lowe towards the end of the documentary. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it on the ‘We Are The Boys…Arthur Lowe’ featurette on the Series 7 DVD. It’s a shame Arthur Lowe passed away not long after that.

‘Dad’s Army at the BBC’ was a fantastic documentary to sit down to for an hour. I greatly enjoyed how the documentary showcased the best moments of the ‘Dad’s Army’ cast as well as Jimmy Perry and David Croft when they made appearances in other 1970s TV shows.

It was also nice to hear Toby Jones narrate the documentary, having been in a ‘Dad’s Army’-related film production himself. I’m glad I saw it on Christmas Day and it illustrates how well ‘Dad’s Army’s legacy has endured after all these years and is still enjoyed today.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂