‘THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE WALKER’ (TV)

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So, when it was announced in 2023 that animation versions of the two missing ‘Dad’s Army’ episodes ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker’ and ‘Under Fire’ were going to be made, I wondered why do them at all? After all, we have the 2019 live-action remakes.

But I suppose it’s nice to have some completion in the ‘Dad’s Army’ TV series by having animation episodes of the two missing Series 2 episodes. After all, ‘A Stripe for Frazer’ was animated in 2015. Thus, it’s only fair that we have the remaining episodes be animated.

However, there’s the question of “How do you do animations of ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker’ and ‘Under Fire’ when the TV soundtracks are still missing?” ‘A Stripe for Frazer’ is intact in terms of a TV soundtrack, but the other two episodes aren’t.

Thankfully, there are the radio adaptations of the missing ‘Dad’s Army’ episodes. So, it was decided to use them for the animations. I’m pleased they did that, since it provides that completion, even if it doesn’t match to how the TV episodes would’ve been presented.

However, there are differences between the animation and the radio versions of the missing episodes. For one thing, in ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker’, David Benson plays Walker in the episode, replacing Graham Stark to sound like James Beck. 🙂

For those don’t know, David Benson performed ‘Dad’s Army: The Radio Show’ on stage and on audio for Big Finish with Jack Lane. Jack Lane also plays Private Pike in the missing episodes. Presumably, Ian Lavender wouldn’t have sounded the same if he did Pike again.

With Jack Lane playing Private Pike in the animation version of ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker’, his lines from the TV episode are given to him instead of them being given to Godfrey, as was the case in the radio episode. Pike wasn’t in the radio episode, you see.

The animation is pretty good for ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker’, although Mainwaring and Walker don’t see the War Office Brigadier in their civilian clothes. They stay in their army uniforms. 😐 It’s still amazing how the animation makes use of the radio episode. 🙂

‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker’ (TV) rating – 7/10

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‘THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE WALKER’ (AUDIO)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker’ is one of the missing ‘Dad’s Army’ episodes from Series 2. It’s also the fourteenth episode in the ‘Dad’s Army’ radio series. As the TV episode is still missing from the BBC Archives, the radio episode remains to be enjoyed. Until the 2019 remake came along. 🙂

Sadly, James Beck isn’t playing Walker in the radio episode. This radio episode was recorded after James Beck’s death. The first time I heard this radio episode was on the Series 2 DVD. The radio versions of this episode, ‘A Stripe For Frazer’ and ‘Under Fire’ can be listened to on the Series 2 DVD.

The episode has Walker receiving his call-up papers. This shocks Mainwaring and the rest of the ‘Dad’s Army’ team who want him to stay on in the platoon. Many attempts are made to prevent Walker going, including applying to the Military Service Hardship Committee and sabotaging his medical test.

However, these attempts don’t work due to Walker not keeping any books for business. This shocks Mainwaring after the tribunal. Jones’ attempts to fail his medical test don’t go according to plan. Eventually, Walker gets invalided out of joining the regular army due to being allergic to corned beef.

I find it intriguing how this episode depicts Walker getting called up to join the army. I wondered why he never did due to him being a younger man than most of the Home Guard platoon. Of course, he had his ‘reserved occupation’ in being a spiff. It was intriguing that he never got called up until now.

Graham Stark voices Walker for the radio version of the missing TV episode. For me, this was the first time I heard Graham Stark as Walker. As I said in my review for the radio version of ‘The Showing Up of Corporal Jones’, Graham Stark is rather good as Walker, although he isn’t James Beck.

Neither is he Larry Martyn. I prefer Larry Martyn’s version of Walker than Graham Stark’s, though I’ve heard Larry Martyn more than Graham Stark. It was still fun to hear Graham Stark play Walker when he was getting called up. It was very amusing when he was suffering from eating corned beef.

John Laurie stars as Frazer and Arnold Ridley stars as Godfrey in the radio episode. There’s no Ian Lavender as Pike. 😐 Jack Watson plays the Sergeant and the Brigadier, Judith Furze as the Chairwoman and Michael Knowles as Captain Cutts and Mr. Rees. Overall, this radio episode is fairly good to listen to.

‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker’ (Audio) rating – 7/10

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‘THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE WALKER’ (2019) (TV)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

In 2019, the three ‘lost’ episodes of ‘Dad’s Army’ from Series 2 were remade. They were new versions of the episodes featuring a new cast and were based on the original scripts by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Naturally, I was very excited. I couldn’t wait to see the new ‘Dad’s Army’ episodes.

The episodes were shown on the UKTV Gold channel. Sadly I missed seeing the episodes when they were shown in August 2019. Thankfully, they were released on DVD and Blu-ray in November. I enjoyed seeing the episodes on Blu-ray, but was very disappointed they were in colour, not in black-and-white.

It would’ve been better to have shown the episodes in black-and-white to match it authentically and to the other episodes of Series 2. The new cast for the ‘Dad’s Army’ ‘lost’ episodes remake are decent. There’s Kevin McNally as Captain Mainwaring. He was in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Twin Dilemma’.

There’s Robert Bathurst as Sgt. Wilson, Kevin Eldon as Lance Corporal Jones, David Hayman as Private Frazer, Mathew Horne as Private Walker, Timothy West as Private Godfrey and Tom Rosenthal as Private Pike. I did find Mathew Horne as Walker to be shorter than Mainwaring in these episodes.

The first of the remade ‘lost’ episodes – ‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker’ – is pretty decent. I found it a challenge to adjust to the new ‘Dad’s Army’ cast in the remake episodes. Over time, I grew to like them, but they couldn’t match to the authenticity of the actual ‘Dad’s Army’ cast.

This episode’s guest cast includes Christopher Villiers as the War Brigadier instead of Anthony Sharp as in the original TV version. There’s Sam Phillips as Captain Cutts instead of Michael Knowles as in the original. And there’s dear Julia Deakin as the Chairwoman instead of Diana King as in the original.

Incidentally, Julia Deakin played May Skinner in ‘Oh Doctor Beeching!’, which was co-written by David Croft. There’s Andrew Havill, who, apparently, was in the 2016 ‘Dad’s Army’ movie, as another Brigadier that was first portrayed by Patrick Waddington in the 1969 TV version of the episode.

There’s Gareth Benjamin as Mr. Rees on the Military Service Hardship Committee, originally played by Edward Evans in the 1969 TV episode. And there’s Jerry-Jane Pears as Judy, a blonde girl originally played by Gilda Perry in 1969. I was initially shocked to see Mainwaring and Wilson sleeping with her. 😀

‘The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker’ (2019) (TV) rating – 7/10

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