A theatre tour showcasing missing epsiodes of Dad's Army is already selling like hot cakes - what is the secret of this show's enduring appeal?
Because when the unmistakable voice of Bud Flanagan pipes up on your TV with 'Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler? you know exactly where you are.
You're in Walmington-on-Sea, an imaginary south-coast town not far from Eastbourne, and a world of great writing and a superb ensemble of young and old actors in a whimsical comedy that continues to be adored by viewers. (By the way, the song may sound like an original World War II ditty but was in fact written by the show's co-writer Jimmy Perry. And the outside shots were filmed in East Anglia.)
But why is it so popular? Why does the rediscovery of lost episodes (as happened in 2001) make all the papers? Is it the well-meaning charm? The superb comic set pieces (my favourite is the episode where they get Mainwaring drunk)? Or just the pure nostalgia lapped up by predominantly older viewers who make up a large part of the ratings constituency these days and are harking back to the days of good old British pluck and cack-handed amateurism?
There is also something rather poignant about the fact that so many of the cast have passed away - not just the lovable oldies such as Arnold Ridley, who was born in 1896 and died in 1984, but also James Beck who played Walker and died tragically young in 1973.
A key reason for the show's enduring appeal must be the range of Jimmy Perry and David Croft's characters, who seem to embody so many aspects of the British character. There's Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) whose pomposity was often his undoing, making him even more annoyed with his refined and confident Sergeant Wilson (the superb John le Messurier). There's dotty Jones, sleazy Walker, frail Godfrey and the darkly lugubrious Frazer, who is the star of one of the lost episodes featured in the stage tour (he gets promoted and it goes to his head).
And let's not forget that these people - or can we call them archetypes? - also do day jobs: bank manager and his chief clerk, local butcher and so on. Frazer, you will remember, was the local undertaker.
And there are the catchphrases - "Stupid boy", Frazer's "We're doomed", "Permission to speak, sir!" and of course "Don't Panic" - which may well still be mouthed and remembered long after we stop saying "I'm a Laydee" or "Am I bovvered?".
We could, like the show, go on and on. But do you love the show? Like it? Hate it? Can you at least understand its enduring appeal - or indeed that of other shows from a similar era such as Open All Hours, Porridge and The Good Life.
Or should we just all move on and stop going on, in this case, about the war?
