Dad’s Army

1960s British tv sitcom

During World War II Great Britain was forced to call up the civilians to form Local Defence Volunteers (later known as the Home Guard) - the formation that would backup the regular army in case of German invasion. This series show how this force looked like. More or less...

Rating	9.2
Series creators	Jimmy PerryDavid Croft
Years	1968 - 1977
Country	United Kingdom
Format	30 minutes per episode
Language	English
Series tags	world war 2armyelderlyadventurefriends

Dad’s Army trivia

Based on own experience

Jimmy Perry, who created Dad’s Army, as a 16-year-old boy joined the Home Guard unit in Watford. He based the concept and some of the scripts on his own experience from that time (character of Private Pike was version of himself from 1939).

Private Walker

Jimmy Perry, creator of Dad’s Army, was aspiring actor before taking on writing. He had problem getting parts, so he gave a try as an author, hoping this way he will create a part for himself. When he teamed up with David Croft and they were preparing production of Dad’s Army Perry until the last moment was hoping he will get the part of Private Walker, a shady businessman, that he actually wrote for himself.

Croft had to explain to Perry that he can’t be at the same time on both sides of the camera - he either will be actor or he will be in writing team. Perry was so disappointed that he was ready to give up writing to play Walker, but then Croft explained Perry that it is too late to switch sides - as author of the series he already was part of the writing team. At the end James Beck did get the part of Private Walker and played it brilliantly.