Dad's Army (1971)

Interesting facts

• Based on: Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a 1971 British war comedy film directed by Norman Cohen and starring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Clive Dunn, John Laurie, Arnold Ridley, Ian Lavender and James Beck. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and was the first film adaptation of the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977). It was filmed between series three and four and was based upon material from the early episodes of the television series. The film tells the story of the Home Guard platoon's formation and their subsequent endeavours at a training exercise.

Production

In 1970, following the release of the third series of the television sitcom Dad's Army, filmmaker Norman Cohen approached writers Jimmy Perry and David Croft about adapting their television series into a film. Cohen, who had already directed the film adaptation of television sitcom Till Death Us Do Part (1965–1975) in 1968, offered the two writers a £300 advance in order to source investors for the film.

Columbia Pictures imposed several changes from the television series, which concerned and disappointed the cast and crew of the original series. The studio chose to recast the role of Mrs Pike, who was played by Janet Davies in the television series, instead choosing Liz Fraser, believing Fraser, who had previously appeared in the Carry On films, to be a more well-known actress, while director Cohen wanted a less homely, more "sexy" actress for t…

Corporal Jones's van, which was a 1935 Fordson Model BB box van in the television series, was replaced with a 1930s Ford Model AA for the film. A second signature tune, in addition to "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?", was also proposed. The bank was renamed Martins Bank (a genuine bank of the time), as opposed to Swallow.

Three weeks before filming began, Columbia terminated Cohen's contract. In 2000, Croft recalled that, "I was told [by representatives of Columbia] that they'd had a lot of trouble with Norman Cohen and they asked me to take over." Croft refused, explaining how he "[didn't] really like the script now".

The screenplay, written by Croft and Perry, was revised by Cohen to be more cinematic, before being further revised for filmic purposes by Columbia, in order to help quicken the pace and strengthen the plot. John Le Mesurier, writing in his autobiography A Jobbing Actor (1984), believed the screenplay was "little more than three half hour episodes joined together".

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