MILITARY PRECISION
KEVIN MCNALLY AND ROBERT BATHURST ARE AMONG THE STARS BRINGING THE MISSING EPISODES TO LIFE…
Dad’s Army remains one of Britain’s most beloved sitcoms and a reliable ratings winner for both BBC2 and Gold – not bad for a show that finished production in 1977. However, there’s a small gap in the archives, as three of the six episodes from the second series have been lost.
Until now, anyway, as UKTV is remaking those three missing episodes using the original scripts and sticking as faithfully as possible to the format. They did, of course, need a new cast, and selected Kevin Mcnally as Captain Mainwaring, Robert Bathurst as Wilson, Kevin Eldon as Jones, David Hayman as Frazer, Mathew Horne as Walker, Timothy West as Godfrey and Tom Rosenthal as Pike. Inside TV caught up with the new cast during rehearsals…
What was your reaction when you heard about this project?
Robert I misheard it and thought it was remaking existing shows, which I didn’t think was a good idea! But when it was explained to me about the lost episodes, then it seemed like a very good idea and it had some sort of value and purpose to it.
Mathew There’s always trepidation with something like this, but it’s an honour. They’re the original scripts – not new episodes – so that helps. It’s better to make it than to not make it.
It’s for the fans.
How did you approach taking on these much-loved characters?
Tom We can’t replicate them, but we have talked about being understudies for the actors that actually played the parts, so in as much as we can encapsulate the mannerisms of the performers we try to. The tone of this is an ode, or a homage.
Kevin E I would like to have tried to make the viewer think you had superimposed the real one in, although you can only look and sound like the original so much. I can’t make my face actually do the real Clive Dunn shapes – I have attempted it, but I just ended up giving myself face ache!
David The show is deliciously over-thetop, but Frazer was even more so than the rest of them. At times his performance is positively pantomimic! I’m allowed to be over-the-top for the first time in years!
Do you use any of the catchphrases?
Robert I have looked in the next script, and I’m pleased to see there’s a “Do you think that’s wise, sir?”
Kevin M Kevin Eldon had “They don’t like it up ’em”, and it brought the evening to a close for a while. We had to film the scene again as the audience cheered and applauded when he delivered the line! And I’m intending in the last episode to slip in a “You stupid boy…”