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Dad's Army

1/10

Stars: Toby Jones. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bill Nighy, Sarah Lancashire, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay, Felicity Montagu, Bill Paterson, Blake Harrison, Alison Steadman, Daniel Mays, Julia Foster

Director: Oliver Parker

With Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Clive Dunn, John Laurie and Arnold Ridley no longer with us, only two members of the original series – the now bearded Ian Lavender who was once Private Pike and now makes a cameo appearance as Brigadier Pritchard and Frank Williams’s Vicar – feature in this redundant reboot.

To give them their due, Toby Jones, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay and Bill Paterson work hard to revive Mainwaring, Godfrey, Jones and Frazer respectively and, should you be a Dad’s Army virgin, then you probably will get your money’s worth watching them.

Gambon and Courtenay in particular, are splendid, Jones works hard to create his own mildly amusing version of the ineffably pompous bank manager and Paterson is okay, if unexceptional.

Which leaves Bill Nighy, truly dreadful and deeply embarrassing turn as Sergeant Wilson.

At any rate, it’s up to Captain Mainwaring and Company to see to it that the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard stops the Nazis learning about D-Day by ensuring that an undercover Nazi spy never discovers the Allies’ deliberate campaign of misinformation that has been mounted to make the way for Eisenhower and D-Day…

Cue mild comic complications, ‘hilarious’ horseplay and various reruns of jokes already made famous by the television series.

Alan Frank

UK 2016. UK Distributor: Universal. Colour.
96 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: U.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 12 Jun 2016

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