Don't Panic! The Dad's Army Story

Topped and tailed by the sight of Victoria Wood in Home Guard uniform driving Corporal Jones's butcher's van around the streets of Middle England, this affectionate tribute to one of Britain's best- loved sitcoms offered little in the way of new insights, but was nonetheless highly watchable.

The interviewees included the few remaining members of the original cast, some of whom have subsequently passed away - Clive Dunn, Bill Pertwee, Frank Williams, Pamela Cundell, Ian Lavender. Jimmy Perry and the late David Croft also appeared. Others interviewed included Philip Madoc and Carmen Silvera.

Cumulatively they recalled a sitcom which provided a late-career boost for many older actors, especially Arnold Ridley and John Laurie. The entire cast and crew used to go off every summer for a fortnight to Thetford in East Anglia for location filming; they had a whale of a time working, celebrating and being with one another.

Some of the cast had their particular quirks: Arthur Lowe insisted that he would not do certain things, for example, having a bomb planted down his trousers in the famous episode where the platoon looked after some Nazis (Clive Dunn took over). John Laurie became jealous when Talfryn Thomas got more laughs in the script. Arnold Ridley used to boss his wife about.

As is well known, DAD'S ARMY was nearly taken off screen before it had the chance to establish itself. Once it succeeded, however, the cast were guaranteed regular employment - year in, year out. Sometimes tragedy struck: James Beck passed away from alcoholism aged only thirty-nine, and proved irreplaceable. By 1977, when the series ended, other cast members had also been through serious illness - for example, John Le Mesurier. It was something of a tragedy that neither he nor Lowe lived long enough to see just what a cult comedy DAD'S ARMY became.

Liberally illustrated with clips from the series, together with rarely-seen color film of the cast on location, this documentary offered a suitable tribute to a classic sitcom.

It really didn't need commentary from current celebrities.

The magic here came from hearing the cast members tell it how it was. It's just a shame more weren't alive when this was filmed.

They were true actors, who gave their all but got paid a pittance.

Dad's Army is one of my favourite comedies and this show provides a little background.

Like most people in Britain I would watch the end credits of Dad's Army and shout out 'he's dead, he's dead, he's still alive!'

This celebration of Dad's Army is narrated and introduced by Victoria Wood who goes around in Corporal Jones delivery van as we hear from celebrity fans like Jack Dee, John Thomson and the cast members and behind the scenes crew that were still alive in the year 2000 when this programme was made and which has severely diminished since then.

It was nice to hear some of the behind the scenes stories of the making of the show and some of the reminiscences about the actors like Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier, rivalries between John Laurie and Arnold Ridley or how the show was rocked when James Beck died suddenly.

What struck me the most was the different view people had of the past which was the opposite. Wendy Richard had a rosy view of the war years where people stuck together and did not run the country down like they did today. Richard was also a devout Tory supporter.

Clive Dunn who was a Labour supporter, spent some of the war in a prisoner of war camp was having none of it. It was a horrid time to him with spivs profiteering and exploiting people.