The continuing popularity of this series is unique in British tv history. Despite the fact that the last new episode was produced thirty five years ago, Christmas repeats on the BBC of DA over the holiday period were watched by more people than watched new Christmas shows on ITV. Dads Army has gone beyond the realms of a classic tv show and is truly loved by the public. Its characters and their catch phrases are firmly part of our culture. Jone's ' Don't Panic' is used on a daily basis if things are going badly and likewise Frazier's ' We're all dooooomed' is used as self mockery if folk are looking too much on the gloomy side . You hear these phrases from the street to the Prime minister in the House of Commons and all points in between.
Why is this programme so phenomenally popular in this country? It could be its brilliant and gentle mocking of the British class system, it could be the humour in the subject despite the fact that Britain was facing an imminent invasion, but I think its the skill and deft touch of the brilliant character actors in this show, surely no British comedy series has had so many such strong characters at one time. I also think the show benefits from the fact that as its a period comedy it does not ' date' as it were. If you look at other BBC classics such as ' Only fools and Horses' or ' Fawlty towers ' they are still funny but the clothes and cars etc date them very badly , Dads Army of course does not suffer from this. One reason many many people quote is that its very clever writing and its all done without the modern trend of swearing. We have a series over here called 'The Thick of it ' , now I really enjoy the programme and think it clever and very well acted, but there is no denying that sometimes every other word is the ' F' word (or the F bomb as I think my American friends call it) and sometimes it really is not needed quite so much, DA worked its magic with nothing stronger than 'They don't like it up em ' !
My favourite all time comedy without a doubt, just love it{bravo}}
(will keep an eye out for Region 1 dvd's of it for my American friends here and will give you a shout if I find some)
Rob
