It was about twenty minutes into this comedy-drama about the making of Dad’s Army that I realised who was playing Arthur Lowe. I thought the makers had found an unknown actor and cast him because of his remarkable resemblance to the rotund Lowe. Or they'd used a hologram of the real Lowe. Then the penny dropped. It is John Sessions who has shaved his head and gone to De Niro-esque lengths to be almost as round as he is tall.
Sessions’ absolutely uncanny performance as Lowe is just one of the joys of this one-off, which follows a fairly straightforward narrative. Jimmy Perry – played here by Paul Ritter – was a struggling actor who after yet another failed audition decided to write something so that he could have a part in it. BBC producer David Croft – Richard Dormer here – loved the script and teamed up with him to make one of TV’s most iconic and enduring sitcoms.
It’s great fun watching the characters work on the script and battle with the resistant BBC hierarchy, who thought WW2 was not a subject for comedy. And it is even more fun to watch the casting of the seminal sitcom. Jon Pertwee was offered the role of Mainwaring before Lowe but the money wasn’t good enough. Others were reluctant to join the line-up but persuaded. Perry, however, was crushed when told that the part of Walker the spiv, which he had written for himself, had gone to another Jimmy – James Beck (played brilliantly here by Kevin Bishop channeling Bryan Ferry's old moustache).
There was so much to squeeze into an hour some pretty good roles barely got a few lines. Mark Heap cropped up as Clive Dunn to say not much more than that he thinks “they don’t like it up ‘em” is rude. Kieran Hodgson does an excellent-but-brief Ian Lavender impersonation as Pike.
The script had some nice knowing touches too. Lines from Croft/Perry’s other work – “lovely boys” “hi-de-hi” – peppered the script and the period authenticity was pretty good too - the green/beige/grey BBC colour palette looking spot on. Give or take the odd cravat you could forget that this was all set around the time of Sgt Pepper and psychedelia. I thought I knew all about Dad’s Army (I’m sort-of distantly related to Arnold Ridley who played Godfrey) but I didn’t realise the original opening credits featured real footage of goose-stepping Nazis. Funny and educational. What more could you want?
We're Doomed! The Dad's Army Story, BBC2, December 22. Then on iPlayer.
