Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes

I think they got this about right. It was always going to be difficult because the characters and original actors are ingrained in our consciousness, but the set recreation, "low budget effects", and feeling and yet just enough difference from the original made this a pleasant diversion.

Kevin McNally was a more than decent Capt Mainwaring, Robert Bathhurst less convincing as Sgt Wilson, and I am reserving judgment on David Hayman as Frazier.

I have seen interviews with Kevin McNally where he has stated that these episodes have been made with love and I think that is about right. They will never quite match the originals but overall it is a very good effort.

Please let's hope that Gold does not feel the need to create new material though - these episodes only remind us that Croft & Perry got it right. Modern writing will be hampered by political correctness.

The overwhelming justification for remaking these 3 episodes is because they are genuinely unavailable. I don't know whether anyone with primative video equipment ever pointed it at the telly in 1968. If there IS any footage it must be unusable (unlike the episode which was discovered, restored and colourised some years ago). Some of the writing in Episode 1 of this series has some really good moments and gags which I remember from watching it about 50 years ago. I avoided the newish movie because I don't feel (as with the first movie version) that the format is not as charming outside the studio and dreamy woodland lanes of the TV environment. Cast is much better than hoped for and the reason I can't agree with the previous reviewer is that these are the original scripts - so the comment is nonsensical.......

Ok I'm over half way through the first episode and I'm chuckling away. Unlike the recent movie there has been some real time and care put into the recreation of these lost classics. Croft and Perry's writhing is perfection and the actors play to the script and just keep to the right side of tribute without lapsing into overt impersonation. So far so good.

The sets were excellent, almost identical. I thought the cast was well matched to the originals but obviously they can't replace them. I was pleasantly surprised to find that each episode was very watchable and although it sometimes felt a bit rushed I did enjoy the episodes. Purists will be horrified but I can only congratulate the production team and cast for a very good effort. Well done.

I awaited these three episodes with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation, as I am a massive fan of the original series, and was monumentally disappointed with the 2016 film effort. But from that to this I can see the problem - the 2016 film wasn't written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, while these were, which is why I shouldn't have worried. Yes, the cast are obviously understudies (as they described themselves), but they mostly do very well in finding the characters as we would recognise them, with special credit to Robert Bathurst. It's not a 10/10, but it's as close as it can be. I'm very pleased that, in lieu of the original episodes being found somewhere, we do at least have these that we can go to and (to an extent) now watch the entire series of Dad's Army