FILM · 2016 · UK
Dad's Army
32 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (32)
- #001
Two actors from the original television cast return: Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike in the TV series, comes back as Brigadier Pritchard, and Frank Williams reprises the role of Reverend Timothy Farthing. Jones's van in this film is also the same one used in the Dad's Army (1968) film.
- #002
Frank Williams (Reverend Timothy Farthing - Vicar) was to appear in more scenes. One cut from the series shows the paranoid Captain Mainwaring (Toby Jones) seeing residents dressed in Nazi uniforms. A scene with the Vicar opposite Mrs Elizabeth Mainwaring (Felicity Montagu) was also written, but Williams's schedule meant he could not shoot it because he was on a cruise in Russia. To make up for the lost scene, director Oliver Parker wrote a scene between the Vicar and Godfrey (Sir Michael Gambon) in the church hall on the morning of filming, making the most of Williams, who was applauded by the cast and crew when he arrived at the church hall.
- #003
The actor who played Private Pike in the Dad's Army (1968) series appears as Brigadier Pritchard.
- #004
The claret and blue scarf that Private Pike (Blake Harrison) wears in this film is an Aston Villa Football Club scarf. The original Private Pike actor, Ian Lavender, is an Aston Villa fan.
- #005
Dolly says they have discovered "something very exciting about Miss Winters," and Cissy says it is something "straight out of 'Greenmantle'." "Greenmantle," a novel by John Buchan, tells the story of British officer Richard Hannay, sent to investigate rumours of an uprising stirred up by the Germans during the First World War.
- #006
The only moment you 'see' Mrs Mainwaring in the TV series is when, in the air-raid shelter, her body is seen coming down from the top bunk into Captain Mainwaring's space below. This scene is recreated in this film.
- #007
The High Street scenes were shot in Bridlington in East Yorkshire. Old Kent was used for the shopfronts, most of which today house businesses of various kinds.
- #008
After their first 'meeting', Sergeant Arthur Wilson (Bill Nighy) is seen looking at a photo album containing some old photographs of Rose Winters (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The lower picture in the book is actually an early promotional shot from The Darling Buds of May (1991); the distinctive tiled roof of Bethersden Buss Farm in the English county of Kent can be seen in the background of the picture.
- #009
Walmington-on-Sea is believed to have been modelled on Bexhill-on-Sea, on the county boundary in Sussex.
- #010
Jimmy Perry based the character of Private Frank Pike on his own background and wartime experiences. He originally wrote the part of Private Walker for himself to play in the original Dad's Army (1968) television series, but David Croft vetoed this on the grounds that the rest of the cast would think Perry had taken the best role for himself.
- #011
The actor Frank Williams reprises his role as Reverend Timothy Farthing from the original Dad's Army (1968) television series, but is billed only in the end credits as "The Vicar," the name by which he is known in the series.
- #012
The exact location of the fictional town of Walmington-on-Sea is revealed with a red square marker in "Dad's Army - Official Trailer 2," when a map is briefly shown placing it on the south coast of England, almost exactly equidistant from Brighton and Hastings, or from the red square markers for Portsmouth and Dover.
- #013
Arthur Wilson (Bill Nighy) was played by John Le Mesurier in the television series. Le Mesurier played Bilbo Baggins in the BBC radio production of The Lord of the Rings, in which Nighy played Sam Gamgee.
- #014
The actor who played Sergeant Wilson in the original television series, John Le Mesurier, was in the same class at Sherborne School in Dorset as Alan Turing, the subject of the espionage film The Imitation Game (2014). This film's plot also involves espionage. Spymaster author John le Carré also attended Sherborne School in Dorset, England.
- #015
The Home Guard appear to use the M1917 Enfield rifle. Although an American weapon dating from the First World War, the M1917 was often issued to the Home Guard (under a "Lend-Lease" agreement) because the SMLE rifle, the British Army's main weapon, was needed for front-line units.
- #016
The Allies' mission against the Nazis was called "Operation Bodyguard."
- #017
As Captain Mainwaring escapes from Rose Winters's house, he tears the inside leg of his trousers on the window latch and is then seen walking with a huge tear in his trousers that reveals his long johns. This is probably a sly dig at Arthur Lowe (Captain Mainwaring in the TV series), whose contract reportedly stated that under no circumstances was he to be seen without his trousers or with his underwear showing.
- #018
At the start of the 'camouflage' scene there is a short musical motif used in the marching scenes of the Dad's Army (1971) film.
- #019
When the women trying to impress Rose discover all the men, Pike's girlfriend mentions the film Lifeboat (1944) showing at the cinema. One of Alfred Hitchcock's early classics, the film is about a group of survivors from a torpedoed British ship during the Second World War, among whom is likely to be the captain of the German U-boat that sank them and was destroyed in the wreckage. This ties in with the film's themes of wartime spies and espionage in Britain.
- #020
Although the location of Walmington-on-Sea is never specifically stated in the TV series, it is known to be on the south coast, 'near Eastbourne'. Early in this film, a German map places it precisely on screen for the first time, on a projection of the coastline between Brighton and Hastings. On a real map, the corresponding projection is Beachy Head, which has no buildings apart from a lighthouse but lies only six kilometres west of Eastbourne.
- #021
Fans of the series felt that, despite its strong cast, the film took certain liberties with the source material. One of the biggest complaints was that the face of Captain Mainwaring's wife, Elizabeth, was shown and that she featured prominently in the film. One of the running jokes of the TV series was that Elizabeth was mentioned and was even once heard walking and snoring, but was never actually seen physically by viewers.
- #022
Three of the named characters all appeared in the Harry Potter saga. Michael Gambon played Dumbledore, Toby Jones voiced the house-elf Dobby, and Bill Nighy played Scrimgeour. However, none of them share any scene together.
- #023
It was the last film and television production of writer-producer and "Dad's Army" creator Jimmy Perry.
- #024
It is one of the many theatrical remakes directed by Oliver Parker, who had previously directed remakes such as Othello (1995), Dorian Gray (2009), St. Trinian's (2007) and two Oscar Wilde adaptation remakes, An Ideal Husband (1999) and The Importance of Being Earnest (2002).
- #025
Both actress Emily Atack and actor Blake Harrison had previously appeared together in the television series The Inbetweeners (2008).
- #026
Toby Jones, Michael Gambon and Bill Paterson appeared in Amazing Grace (2006), but they did not all share a scene together.
- #027
The film is set in 1944.
- #028
At one point Vera mentions Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat (1944). Toby Jones, who plays Captain Mainwaring, also played Alfred Hitchcock in The Girl (2012). Rose also compares Mainwaring to Winston Churchill. Michael Gambon's and Bill Paterson's co-stars appeared in films about Churchill: Gambon played Churchill in Churchill's Secret (2016) and Paterson played Clement Attlee in Into the Storm (2009).
- #029
The code name of the German spy Rose Winters (Catherine Zeta-Jones) was "COBRA".
- #030
The previous Dad's Army feature film had been produced and released by Columbia Pictures. This new 2016 version, with a new story, was produced by Universal Pictures, although two alternative versions of the Universal production company names were used in the opening and closing title sequences. Perhaps surprisingly, the BBC, which had produced both the original television series and its radio version, apparently had nothing to do with either film, though they could have invested in this film through their BBC Films division.
- #031
Frank and Vera getting caught in the waves on the beach is a homage to Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity.
- #032
While complimenting Captain Mainwaring, Rose Winters tells him that he resembles Winston Churchill. Toby Jones, who plays Mainwaring, had previously portrayed Winston Churchill.
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