David Croft (I)

Radio Times review

Dad's Army turns into Trumpton in a late-1972 episode that drew more viewers (18.5 million) than any other. When challenged to outwit the Home Guard commando unit by planting a dummy bomb in their fuel depot, the platoon dress as firemen for their "secret" mission.

As you might expect from the outlandish premise, the humour is Norfolk broad - Pike getting squirted at regular intervals, Jones deafening everyone with the fire bell, and so on. That said, there are some lovely moments with Mainwaring getting snubbed at the Rotary dinner (writers Jimmy Perry and David Croft never failed to prick his pomposity). There's also a formative role for Geoffrey Hughes (two years later he had become Corrie's bin man Eddie Yeats) and, from Godfrey, the line "I wouldn't mind dressing up as a nun."

A new film of Dad's Army is to be made, which is a brave move on the part of all involved. Few TV programmes are so inextricably associated with the people who played the main characters rather than with plot or place. To imagine someone other than Arthur Lowe playing Captain Mainwaring is hard, though Bill Nighy stepping into John Le Mesurier's shoes as Sergeant Wilson is less difficult to envisage. Jimmy Perry, whose co-author David Croft died three years ago, said he was letting the film-makers "get on with it". But in the mid-Seventies, the show was a national institution, with audiences sometimes in excess of 18 million. A sympathetic reworking of the original will be a considerable achievement given the special place that Dad's Army has in the nation's heart. As Corporal Jones might have said (and presumably will say again): "Don't panic".

Radio Times review

This episode, about guarding PoWs, isn't top-drawer Dad's but does feature Mainwaring stuck down a hole "like Winnie the Pooh", Godfrey delivering the unimaginable line "Your tiny hand is frozen" to an Italian soldier, and more heroic sentence-mangling from Jones. Plus another of those typically sunny location shoots. As Jimmy Perry recently recalled for Radio Times, "Usually the weather was very good. We called it David Croft Weather."

Jimmy Perry turns 90: a tribute to the genius

Is there anyone living in Britain today who has contributed more to our Gross National Happiness than Jimmy Perry? This is the man who not only created and co-wrote the nation's best loved and most enduring comedy series, Dad's Army, but who also, along with his writing partner David Croft, gave us two other hugely popular shows, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-De-Hi! as well as the witty Upstairs, Downstairs pastiche, You Rang, M'Lord?.

Mainwaring has allowed Welsh journalist Mr Cheeseman (Talfryn Thomas) to join the Home Guard in order to help him write an article entitled Captain Mainwaring: Man of Action. "There's no question mark," Mainwaring quickly points out to his troops. And when Pike gets his head stuck in the park railings and a bomb explodes near Walmington, the captain's forced to live up to the headline.

The character of Cheeseman, who was brought in to fill the gap created when James Beck (Private Walker) died, was described as "irritating without being funny" by writer David Croft. However, the "bath permit" scene between Jones and Mr Bluett is one to savour.

Here's a play about the friendship that grew between the two lead actors in Dad's Army, John Le Mesurier (played by Anton Lesser) and Arthur Lowe (Robert Daws), which began on the TV series and lasted all their lives. Playwright Roy Smiles switches between the letters the pair exchanged in the 1980s, remembering how they got to know each other making the show, and afterwards, showing why such different people remained such pals. Maybe part of it was the integrity of the David Croft and Jimmy Perry scripts which, 40 years on, still shine.

Video: Celebration marks life of David Croft

A service to celebrate the life of comedy writer David Croft, co-creator of the TV classic Dad's Army, has been held in London.

The writer, who lived in Suffolk, died last year at the age of 89. At St Martin in the Fields some of the stars from his shows gathered to celebrate his life.

David Croft, who died in September, will go down as one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in the history of British TV comedy, having co-written and produced a raft of our most popular sitcoms, including Dad's Army, 'Allo! 'Allo! and Are You Being Served? This hour-long documentary celebrates his work, alongside that of long-term collaborators Jimmy Perry and Jeremy Lloyd - and features more than a few riotously funny clips from the shows themselves.

Jeffrey Holland Remembers David Croft

The much-loved actor looks back on his time working with the celebrated comedy writer, who died last month.

Dad's Army: behind the lines of a comedy classic

Jimmy Perry, who with the late David Croft formed one of Britain's greatest sitcom-writing teams, recalls their 50-year partnership.