Dad's Army - The Complete Scripts

Dad's Army - The Complete Scripts

Yesterday, I wrote a small piece about the 'Are You Being Served?' episode 'Cold Store'. The appearance of Pamela Cundell, better known as Mrs Fox, reminded me that Lance Corporal Jones has a cold store in his shop, and I could picture a scene where Jones and Walker have a secret meeting there, getting progressively colder and colder.

But for the life of me I couldn't work out what episode this scene appeared in and my best guess ('Getting The Bird') was way off the mark.

I knew it was on film and in colour, which narrowed it down a bit, but this is the sort of thing that can end up being a slog through the episodes in order until you find it.

And with potentially much changing of DVDs ahead of me, I reached for the massive 880-page slab that is 'Dad's Army - The Complete Scripts' and started searching from Season Three onwards.
Luckily, it turned out to be 'The Armoured Might Of Lance Corporal Jones', which was the very first episode of that run and the scene helpfully has the words 'COLD STORE' in friendly capital letters which quickly caught my eye.

The sheer size and weight of this volume means that it's not one I take into the bath with me, but as a reference work it's extremely useful and even at the original price of £20 is well worth adding to your shelves.

We've also got a slightly more portable book of selected scripts, entitled simply 'Dad's Army', that was published in 1975 by Elm Tree Books Ltd for a mere £2.50. This one features 'Asleep In The Deep', 'The Deadly Attachment', 'The Godiva Affair', 'Everybody's Trucking' and 'Keep Young And Beautiful'. It's also got profiles on the main characters and actors along with a concluding essay on the Home Guard written by Norman Longmate.

It's an interesting exercise to sometimes sit down and follow an episode through, comparing the script to the final broadcast version as although all the right words are there, they're not always in the right order.

The opening scene of 'The Godiva Affair' switches the order of events, with the loss of the first few lines meaning that Privates Woods and Meadows actually get namechecked before Hancock.

In the script, Jones claims that "Sergeant Wilson is not looking like a normal man" but the broadcast version of the line is "Mr Wilson does not appear as other men" when his little legs are going in the wrong direction.

In the Complete Scripts book, Eric Longworth notes the popularity of his lip-smacking delivery of the word 'fleshings' and how he was still being asked to repeat it over 25 years later at conventions.
Much like 'Don't tell him, Pike!' it's an example of how a good line still requires the services of a good actor to hit it for six.

'Dad's Army' was blessed with such a good cast, that the scripts come alive in your imagination when you read them and you can hear those familiar voices in your head even if you haven't got the DVDs to hand.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)