Intriguing news today involving a certain Mr Bernard Cribbins. Apparently the television channel Gold will be remaking three classic episodes of Dad's Army for broadcast early next year and Cribbins will be playing Private Godfrey.
The three episodes being filmed were all from 1969 and sadly the originals were destroyed after broadcast. Back in the day it wasn't so easy to preserve programming and many now classic shows fell victim to the decision to wipe recordings so tape could be reused. The episodes - A Stripe For Frazer, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker and Under Fire will feature new casts playing the well loved characters and the whole endeavour is being supported by the estates of the series' creators, Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
While no official casting announcements have been made, it is believed Bernard will be playing the aged Private Godfrey, originally brought to life by the wonderful Arnold Ridley. Other names thought to be involved are Kevin McNally (who has played Tony Hancock in the past) as Captain Mainwaring and Robert Bathurst as Sergeant Wilson. Interestingly, Bathurst played John Le Mesurier, the actor who played Wilson between 1968 and 1977, in the 2011 biopic Hattie, about the life and career of Hattie Jacques.
Hopefully these remakes will be true to the original style and humour of Dad's Army and the rest of the casting will be both interesting and sympathetic to the original series and it's superb band of actors.
It will also be splendid to see Bernard Cribbins back on our screens in this his 90th year.
Bernard's autobiography was recently published and you can find out more about that here.
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