Catherine Zeta-Jones posing at the world premiere of Dad's Army at the Odeon Leicester Square, London. Photo: Ian West/PA WireCatherine Zeta-Jones said filming the new film version of TV classic comedy Dad’s Army reminded her how much she loves the UK.
Her affection may not have extended to the British weather though as the cast huddled under umbrellas on a damp red carpet at the film’s world premiere in Leicester Square.
Now based in Los Angeles with husband Michael Douglas and their two children, Zeta-Jones said filming it in England was like “coming home to a cup of Ovaltine”.
She said: “It was everything I hoped it to be, it was all these great actors, who knew their lines, knew what they were doing.
“We were laughing all the way through it and it just reminded me how much I love being in the UK.
“It’s nice to come home and this was like coming home to a cup of Ovaltine, nice and cosy.”
Moreover, the big screen version of the World War II-set BBC sitcom, which ran from 1968-77, sees Zeta-Jones playing journalist Rose Winters, whose arrival in Walmington-on-Sea to report on Captain Mainwaring’s (Jones) Home Guard sets pulses racing and proves a distraction, while the group tries to smoke out a German spy in its midst. Suddenly the fate of the nation falls in the hands of the Home Guard played by an all-star British cast which also includes Bill Nighy as Sergeant Wilson, Bill Paterson as Frazer, Daniel Mays as Walker and Blake Harrison as Private Pike.
This was like coming home to a cup of Ovaltine, nice and cosy
Michael Caine says the set was full of laughter.
“It was nothing but laughing and fooling around. I was mucking around with all of them,” he said.
It was not too difficult for Caine to get into character as the gentle but doddery Private Godfrey, best remembered for perpetually nodding off and being excused for his weak bladder.
He joked: “I’m like Godfrey, I’m always mooching around, I’m not doing anything right, I forget things. If someone says left, I turn right. I’m not very bright up here.”
Filming also felt like “coming home” for the last two surviving cast members of the original TV version: Frank Williams revives his role as Reverend Timothy Farthing in the new film and Pike actor Ian Lavender has a cameo.
Williams said: “It takes me back to a very happy time in my life when I was doing Dad’s Army originally.”
Lavender admitted he was jealous of the new Pike, who not only has a girlfriend in the new film, but, he discovered, gets to share a kiss with Zeta-Jones.
“Blake kept that one quiet from me! If they’d have put that in my script, I’d have done it for half the money,” he laughed.
All the cast acknowledged the risk involved in remaking such a well-loved show – which can still attract three million viewers for TV repeats – but hope it will introduce a new audience to the characters.