Avid fan of the hit British series that ran for almost a decade, Kevin Galea scouts some of the production’s iconic filming locations in Norfolk, the UK.
As expeditions into light entertainment go, it was unique. It is always rewarding to travel beyond the ken of guidebooks and beyond the reach of maps.
Few explorers have been intrepid enough to stray too far off the A1075 road from East Wretham. But I did, To find the Lost Nurseries, the home of Private Charles Godfrey and his sisters, Cissy and Dolly.
A quarter of mile down an overgrown path, Cherry Tree Cottage, as seen in episode 69 came into view. A lifelong yen was satisfied. This was where they filmed Is There Still Honey For Tea?, when Godfrey’s cottage is threatened with demolition to make way for an airstrip. For a Dad’s Army fan, it is a place of worship. A shrine, even. But few pilgrims ever get there.
We had met with our tour guide in the cast pub. The Bell, on the corner of Bridge and King streets in Thetford, south Norfolk is the spiritual home of Dad’s Army. Godfrey, Pike, Corporal Jones, Sergeant Wilson and Captain Mainwaring all drank quite a few spirits there. The vicar, Fraser, Sponge, Hedges, the Warden and Mrs Fox too.
There has been an inn on the site since 1493. But the timbered, 15th-century coaching inn’s fame dates back to 1968, when the cast stayed there while making the first series. They stayed there for a fortnight every year for the next nine years.
Dad’s Army was first shown on British television on July 31, 1968. There were nine series and 80 episodes, with two specials. It attracted a weekly audience of 13 million. There were also 67 radio shows. The final television episode, Never Too Old, in which Lance Corporal Jones marries Mrs Fox was broadcast on Remembrance Day 1977.
Filming took place in many outlying villages like Wacton , Honington and Bardwell as well as further afield in Great Yarmouth
Two hour, £8.50 Dad’s Army location tours begin at the Bell. And your guide tells you that Arthur Lowe ( Capt. Mainwaring ) had his special ‘Amazon cocktails’ and enjoyed kippers. “I see you have kippers ,” he was reportedly fond of saying. “Tell me are they boil in the bag or are the real swim about kippers?”
The next stop is another pub, the now closed Anchor Hotel. The first ever scene in the first ever episode , The Man and The Hour, was filmed there. The episode began with a dinner for the Walmington-on-Sea ‘I’m Backing Britain’ campaign some years after the war. The guest of honour at the dinner is Mr Mainwaring, and he speaks of how he had always backed Britain, recounting the dark days of 1940. The opening sequences then roll back to the Swallow Bank back in 1940.
The episode then tells of how Mainwaring forms the initial committee and puts himself in charge of the Local Defence Volunteers. In May 1940, Anthony Eden , the newly-appointed secretary state for war asked for volunteers between the ages of 17 and 65.
Other locations include Old Bury Road , Mill Lane , Newton, the Palace Cinema (where the cast watched the rushes) and the Guildhall, where an enemy paratrooper famously dangled from the town hall clock tower.
The Dad’s Army museum is open every Saturday. It is in the old fire station and ha mock-ups of Mainwaring church hall office as well as the Marigold Tea Rooms. Jones’s famous Ford BB van can be seen at the nearby Charles Burrell Museum.
At the time of Doomsday Thetford was the sixth largest town in the country. It was the home of Thomas Paine the eighteenth century political writer. The famous end credits were filmed at the Stanford Practical Training Battle area. The area is now closed to the public.
Our tour group sat at a wooden table in the Bell and listened to our guide, Stuart. “People ask why location manager Harold Snoad chose Thetford to film Dad’s Army. The rows of grey brick & flint houses implied the right degree of intimacy, the surrounding area boasted a rich range of natural sights – pine forest, streams and the nearby Stanford battle area vacated in 1942 by its inhabitants provided a perfect period setting.”
Filming took place in many outlying villages like Wacton , Honington and Bardwell as well as further afield in Great Yarmouth. Walmington railway station was nearby Brandon station. Walmington Beach was Winterton Beach. Weybourne station was Walmington railway station. The 1971 film was shot mainly in Surrey and the Home Counties. The dreadful new film shot in north-east England.
The Bell echoed with trivia and the eternal appeal of a comedy classic. Few people know that the famous song Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler?, was written by writer and producer David Croft and was the last thing Bud Flanagan recorded before he died. Or that Ian Lavender was 27 when he played the role of the 17-year-old Pike, while Clive Dunn was 48 and playing a man in his 70s.
Stuart drained his pint. “All the cast were characters and had great fun here. Arthur Lowe really enjoyed himself. After filming had finished, he stole Jones’s butcher’s van and ran over a cockerel. He knocked on a farmer’s door and said: “I’m awfully sorry, my man, I’d like to replace your cockerel.”
The farmer replied with dry East Anglian humour; “Please yourself, the hens are round the back!”