Dad's Army Radio Show - on tour to 19 June 2020. 4****. William Russell

London
The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London
Dad’s Army Radio Show
4****
One night only 31 January prior to national tour.
Runs 90 mins One interval.
Information – www.dadsarmyradioshowtour.co.uk
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Review: William Russell 31 January
If Britain as we know it is to end on 31 January, what better way to pass the time than drowning in nostalgia at the Dad’s Army Radio Show in which David Benson and Jack Lane play all the parts with astonishing skill. Shut your eyes and you could be listening to the real thing. To launch their latest tour which consists of three episodes, but this time not from those broadcast on air but on television, they show cased two of them - When You’ve Got to Go in which Young Pike (Jack Lane) got his call up papers, and My Brother and I, the one in which Mainwaring’s wastrel brother turns up and the squad have to get him out of the church hall in a cupboard. The third, which will be performed on tour, is Never Too Old, the final episode shown on 13 November 1977. Benson’s Le Mesurier is a delight, as is Lane’s Pike. It is a tribute to the show, which is still seen on television, that this words only event works as well as it does proving that without a good script you have nothing. The ghosts conjured up by Benson and Lane are perfect, although there was one frisson on the night which will not be there on tour as their special guest was the 88 year old Frank Williams who played the irascible Vicar Timothy Farthing. When Benson did Farthing it was a special moment, one which Farthing clearly enjoyed. The audience sang the opening song along with Flannigan and Allen and then Benson and Lane took over, with Benson, whose idea it was, doing the compering and Lane interjecting from time to time. Britain then was great. When Benson mentioned the events elsewhere and the end of Britain someone in the audience said Britain was still there and he hastily changed the subject. Probably just as well. But go and enjoy life in Walmington-on-Sea all over again.

Sound Design: Daniel Barnes,
Set Design: Jack Lane.
Original Direction: Owen Lewis.
Production photography: The Other Richard
Tour dates
Feb 4-6 - Theatre Clwyd, Mold.
Feb 9 – Little Theatre, Leicester.
Feb 13 – Harlequin Theatre, Redhill.
Feb 17 – the Market, Market Harborough.
Feb 18 – Grand Theatre, Swansea.
Feb 22 – Churchill Theatre, Bromley.
Feb 28 – Gala Theatre, Durham.
March 1 – The Old Laundry Theatre, Bowness on Windermere
March 2 – Darlington Hippodrome
March 4 – Walsall Arena & Arts Centre.
March 5 – Tamworth Assembly Rooms.
March 7 – Centenary Theatre, Peel.
March 13 – Theatre Royal, Margate.
March 14 – New Theatre, Wolsey.
March 15 – West Cliff theatre, Clacton.
March 20 – Capitol Theatre, Horsham.
March 21 – Civic Theatre, Chelmsford.
March 24 – Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.
March 26 – Brook Theatre, Chatham.
April 1 – Hangar Farm Arts Centre, Minstead.
April 2 – New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth.
April 3 – Revelation, Ashford.
April 4 – The Corn Hall, Diss.
April 14 – Alnwick Playhouse.
April 15 – Queens Hall Arts Centre, Hexham.
April 17-19 Smallhythe Place, Tenterdem.#
June 19 – Dad’s Army Appreciation Society Weekend, The Carnegie Room, Thetford.