A Brush with Royalty!

A Golden Jubilee Feature by Andy Howells

It's fitting, that during the Queen's Golden Jubilee, that www.dadsarmy.tv pay a small tribute to our reigning monarch. After all, Dad's Army has been a long term favourite of Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the late Queen Mother.

Dad's Army always remained patriotic , particularly Captain Mainwaring, responding to Sir Anthony Eden's call of protecting King and country from would be invaders. The Captain would never hesitate to to make a demand in the name of the King as Mr. Blewitt discovered when awoken one one night by the Walmington platoon, he was greeted with "In the name of the King, I demand to look at your Chicken!".

Later on when it seemed the King would be passing through Walmington Railway station in 'The Royal Train', the Captain was determined his platoon would all be present and correct and standing to attention, even if the train wasn't stopping, a train did stop however, and this lead on to one of the platoons funniest escapades ('The Royal Train' was originally broadcast on the day of Princess Anne's wedding to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973).

However, although Dad's Army was firmly set in the 1940's and inkeeping with history with constant reference to King George, Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, our present day Royal family have always been big fans.

The late Queen Mother, it was revealed recently, had video recordings of the episodes which she would frequently watch at the end of a tiring day. The Duke of Edinburgh once commented that he expected "Dad's Army would go on forever", 33 years after the original broadcast of 'The Man & The Hour', the Duke's prediction is probably correct.

Of course, there were also the Royal Command performances, the earliest of these taking place in May 1970.

"A Royal Television Gala Performance" was in aid of the British Isles countries taking part in 1970's Commonwealth Games, recorded a week or so in advance of broadcast , the Dad's Army Cast performed a specially written episode by Jimmy Perry & David Croft in which the Walmington on Sea platoon are selected for a special duty by guarding Buckingham Palace. Other performers at this event included Eric Morecambe & Ernie Wise, Frankie Howerd, Cilla Black Basil Brush (with Derek Fowlds) and Dame Vera Lynn. The event was commemorated with a special Radio Times Cover and broadcast on BBC1 on the 24th May 1970.

The next time the Dad's Army Cast performed in front of the Royal family was for the 1975 Royal Variety Performance, this was broadcast by the ITV network. On this occasion, the Dad's Army cast were embarking on their Stage Show tour and so for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh performed the Cornish Floral Dance sketch.

Bill Pertwee, remembers in his book "By Royal Command" that the Queen enjoyed the performance very much saying it was good to see the cast on stage.

The two special performances for the Queen are perhaps some of the rarest Dad's Army TV moments, both are respectively preserved in the BBC and ITV archive's. The 1975 performance being the only known visual record of a clip of the stage show. It is hoped that one day Dad's Army fans (and even Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth) may get to see them again!

In the Mean time, Happy Golden Jubilee Ma'am!

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