The urge which drives man into the unknown is always the lure of discovery. In the wilds of Norfolk I discovered many things.
Notably that I am a closet Dad’s Army anorak.
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 step foot in the mythical town of Walmington-on-Sea and find the “Lost Nurseries” , the home of Private Charles Godfrey and his sisters, Cissy and Dolly. Aka Arnold Ridley , Nan Braunton and Joan Cooper.
It was just an iron gate in the middle of dark pine woods. 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 some kind of Mecca. A place to be reverenced. A shrine to be worshipped at.
“ The whole cast and crew stayed for two days to shoot a few scenes, “ remembers owner Rex Palmer who used to run a conifer nursery. “ They put up a picket fence and I had to plant some standard roses so the cottage looked more cottagey! They had a lot of trouble with the pheasants and peacocks making a noise during takes. For a week I also had Jones Butcher’s van parked up in my drive.”
Thetford in south Norfolk has become Britain’s latest place of pilgrimage. Fans of the long-running and hugely-popular comedy series now descend on the east of England to pay their respects by doing do the new “Dad’s Army” trail and location tour.
“Dad’s” Army was first shown on British television on July 31st 1968. There were nine series and eighty episodes with two specials. It attracted a weekly audience of thirteen million. There were also sixty-seven radio shows. The final television episode , “Never Too Old “in which Lance Corporal “ Don’t panic! Don’t panic!” Jones marries Mrs Fox was broadcast on Remembrance Day 1977.
The Dad’s Army Tour of Thetford begins at “The Bell Hotel” where the cast and crew stayed for a fortnight every year for nine years. 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 the now closed Anchor Hotel”. The first ever scene in the first ever episode , “The Man and The Hour” was filmed in its “Norvic Room”. 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 seventeen and sixty-five. In August the LDV became Churchill’s “Home Guard”. A million members were stood down on December 3rd 1944.
In one early scene sand bags are being put up in Mainwaring’s office window. Wilson ( played by John Le Mesurier ) notes “That gives us a reasonable field of
fire; it covers most of the high street”. Mainwaring replies “Oh yes we can safely say that Jerry’s parachutists will be dead mutton from Stead & Simpsons to Timothy Whites. We’d get a clear run down to the pier pavilion if that blasted woman would get out of the telephone box”. Wilson replies “That will be Mrs Hoskins calling her sister in Thetford. She’ll only be 3 minutes, Sir” Mainwaring counters with “ Let’s hope Hitler stays his hand until Mrs Hoskins gets the pips”.
“The town is just realising how popular Dad’s Army is around the world , “ says head guide and former accountant Stuart Wright. “ We started the tours in 2004 and they are getting very popular. This is where he programme was made and the cast lived. This is the home of Dad’s Army”.
“It is a hallowed spot , “ says Simon Bradley a forty-one-year-old teacher who was achieving an ambition to visit Thetford. “ I was brought up on the show. It is part of my youth. It is a comedy
classic and it’s fascinating to see where it was all filmed. It’s also great to swap trivia with fellow fans. 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.
“Also that Ian Lavender was twenty-seven playing seventeen-year-old “Pike” and Clive Dunn forty-eight playing a man in his seventies! It was superbly cast. That is one of the secrets of its eternal appeal.”.
Tour 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.. There is a mock-up of the church hall and Mainwaring’s office at Bressingham where memorabilia is also on show. The famous butcher’s van is now owned by the “Patrick Automobile Museum” in Birmingham. The only cast members still alive are Ian Lavender , Clive Dunn and Bill Pertwee , the ARP warden and grocer Hedges. David Croft still lives near Thetford.
Adds Wright : “ At the time of Doomsday Thetford was the sixth largest town in the country. It is the home of Thomas Paine the eighteenth century political writer whose statue we pass on the tour. He was the son of a local stay-maker. Thetford is also the home of the world famous Burrell Traction Engines some of which featured in Dad’s Army. The town also boast’s the country’s largest mediaeval earthwork being the Castle Hill and is surrounded by the country’s largest lowland forest, Thetford Forest.
“The Grammar School was the site of the Cathedral before it was moved to Norwich in 1094.The school is one of the oldest seats of learning in the country with a headmaster’s roll going back to 1174 and its original founding nearly 500 years earlier. Another local celebrity is Maharajah Duleep Singh , the last Maharajah of the Punjab who was a boy of eleven when his lands were annexed by the British in exchange for a pension.
“He purchased the Elveden estate, three miles from Thetford in 1863 and developed it into one of the foremost shooting estates in the country. His grave is at Elveden church and is a place of pilgrimage for many Sikhs. But , of course Captain Mainwaring and the rest of the Eastgate platoon are the main favourites sons of Thetford now.
“People ask why they or 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.”
The idea was that of co-writer Jimmy Perry. He had been in the Home Guard, being too young to be conscripted. Says “Dad’s Army Appreciation Society” spokesperson Tony Pritchard : “ The central conflict is that of a lower middle class bank manager who finds himself commanding a man the from upper classes. Someone called it a sweetly comic celebration of the British amateur.” DAAS has over 1600 members.
Filming took place in many outlying villages like Wacton , Honington and Bardwell as well as further afield in Great Yarmouth. Most of the locations can be visited. There were four churches used. For a North Africa desert scene “British Industries Sands Ltd “ near Kings Lynn was used as backdrop. 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 famous end credits were filmed at the Stanford Practical Training Battle area. The area is now closed to the public.
The locals were paid a pound for the services. Many Thetford residents were given their five minutes of fame by appearing in “Dad’s Army”.Keith Eldred , chairman of the Thetford Music & Drama Society” ) appeared as a cricketer in “The Test” which also starred the late Fred Truman. Margot Eldred was a nurse. Tim Ball played a boy bugler in “Come In , Your Time is Up” while Shaun Skilton played a dragon’s legs in “Knights of Madness”!
But perhaps the real character was Arthur Lowe. He once drove Jones’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 Norfolk humour “ Please yourself the ‘ens are round the back!”
TEL. 07470 165795
Museum opens and walking and coach tour start March 15th
The Bell, Thetford www.greeneking.co.uk