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DAD'S ARMY SEASON NINE

BBC DVD / Region 4 / Released March 2008

Featuring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Clive Dunn, John Laurie

The rather wonderful releases by BBC DVD of the all time great Dad's Army come to an end with the arrival of the ninth and final season of the show. Running from 1968 - 1977 the show, which tells tales of the elderly members of a Home Guard Unit during world war II, is one of TV's favorite sons, always up there when it comes to top ten TV show lists.

Arthur Lowe is the head of the Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard Captain George Mainwaring, distinguished (in his own eyes anyway) bank manager in the town whilst his right hand man is the debonair Sgt Arthur Wilson (the lovely John Le Mesurier) who also works with Mainwaring in the bank. Like the two platoon leaders, the rest of the squad are rather on the wrong side of youthful, in fact 95% are collecting their pensions, only young Pike (Ian Lavender), too unfit to serve in the regular army, is in his prime (so to speak). Jimmy Perry, co-creator of the series, had been something of a Pike himself (before getting the OK to join up and getting shipped off to the tropics - which in turn gave him the inspiration for It Ain't Half Hot Mum) and used his experiences to create the show.

By the time of this ninth and final season, nothing much has changed, the cast are even older of course (not so much rifles ready but more walking frames ready), a couple of the principles had gone and a couple of new faces (especially the fantastic, and we mean fantastic in the best sense of the word Talfryn Thomas as Weksh reporter Mr Cheeseman) had arrived but the plots are as we know and love. Mainwaring is at his pompous best, Lance Corporal Jones is full of great ideas for beating the deadly hun and Private Godfrey is desperate to get to the toilet!!

You don't really watch Dad's Army so much as gather it around you like a favorite winter blanket and let it envelope you in it's comforting glow.

Extra on this set is another of the excellent We Are The Boys docos - this time focusing on Ian Lavender.

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