Dad's Army was always about comedy, the war came second. Sadly this has been forgotten by the scriptwriters of this turgid film. While special mention should be made for Michael Gambon playing a very good Godfrey (formerly Arnold Ridley), Daniel Mays as Private Walker (formerly James Beck) and Sarah Lancashire as Mrs Pike (formerly Janet Davies) the rest of the cast left a lot to be desired. Tom Courteney as Jones (formerly Clive Dunn) had none of the spark and fight that this old soldier had when played by the late great Dunn, even when hanging off a cliff edge he could rustle up none of the "Don't Panic !" bravado of Dunn and throughout played the role as limp as a lettuce. There was an ideal opportunity for slapstick when the CGI inflatable tanks took off and this would have been an ideal chance for one of the cast to have flown across Southern England holding onto a dirigible as had happened in the TV series to Captain Mainwaring (The Day the Balloon Went Up). Disappointing, would have rather watched a cleaned print of the original cast's film.
Review of Dad's Army
