War is Hell! But Sometimes Hilarious - Dad's Army Quiz

Answer: Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard)

The Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, made a speech in May 1940 which called for every under age male and every other male excluded from military service for whatever reason to form a local defence force; and virtually every male responded. At its peak the total number of men under arms in the Home Guard numbered around one and a half million men.

Although referred to as 'Dad's Army' the vast majority of its members during the war years were of a surprisingly young age. The organisation was originally known as the 'LDV' or 'Local Defence Volunteers' and was renamed, at the insistence of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the 'Home Guard' on the 22nd of July 1940. First recruits were volunteers but in 1942 legislation was passed which introduced compulsory service in the Home Guard.

After the invasion of northern Europe following 'D' Day, the Home Guard became surplus to requirements and were stood down in December 1944 with disbandment following a year later.

Answer: David Croft and Jimmy Perry

This is an interesting piece of trivia. On the upper sleeve of the battle dress worn by the cast is a tactical or formation badge. This badge, which consists of the letters 'CP' over the figure '1' should, by all accounts, represent a military formation; in a similar way that the 'Screaming Eagle' badge on a US paratrooper's uniform represents the 101st Airborne Division, but it doesn't; what this badge actually represents are the initials of the writers surnames, Croft and Perry. BAFTA award winning writers David Croft and Jimmy Perry were one of the most successful writing partnerships of the last fifty years and penned some of the most popular BBC comedies including 'It Ain't Half Hot, Mum', 'Hi-de-Hi!' and 'You Rang M'Lord' in addition to 'Dad's Army'.

Answer: Bank Manager

Captain George Mainwaring - pronounced 'Mannering' - was played throughout 'Dad's Army's' nine year run by Arthur Lowe. Programme archives reveal that George Mainwaring was born in Eastbourne during 1885, the son of a master tailor. After attending the local grammar school he started working for the fictitious 'Swallow Bank' and by 1935 had become the manager of the Walmington-on-Sea branch.

As a character Captain Mainwaring is a pompous individual, envious of the fact that his platoon second-in-command, Sgt Wilson, had received a private education. Mainwaring attempts to put Sergeant Wilson in his place at every opportunity.

His best loved catchphrase, and which can still be commonly heard used today is "You stupid boy!" which was usually directed at Private Pike, a mollycoddled young man and the youngest member of the platoon.

Although he enjoyed a relatively successful career on the stage, Arthur Lowe came to prominence on British television as the character Leonard Swindley in Coronation Street in 1961, a role he continued in until 1966.

It was during a break in a production that he was appearing in at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham when Arthur Lowe suffered a stroke in his sleep on the 15th of April 1982 and never regained consciousness.

Answer: True

Private Walker to Private Fraser - "You know that whisky you get every week doesn't just fall off the back of the lorry of its own accord - it has to be pushed!"

A 'spiv' would probably be referred to today as a 'wide-boy'; a smartly dressed profiteer or fraudster. During the war the 'spiv' was a roundly despised by everyone except those that benefited directly from their activities; during the war my grandmother's local butcher in Oxford became involved with the black market and, after he was eventually caught fiddling rations for profit, he served two years in prison! Gaining in popularity due to his portrayal of the cockney spiv, James Beck was becoming involved in a BBC project to re-record some scripts written by another British comedy great of the period, Tony Hancock but it was not to be; James Beck passed away on the 6th of August 1973 from complications after suffering with a perforated ulcer. Although he no longer appeared in episodes of the television show, he was still referred to by name and pre-recorded episodes of the radio shows in which James Beck's voice appeared were broadcast after his death.

Answer: A coloured scarf

Private Pike, played by Ian Lavender, is the platoon 'mummy's boy' whose mother insists that he wears his scarf at all times. Private Pike's mother also insists that he doesn't use items such as public telephones and the like in case he catches something.

This often leads to conflict between Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson which can be seen in the episode "The Lion has Phones" in which Captain Mainwaring attempts to instruct the platoon in the use of a public telephone box. It is Walmington-on-Sea's worst kept secret that Sergeant Wilson is, in fact, Private Pike's father and it is only Wilson himself, Pike and his mother who believe that it is, in fact, a secret!

Answer: Scotland

Pte Fraser, played by actor John Laurie (1897-1980), was the local undertaker and the Walmington-on-Sea platoon's kind-hearted but straightforward harbinger of doom. During the Great War his character was a decorated member of the Royal Navy, a fact that he took great relish in reinforcing to Captain Mainwaring during an episode from the fourth series, 'The Battle of the Giants' in which the Walmington-on-Sea platoon are to attend a ceremonial church parade on which all decorations are to be worn; unfortunately Captain Mainwaring does not possess any decorations and his attempts to avoid attending the church service in his uniform are hilarious.

In many of Laurie's scenes in which he tells tales of terror in hushed tones, you could hear the wind... Howling, screaming and howling... John Laurie also appeared in many feature films throughout his career with notable works including Sir Laurence Olivier's 1944 production of Shakespeare's historical drama 'Henry V', the Powell and Pressburger production of the 'Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' and the 1954 David Lean production of the Harold Brighouse comedy, 'Hobson's Choice'.

Answer: Fish and Chips

Muller - "I don't vont any nasty soggy chips, I vont mein crisp... und light braun"
Mainwaring - "Listen here! If I say you'll eat soggy chips, you'll eat soggy chips!"
Muller quickly turns and starts scribbling into his notebook...
It would be a travesty not to include a question about what is probably the best loved scene in any of the eighty episodes; the Welsh actor Philip Madoc played the part of Kapitan Müller in the episode 'The Deadly Detachment' and, although it was the only episode he ever appeared in, he has gone down in comedy history for his part in it. I can highly recommend that you search out a clip of this golden comedy moment. I defy anyone not to be 'tickled pink' by it!

Answer: False

The character of Mr Hodges was employed as Walmington-on-Sea's ARP Warden. Referred to by Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson as 'a common little man', ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Warden, Mr William Hodges, along with the local vicar, the Reverend Timothy Farthing and the Verger, Maurice Yeatman, was always trying to get the upper hand over the local Home Guard platoon whether it was taking pride of place on civic parades, greeting VIP's and other dignitaries or just making Mainwaring look like a buffoon. Additionally, there was always an underlying friction between Hodges and Sergeant Wilson; he was the landlord of Mrs Pike, Sergeant Wilson's lover, and was rumoured to have escort Mrs Pike out in the evening for the occasional drink. Bill Pertwee, distantly related to Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee, was awarded the MBE in the Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours list and was the president of the Dad's Army Appreciation Society for many years until his death in May 2013 at the age of 86.

Answer: The Coldstream Guards

The music over the end credits was recorded by the band of the Coldstream Guards under the direction of Bandmaster, Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Sharpe. Although the Coldstream Guards are considered to be an English Regiment, they were actually raised by General George Monck in Scotland in 1650.

The regiment is the oldest in the British Army being able to trace their history back as far as the English Civil War when they formed a part of Cromwell's 'New Model Army'. Many of the outside scenes used in Dad's Army were filmed at STANTA, a British Army training area located a few miles outside of the town of Thetford in Norfolk in the east of England.

Many of the locations were to appear very familiar to me in the latter years of the 1970s as I also carried out my own military training in the same areas as those seen in the programme.

Answer: 1977

Dads Army ran from 1968 to 1977 a total of eighty episodes in nine series. The final episode was titled 'Never Too Old' and was broadcast on Sunday the 13th of November 1977. In this episode Lance Corporal Jones finally married Mrs Fox played by Pamela Cundell.

Interestingly, the wedding guests featured in this final episode were played by the families and friends of the production crew. By the time this last episode had been broadcast it was clear that there would be no further production in the future.

A number of the original cast members had already passed away and some of those remaining, particularly John Le Mesurier who played the part of Sergeant Wilson, were beginning to look very frail.