Dad's Army at 40 | How Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson got called up

'Dad's Army' Press Release

BBC Publicity prepares the way for a new BBC comedy.

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Document Type | Press Release

July 1968

Text version

Writtencirca

1968

Synopsis

By 1968, few people still remembered the real-life Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) or Home Guard. This press release attempts to fill in the background details, not only to the characters but also to the lives of the people who made the show, including series co-creator Jimmy Perry, who was a member of the LDV when he was 16.

Did you know?

Secretary of State Anthony Eden had announced the call for Local Defence Volunteers in an address to the nation on 14 May 1940, but it was a subsequent broadcast by Winston Churchill that referred to this new division of the army as the Home Guard. The name stuck, just as Churchill had hoped it would.

Contributors

Russell Twisk
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