Quote: Chappers @ 9th October 2014, 4:10 PM BSTI don't think Toby Jones as Mainwaring will work because he doesn't seem pompous or arrogant enough.
The general consensus from AL's biog that I have just finished reading, was that like Hancock, Mainwaring was Lowe and vice versa, an almost impossible act to follow I would say.
Quote: Nick @ 8th October 2014, 11:37 PM BSTWhether the writing will match it is obviously going to be the big thing. The writer did a really good job with Johnny English Reborn (much better than I expected) though so there is some hope.
Funny you should say that because I think Johnny English Reborn is a terrible film.
I enjoyed the original but found the follow up awful.
One of the jokes, where he thinks an old lady is a spy, is a dead rip off from Austin Powers where he tries to rip the mask off her face.
One or two other scenes seem to have been stolen from other comedy films as well.
Of course originally Lowe and John LM were to play the opposite roles.
Quote: Marc P @ 9th October 2014, 5:35 PM BSTOf course originally Lowe and John LM were to play the opposite roles.
Yes, and that's very interesting and to ponder (not for too long 
) how that would have panned out.
Been banging this drum since project was announced, but they should have given David Jason a second crack at Jonesy now he's age appropriate, ib Dad's Army lore he famously lost out to Dunn first time round . . .
Quote: ScotiaNova @ 10th October 2014, 8:06 AM BSTBeen banging this drum since project was announced, but they should have given David Jason a second crack at Jonesy now he's age appropriate, ib Dad's Army lore he famously lost out to Dunn first time round . . .
Despite his old age Jonesy was physically a very dynamic character...he did lots of stunts, that was part of the fun. David Jason couldn't do that (anymore). Jason would be more convincing as Godfrey these days.
I don't particularly like the Daily Wail going into Jingoism and saying that the film will be a disaster because the new cast weren't old soldiers. If they were to just hire old soldiers, the film would be terrible-actors are better every time.
Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 10th October 2014, 11:28 AM BSTI don't particularly like the Daily Wail going into Jingoism and saying that the film will be a disaster because the new cast weren't old soldiers. If they were to just hire old soldiers, the film would be terrible-actors are better every time.
That's not jingoism, it's just short-straw-grabbing-ism.
Quote: Aaron @ 9th October 2014, 11:59 AM BSTNorfolk
It's Kent in the existing film, but generally accepted as East Sussex in the TV series.
Oh well, the base was in Thetford, so I was wrong on the first.
But your second can't be true for the early series.
East Sussex only came into being administratively during 1974. 
For what it's worth, I believe strongly that Walmington-on-Sea is a cross between Birchington-on-Sea and the adjoining Westgate-on-Sea. Kent - but in an insignificant corner. Not a Dover - or indeed a Newhaven.
East and West Sussex may only have become seperated as ceremonial counties in 1974, for most practical purposes they have been distinct since Norman times.
Quote: Tursiops @ 10th October 2014, 3:19 PM BSTWhile East and West Sussex only became seperated as ceremonial counties in 1974, for most practical purposes they have been distinct since Norman times.
Yes but I'm not sure how old you are T or where you are based. At the time, no one referred to Sussex as anything other than Sussex. The tag "East Sussex" was as alien as many of the other changes that were made including the introduction of Cumbria and the strange disappearance of Rutland. DA started in 1968.
Being fictional, it hovers in its own little world. No actual placing of it could ever entirely make sense. But I feel we should talk about its air which is distinctly Thanet like. I don't think anyone could dig out a similar place in the east of Sussex. It isn't a Hastings or a Rye. Both are too picturesque. And Eastbourne is too town like. Plus arguably all of the Sussex stretch - and most of southern Kent - were more on the firing line.
Fair enough. East South Saxon is a bit of a mouthful in any case.
I seem to recall Eastbourne being name-checked quite a bit.
Does the Union Flag help?
Quote: Tursiops @ 10th October 2014, 3:43 PM BSTFair enough. East South Saxon is a bit of a mouthful in any case.
I seem to recall Eastbourne being name-checked quite a bit.
Well, it isn't particularly important.
But:
1. Walmington in the series is an "On-Sea". Westgate, Thanet is an "On-Sea". Birchington, next door to it, is an "On-Sea". Hardly any of the places in East Sussex are an "On-Sea". Rye isn't; Eastbourne isn't; Hastings isn't; and Newhaven isn't. Nor are Dover, Folkestone, Sandwich, Deal or Hythe in mid and southern Kent.
2. If you take the "W" from the "Westgate-on-Sea" and the "ington" from the "Birchington-on-Sea", clearly "Walmington" is only a couple of vowels different. The difference, such as it is, has the look and sound of "Walmer" about it. I accept Walmer is near Dover. But that enables it to be placed in a war context rather than a seaside context in the mind. It isn't, for example, Margate. So it blurs it to "somewhere facing the Continent". It is the part of the name that is poetic licence so it can match the British arrow on the map.
3. John Le Mesurier had personal connections with Thanet. Indeed, he lived in Ramsgate in later life.
4. Jimmy Perry was a Butlins Redcoat. There was a Butlins at Cliftonville in Thanet but nowhere else in Kent. There was also one at Saltdean, Brighton, but Brighton was officially distinct from East and West Sussex.
5. In 2013, the University of Sussex received funding from the Arts Research Council for a study into a "secret army". That army was of Kent residents trained to fend off a Nazi invasion. It aimed to look at Kent's auxiliary units to the Home Guard who would have led a guerrilla war against German invaders. In a comment on the new project, researcher Sian Edwards said "the Isle of Thanet was central to London's defence".
6. In April 2014, "The Times" described today's Thanet South which has been selected by Nigel Farage as his target seat in the 2015 election. According to the newspaper, the area has a "Dad's Army feel" about it.
Quote: ScotiaNova @ 10th October 2014, 8:06 AM BSTBeen banging this drum since project was announced, but they should have given David Jason a second crack at Jonesy now he's age appropriate, ib Dad's Army lore he famously lost out to Dunn first time round . . .
Well, not according to the seemingly very well researched biography of Arthur Lowe by Graham Lord that I have just finished reading - Page 137:-
"Clive Dunn, who was cast as the geriatric butcher Lance Corporal Jack Jones after Jack Haig turned down the part, was convinced that he was offered the role only because his Mother had once had an affair with David Croft's Father."
Oooer.........and there is no mention of David Jason anywhere in the book, but of course that doesn't mean to say that there is no truth in it; BUT David Jason was only 28 when the cast of Dad's Army was put together and Clive Dunn, who was 20 years older had been playing older men for some time on TV and in films, most notably as 'Old' Johnson in Bootsie and Snudge.
