Daily Mail - 23.08.2019

Daily Mail, Friday, August 23, 2019 Page 31

are authentic, unchanged from

their first production in 1969. Of

the 80 episodes filmed over nine

series between 1968 and 1977,

three of the earliest were wiped

after broadcast — the third,

fifth and sixth instalments of

the second series.

The idea of remaking them was

fraught with danger. Many felt it

was akin to repainting a lost

Michelangelo. So this was a bold

venture... and it really pays off.

And, of course, the titles have

not been altered. It’s still Bud

Flanagan singing, ‘Who do you

think you are kidding, Mr Hitler?’

Some things are simply sacred.

They don’t like it up ’em! Armed with

brooms and old swords, Lance-Corporal

Jones (left) leads Walker (centre) and Pike

as they practise a cavalry charge against

invading Germans in the Walmington-on-

Sea church hall... on old bicycles

On the fiddle: The platoon tries,

unsuccessfully, to help Walker fail

his regular Army medical in The

Loneliness Of The Long-Distance

Walker. He eventually escapes the

call-up, preserving their access to

black market goodies, because

he’s allergic to corned beef

Marching on: The new line-up (left) of (from far left) Kevin McNally

(Mainwaring), Robert Bathurst (Wilson), Kevin Eldon (Jones), David

Hayman (Frazer), Timothy West (Godfrey), Tom Rosenthal (Pike) and

Mathew Horne (Walker). Above: The much-loved original platoon

Pyjama party: Mrs Pike (Tracy

Ann Oberman) calls on

Mainwaring and her son’s ‘Uncle

Arthur’ Wilson as they

investigate a suspected German

spy hiding in town

IT’S AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL