It was a year of insurrection. In the streets of Paris and on the campuses of America, students were rioting. In Czechoslovakia the armies of the Warsaw Pact quashed the Prague Spring. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated. North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive. In 1968, amid worldwide chaos and disquiet, the BBC unveiled a quaintly nostalgic sitcom taking the mickey out of the Second World War.
This competition is now closed
Dad’s Army, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi writer Jimmy Perry has died aged 93. In this interview with Radio Times, first published in March 2014, he recalls first working on Dad’s Army with co-creator David Croft, and explains the enduring popularity of the BBC comedy classic.
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You may not know it, but a minor TV miracle takes place on BBC2 most Saturday nights. While much of the nation divides its attention between all-screaming, all-dancing talent circuses, a loyal platoon looks elsewhere for its entertainment. Specifically, the well-intentioned failures of a group of old soldiers. And the fact that up to two million tune in for a 46-year-old show is nothing less than astonishing.