BBC news reports the death of Dad's Army actor Clive Dunn at age of 92.
No detail or obit yet
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Aww, shucks. Good innings, mind.
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>> No detail or obit yet
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20239694#
He died in Portugal on Tuesday from complications following an operation.
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Only the stupid boy is left then.
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Bill Pertwee, the verger, and Frank Williams, the vicar are still alive.
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Another great old trouper gone.
We still watch the re-runs of Dad's Army and we still laugh out loudly (LOL!)
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Brilliant series of course - indispensable as he was he wasn't my favourite character in it - toss up between Private Godfrey (the unassuming pacifist hero) and Sgt Wilson (I've modelled my CAB persona on him)
Last edited by: R.P. on Wed 7 Nov 12 at 19:31
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>> Sgt Wilson (I've
>> modelled my CAB persona on him)
Do you think that's wise, sir?
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>> Brilliant series of course - indispensable as he was he wasn't my favourite character in
>> it - toss up between Private Godfrey (the unassuming pacifist hero) and Sgt Wilson (I've
>> modelled my CAB persona on him)
you've turned your cuffs up and walk with a mince?
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That characteristic playing with his fingers, stroking his forehead that le Mesurier did wasn't actually intentionally part of the persona. It was a signal to the director to cut to him as he was about to do one of his faces.
Incidentally, Arnold Ridley (Godfrey) was an interesting cove - his son Nicholas wrote a very readable biography of him if you want to search it out.
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I do the cuff thing, only when not wearing a tee-shirt for obvious reasons.....!
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When he was married to Hattie Jacques, she made him sleep in the spare room and moved her lover into the marital bed.
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In the marital bed with the lover.
Some people do you know.
Sleep in beds that is.,
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Which bit ? At least they were all consenting adults...
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Musn't forget his number 1:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KJGJRd8pGE
Corny but nice.
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Love Dads Army!
RIP Mr Dunn!
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sings...'''and i will take my bayonet and stick it up his...HALT'''
Brilliant series, wonderful characters...the above quote i remember from the film being sung by Corp Jones, had me in stitches when the platoon glided through the chuch dressed as the choir singing so innocently.
''don't tell e'm Pike''
I wonder how many everyday phrases we've used over the years spawned from that series.
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The U Boat crew episode is the one of the best - the other is Sgt Wilson's redemption where he is unmasked as a WW1 hero and of course Private Godfrey - it was a very moving episode - always viewed as a Conscientious Objector and a coward, his past was revealed as a medic in the Trenches when he went to save/rescue a soldier in No Man's Land. Many a true wartime tale could barely be more poignant
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>> The U Boat crew episode is the one of the best - the other is
>> Sgt Wilson's redemption where he is unmasked as a WW1 hero and of course Private
>> Godfrey - it was a very moving episode - always viewed as a Conscientious Objector
>> and a coward, his past was revealed as a medic in the Trenches when he
>> went to save/rescue a soldier in No Man's Land. Many a true wartime tale could
>> barely be more poignant
>>
It must have required some good acting from the cast; John Laurie and Arnold Ridley both served in the front line in WW1, the latter being severly wounded.
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>> wonder how many everyday phrases we've used over the years spawned from that series.
Are you still allowed to say that "the Fuzzy-Wuzzy`s don`t like it up-`em"?
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Apparently we can't say we loved him as we've never met him and he may have had more money than us.
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There was meant to be a smiley there - just to prove that sense of humour was supposed to be engaged.
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remember him and his ilk on sunday
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He served in North Africa and Greece didn't he and ended up as a POW for 4 years ?
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>>remember him and his ilk on sunday
He must have had a big garden, they can grow to over 300kg.
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A zookeeper would know that.
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>> A zookeeper would know that.
Well I gnu it.
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It was no moose to me either.
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You kudu seen that one coming
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Ibex you can't keep this up.
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Can't Fallow that. I've Red enough.
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This brings back fawn'd memories of things I've herd before.
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Not that old family story where your Uncle and Aunt elope?
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I was feeling a bit weary this morning until I saw all these puns, but they have cheered me up no end.
Certainly put the springbok in my step.
(But I had a haunch that someone would have mentioned venison by now)
Last edited by: Londoner on Fri 9 Nov 12 at 11:47
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These puns are getting in a rut.
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I'm in a meeting in Italy tomorrow, I must make a note;
"Include deer puns in notes for Venice on saturday".
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 9 Nov 12 at 12:19
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Have you packed your Antler luggage?
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It will be a bridge to sighs for sure.
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If he's watching those girls in those dodgy bars, at least next week we can say he's gondolier.
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Buck up and finish quickly, I need to be in another room-in-eight minutes.
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>>If he's watching those girls in those dodgy bars, .......................He`d better not touch
Ze bra`s
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I went on a gondola in Venice once.
There was no-body about so I had to roe it myself.
(Well I didn't have the hart to ask the missus)
Last edited by: Londoner on Fri 9 Nov 12 at 13:14
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I wasn't really a fan, but then I wasn't a fan of Bootsie and Snudge or indeed of Dad's Army, despite the Monarch's well-known liking for it. Most of Dunn's TV performances were very 'broad' and his Grandpa song is distastefully mawkish.
Some of the obituarizing clips I've seen show him as a certain type of professional comedy thesp, embittered, snide and playing down to the despised audience. Given the TV he spent so much of his life playing I can't help sympathising a bit.
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Funny you should say that AC. I was only reflecting the other night on a long late night drive from somewhere to nowhere when I stumbled across a radio station. My car has a DAB system which seems to be able to get obscure alternative versions of the main stations.
Anyway, this one was an offshoot of BBC R4 ( can't remember what it was called, "4+" or something rings a bell ) The upshot of all this is that they were broadcasting old episodes of the Goon Show and early Les Dawson radio material. Now I can certainly remember giggling at both of these productions when I was a lad but now they just sounded embarrassingly bad.
Maybe it's just me of course. I seem to find most things intolerable these days.
:-)
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Fri 9 Nov 12 at 15:20
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4 Extra, RP, formerly Radio 7 and before that, BBC7. There's some great stuff on there, but I'd have to agree about the Goon Show; much as I love the solo work of Spike Milligan, the Goons have dated very badly.
On the other hand, I listened the other Sunday to a Hancock's Half-Hour and was pleasantly surprised by how fresh - and funny - it still was, but then Hancock was all about character, dialogue and comic timing, and those are much more durable qualities than silly voices and primitive sound effects.
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Old comedy dates very quickly - I used to listen to the Clitheroe Kid for goodness sake. Comedy evolves. Dad's Army kept itself fresh in the public eye - possibly because it was a "period" comedy that kept it sense of time and place in a particular "age" - the humour is still fresh......as Mark says somewhere up this thread, A very British formula, in a very British time-frame, long may it make people laugh.
Last edited by: R.P. on Fri 9 Nov 12 at 17:41
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I think that's right Rob. Decently scripted sitcom of a familiar, predictable kind can age well. Leading-edge stuff that seems fresh and hilarious at first soon 'enters the language' and starts to seem dated, like the Goon show or Monty Python. Both featured an irrational, surrealist side that seemed, and was, daring at first.
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I used to listen to the Clitheroe Kid
You still can!
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00clb4p/broadcasts/2012/11
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There was a Dads Army Play on the radio (BBC R4 I guess), about the cast, rather than a specific episode. I would love to be able to find it, does anyone know where it is hidden on iPlayer!?
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I think you mean "Dear Arthur, Love John." which was broadcast in May. Very good it was too. Not currently available on iPlayer.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01h6463
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I have good friends in California. When *** came over here on a teacher exchange for a year she grew to love Dads Army. When she returned to the US she took back the phrase 'Dont panic'.
On a recent visit I was in her classroom giving a lesson to her pupils on t'Dales, dry stone walls, old drove roads etc etc. At one point I got distracted, and the entire class of 8yo Californian kids chorused...you've guessed it...DONT PANIC. And she has been teaching her pupils this phrase for over 5 years now. Quite surreal.
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R.P.,
Assuming its the one by Roy Smiles, I believe have an MP3 recording of it.
If you want it, then send me an e-mail and I'll send you a link so you can download it from me.
Its more than 40mb so e-mail is not going to work, but it'll download from me, even from Chile, pretty quickly.
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Sorry Zippy, it was you after the show, not RP. Blond moment.
Offer stands. Drop me an email if you want a recording of the show.
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>>Thanks Mark !
Was that a thanks but no thanks, or a thanks and yes?
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Thanks for the thought - I heard it first time around and it was very good !
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I thought it was ok; worth a listen, but not good enough to keep forever.
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