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We Are the Boys

a play by Nick Scovell based on Dad’s Army

Publicity Information

24th-27th July 2002   

We are the Boys - Based on Dad’s Army created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft

Featuring a brand new set of actors, daring to step into the boots of Arthur Lowe, John le Mesurier, Clive Dunn and many others, WE ARE THE BOYS features all the comedy, mayhem, madness and those little touches of pathos that made up the exploits of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard.

Produced with the full approval of the series original authors and re-creating many of its classic moments, this new play brings fresh insight into the characters and period as well as being a genuine celebration of what is perhaps, the most beloved TV programme in broadcasting history.

FOUR PERFORMANCES ONLY!

Walmington-on-Line Review

At seven PM on a Saturday night in Portsmouth's pub and club district things have yet to get into their swing. Only one building, with white ornate cast iron mouldings, has a little crowd queuing to get in. But this group do not look like clubbers - with an average age of about forty, and a fair smattering of under-tens the New Theatre Royal is aiming at a rather different demographic.

It is appropriate that We are the Boys, a nostalgic look back at a television programme that was itself a piece of nostalgia, should be staged at this theatre. Portsmouth's New Theatre Royal is a beautiful piece of high Victorian music-hall kitsch. From the mahogany box-office to the stained glass panels in the bar and the plaster mouldings in the auditorium this is a theatre built to delight and entertain.

How on earth do we dare to step into the boots of the original actors? It was a question that hung over me for months, until the answer to my growing panic soon became obvious: Don’t! - Nick Scovell

Nick Scovell clearly also clearly believes in entertaining - not content with adapting, writing and directing We are the Boys he has also stepped into the shiny brown boots of George Mainwaring himself. Anyone who believes he can combine the talents of Jimmy Perry, David Croft and Arthur Lowe is clearly a man to be watched.

The setting is simple - a large Union Jack hanging upstage - to the left the desk, chair and telephone of the office of Walmington-on-Sea's church hall, and to the right the hall itself. A few wartime posters ('Hitler will send no warning') adorn the walls, jostling for space with chalk-scrawled graffiti ('Jack Jones woz here - 1881'). In the large auditorium the audience seem a little sparse, but enthusiastic.

These characters are fresh, clear, adorable creations and so very true to everything that we wish we still were as a Nation. In performing this play we have not attempted to impersonate the original cast, but have merely tried to emulate how they live in our memories and to bring them to life once again - Nick Scovell

The house lights dim and on stage a tiny orange glow announces the arrival of a lit cigarette. The lights come up to reveal The Magnificent Seven, in a semicircle the lit cigarette hanging from the mouth of a sharp-suited spiv. The crackle of a wireless, and the familiar words of Anthony Eden call the men of Walmington to action: We want large numbers of such men between the ages of seventeen and sixty-five. There is no need to give up your occupation, but you will have a uniform and you will be armed.

The response of the stalwarts of Walmington is reassuringly familiar: We're doomed, doomed; May I be excused; My mum's going to play merry hell about this; Don't panic, don't panic; Do you think that's wise; You stupid boy, and Bud Flanagan's voice sings out the familiar theme.

Dad’s Army is far more than a successful TV sitcom. It seems so real and so familiar and so comforting to us all. - Nick Scovell

The first act condenses the first two episodes of Dad's Army in which the elderly worthies of Walmington-on-Sea band together to form the fledgling LDV and struggle to overcome their crippling shortage of arms. Here we see British resolve at its best - with backs against the wall, the odds stacked against them messers Mainwaring, Wilson, Pike, Jones, Frazer, Walker and Godfrey face their likely doom with the chirpy confidence that their pikes and pitchforks can really turn back the Wermacht on the beaches of Kent.

The adaptation is skilful: the story line and much of the dialogue follows the original programmes, but not too closely. The script skips between episodes, borrowing from episodes much later in the series, and substituting elements of the Dad's Army film for those of the original. Recognising that the stage is a different medium from television the performance plays up the slapstick elements - Dale Fletcher as Jack Jones gets a spontaneous ovation after his first scene - replacing the subtle reaction shots that were so suited to the small screen.

In keeping with the adaptation the performances are more reinterpretation of the characters: true Henry Oastler's Frazer has the rolling eyes and doom filled highland delivery of John Laurie - but the characterisation is, if anything, more spiky and abrasive.

Nick Scovell's Mainwaring lacks some of the pomp and rage of the original - here instead is a profoundly fussy Mainwaring. Geoffrey Pye as Wilson gives the impression that the whole war is a blasted nuisance, diverting him from the comforts of his club. James Adamson as Walker is far more of a spiv than James Beck ever was - you couldn't trust this man with a penny bun.

Michael Berryman seems so frail and daft as Godfrey you wonder how he made it to the church hall to enrol in the first place. As for Lewis Bailey as Frank Pike - well here is awkward adolescence and naivety on a grand scale. You have to feel sorry for this lad - thrown in with a load of patronising old fools, with a mum who keeps embarrassing him in front of the others.

Sheila Birt as Mavis Pike is something of an under-used gem in the show. Her characterisation is slightly stronger and more blowsy than the original - there is a touch of Mrs Fox about this Mavis. In her first scene she inspects the platoon in a way Mainwaring would not dare - dishing out scorn and affection in equal measure, reducing Mainwaring to the role of impotent onlooker and earning a well deserved ovation on her exit.

Indeed, it was this sense of just how touching the programme could be that gave me the original idea for the play in the first place. What would happen if we could move forward — beyond the end of the original series itself— to when peace was imminent and the time came for them to say good bye to both their duties and to one another? - Nick Scovell

This was the hallmark of the show - take the well known characters, situations and lines from the TV series and twist them into a form that works on the stage. As with the series Mainwaring, Wilson and Jones dominate the action - but the disciplined cast ensure that there is always something going on in the background - Walker trying to flog contraband to the others, Pike having a good suck of his thumb, or Godfrey having a mild attack of palpitations and needing to sit down. Frazer's silently scornful reaction every time Mainwaring launched into a speech was a sight to behold.

In the second act, set four years later in 1944, the plot moves beyond the familiar scenes of the series, although it borrows from the show to support its plotline. We start with Mainwaring returning unexpectedly early from a special meeting at GHQ to find most of the platoon absent, playing darts with the Wardens. So far so familiar, but soon we learn that the danger of invasion has passed and the Home Guard has just ten weeks to stand-down - all parades are now purely voluntary. Tim Skedge's Chief Warden Hodges is exultant - he is still needed whilst Mainwaring is redundant - he has won their personal war.

Ten weeks on and the platoon are preparing to travel to London's Hyde Park for the stand-down parade. The Walmington platoon has been chosen for the honour of taking the King's salute. As they polish-up their parade ground skills in the hall they are interminably bothered by the civil powers - the vicar and verger moaning about their use of the hall, and Hodges crowing about the impending stand-down. Hodges pushes his luck too far and Jones determines to do him with his bayonet. A huge ensemble fight scene occurs in which Hodges and Jones attempt to kill each other and the platoon endeavour to keep them apart.

In the midst of this mayhem there is a huge explosion - a V2 flying bomb has crashed against the hall door, but hasn't exploded. The verger has left the keys to the side door in the church and in the words of Frazer they are doomed - entombed with an unexploded bomb ready to explode. Recognising that their first priority is to evacuate to town they try to escape the hall with no success. A last attempt to use the broken telephone turns up the spare key and they escape. The platoon evacuate the residents of the town and call bomb-disposal, saving Walmington from destruction.

It was the perfect starting point to bring something new and original to an entertainment that will always be with us and always be so loved for the ‘perfect sitcom’ that it has been described to be. - Nick Scovell

Accompanying the bomb-disposal squad is Major Bracewell of the Home Guard central command. In addition to overseeing the clear-up he and his sergeant are there to collect the platoon's firearms - including Mainwaring's trademark pistol. Hodges persists with his unpleasant goading of the Home Guard and the major tells him in no uncertain terms of their importance: over 2 million men, 2 George Crosses awarded and over 1000 men killed. Hodges is suitably humbled and the major returns to the delicate task of collecting the weapons.

Its blend of slapstick and character driven humour, coupled with its acute and sometimes deeply moving sense of pathos, is faultless. - Nick Scovell

Mainwaring hands over his sidearm and although assured that he is not surrendering is clearly choked with emotion. The major leaves Mainwaring alone on the stage and in a scene reminiscent of the end of that other Perry and Croft comedy, Hi-De-Hi, he reminisces about the last four years - with a series of short audio clips from the series culminating in that sequence - rather ruefully Mainwaring mutters 'you stupid boy' but it is impossible to tell whether he is referring to Pike or himself.

The show ends with a final parade in which Mainwaring praises the men for their steadfastness, and Wilson in a moment of seriousness cautions against the dangers of undue nostalgia about wartime - a very potent message at the present time. Frazer then reminds them that the pub is open and Mainwaring calls the final fall-out so that the platoon can celebrate their successes over a drink.

This second and more original act had a rather different feel from the first. Although there were distinct elements of the TV scripts - Absent Friends, Asleep in the Deep, The Royal Train - the sequence of events was entirely new and unpredictable. Mainwaring's sense of loss at the disbanding of his platoon was deeply felt and the act had a real sense of sadness. Nick Scovell as Mainwaring was at his best in these scenes; whereas in the first act he was shy of mimicing Arthur Lowe's mannerisms of voice or movement, now they seemed to emerge spontaneously from the new script. This, one felt, was not mimicry but a new Mainwaring for a new story. As with the episodes Mum's Army, My Brother and I and A Wilson Manager(?) this was a story from which you learn something new about Mainwaring the man.

It was a very clever play - an adaptation which retained familiarity with its source, but boldly moved into new territory. In truth it felt like two linked one-act plays recounting the story of the beginning and the end of the Home Guard. Of course Perry and Croft never killed-off their creations and fans of Dad's Army may consider it presumptuous for others to do so. Nevertheless We are the Boys stands-up well against other attempts to revive Dad's Army such as It Sticks Out Half a Mile and Perry's The Boy Who Saved England. Indeed it would be nice to think that the script could be made available for other companies to perform as this was too good to be limited to just four performances.

Last Updated 26 Feb, 2004