The LP, the board game and a set of signatures ............. remembering the first Dad’s Army

You can’t escape the new film of Dad’s Army which is going the rounds right now.

The trailers along with the cast have been on a shed load of radio and TV programmes and it has featured in the newspapers and magazines.

I never saw the first series which came out in 1968, missed a big chunk after that because as a student I didn’t have a telly and by the time we got our one in 1973 I had missed too many to make it essential viewing.

But I was well aware of the merchandise which sat beside the series which ranged from games and books to LPs of Second World War songs by some of the leading members of the show.

And so because they are now as much a bit of our collective history as the Home Guard, Barrage Balloons and the Blitz here is a selection from the collection of David Harrop.

They include a signed first edition envelope, some board games and LPs which for those unfamiliar with vinyl are long playing records.

Once a long time ago these would sit beside heaps of “singles” and EPs and were played on that cheap and cheerful Dansette player or if you were up market a Hi Fi system.

And if you were really up market that stereo system had to be made up of a Pioneer deck, a Sony receiver and Wharfdale speakers with a bewildering mess of cables that cascaded out from the back in a confusing stream.

More time would then be wasted in discussing the finer points of each bit of the system than listening to the music.

That said I suspect anyone who had spent hours agonising over which bits to buy would not have put Clive Dunn or Captain Mainwaring on their turntable.

I long ago saw each f these state of the art bits break on me but the Dad’s Army LPs along with the games have stayed the course.

I am not sure what that says about the stereo or the merchandise, so I shall just thank David Harrop who photographed the items from his collection and affirm that they have become history.

Which is also an invitation to post their own bit of Dad's Army memorabilia, suggest alternative bits of stereo components or take me to task for my choice of deck, receiver and speakers.

Reviews of the new film I will leave people to most elsewhere on social network.

Location; Walmington-on-Sea, on the south coast of England








Pictures; Dads’ Army merchandise 1970s, from the collection of David Harrop