Stuart McGugan has criticised the decision to remake ‘Dad’s Army’, branding it "cultural vandalism".
The 75-year-old actor played a soldier in one episode of the World War II sitcom – which ran from 1968 to 1977 and starred Arthur Lowe as Captain George Mainwaring in charge of the Home Guard – and he has voiced his dismay that TV channel Gold has recreated three episodes of the classic BBC sitcom, which were lost from the archive, with a new cast.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre TV column: "To make a new ‘Dad’s Army’ and pump nothing new into it, which will be the case, is cultural vandalism. They could be spending that money on new drama, given that there’s not been a lot of very interesting new comedy on recently."
The trio of storylines, titled ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Walker’, ‘A Stripe for Frazer’ and ‘Under Fire’, have been remade to mark 50 years since their broadcast and Gold has chosen to stay true to writers Jimmy Perry and David Croft’s original scripts.
The cast list boasts a host of major names with Kevin McNally portraying Captain Mainwaring, Robert Bathurst as Sergeant Wilson, Bernard Cribbins as Private Godfrey, Kevin Eldon as Lance Corporal Jones, Mathew Horne as Private Walker, David Hayman as Private Frazer and Tom Rosenthal as Pike.
The ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ star believes rebooting classic comedies like ‘Are You Being Served?’ and ‘Porridge’ is counterproductive and says writers should be focused on creating new programmes.
Stuart said: "It shows a lack of talent to write and a lack of courage to make new stuff. I think it’s shameless, absolutely shameless."
Dad’s Army remake should happen, says Stuart McGugan
