David Croft was one of those legendary figures in the BBC who had relative autonomy within the hierarchy, and used it to create some of the greatest sitcoms of all time, including DAD'S ARMY, IT AIN'T HALF HOT MUM, ARE YOU BEING SERVED? and 'ALLO 'ALLO.
This program, marking his passing in his late eighties, looked at his career in detail with the help of those who were involved, including Clive Dunn, Ian Lavender, Bill Pertwee, Melvyn Hayes, Michael Knowles, Paul Shane, and Jeffrey Holland.
It it perhaps unfortunate, but this program actually proved rather tedious in structure. While it was fun to hear reminiscences, as well as the testimonies of celebs like Miranda Hart, Andy Hamilton, Sanjeev Bhaskar and others, we did not gain real insight into Croft's character, apart from finding out that he was rather a good bloke. It would have been useful to have found out where his penchant for ensemble work came from, and what abilities he used to meld so many disparate personalities into memorable teams. Nor did we find out how he dealt with production difficulties, or how he managed eventually to persuade skeptical BBC bosses that DAD'S ARMY was worth pursuing with, despite indifferent reviews on its televisual premiere.
In short, this was nothing more than a panegyric, livened by often over-familiar clips from the sitcoms.
This program, marking his passing in his late eighties, looked at his career in detail with the help of those who were involved, including Clive Dunn, Ian Lavender, Bill Pertwee, Melvyn Hayes, Michael Knowles, Paul Shane, and Jeffrey Holland.
It it perhaps unfortunate, but this program actually proved rather tedious in structure. While it was fun to hear reminiscences, as well as the testimonies of celebs like Miranda Hart, Andy Hamilton, Sanjeev Bhaskar and others, we did not gain real insight into Croft's character, apart from finding out that he was rather a good bloke. It would have been useful to have found out where his penchant for ensemble work came from, and what abilities he used to meld so many disparate personalities into memorable teams. Nor did we find out how he dealt with production difficulties, or how he managed eventually to persuade skeptical BBC bosses that DAD'S ARMY was worth pursuing with, despite indifferent reviews on its televisual premiere.
In short, this was nothing more than a panegyric, livened by often over-familiar clips from the sitcoms.
