Dad's Army

Since the original was one of the few TV series which successfully resisted the temptation to broaden its effects as time went by, one might have expected this spinoff to translate painlessly to the big screen. Lowe (sublimely unaware as he barks 'I must ask you to keep your hands off my privates') and the rest of the regulars are as irresistible as ever. But the script digs several pits for itself by needlessly recapitulating the history of the platoon, by foregrounding details best left to the imagination (like Sgt Wilson's relationship to Pike's mother), and worst of all by offering a climax involving real Germans. Surely only an invisible enemy, never materialising but ineffably menacing, can exist in the same world as this moonshine Home Guard crew.