Dad’s Army was best use ever of licence fee, says ex-BBC comedy chief (original) (raw)

It’s an accolade of which the parsimonious bank manager and part-time platoon commander Captain Mainwaring would surely approve.

Shane Allen, a former BBC head of comedy, has named the classic comedy Dad’s Army as the best use of licence fee funds.

Allen said that the wartime series was the “very definition of an evergreen programme” for its role in continuing to entertain audiences 56 years after it was first shown.

Arnold Ridley, left, who played Private Godfrey, was born in 1896 but still entertains audiences in 2024

Arnold Ridley, left, who played Private Godfrey, was born in 1896 but still entertains audiences in 2024

HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

“The show that has been the best ever use of licence fee money in the history of the BBC remains Dad’s Army. When it’s on BBC2 it’ll do a solid 1 million viewers every time,” he said. “And there are next to no clearance costs because the cast and writers are sadly no longer with us.”

Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike, died in February aged 77, having been the last surviving member of the main cast.

At the other end of the spectrum, Arnold Ridley, who played Private Godfrey and died 40 years ago, was born in 1896. “In 2024 on BBC2 there’s a Victorian on the telly knocking out the funnies,” noted Allen, who led BBC comedy for almost a decade from 2012 before setting up Boffola Pictures, which is responsible for Daisy May Cooper’s Bafta award-winning comedy Am I Being Unreasonable?.

Allen pointed to long-running series including the BBC’s Ghosts and Inside No 9 and Channel 4’s Derry Girls and Friday Night Dinner as having the potential to follow in _Dad’s Army_’s footsteps and continue to be enjoyed for generations to come.

Derry Girls has the potential to be enjoyed for years to come, Shane Allen said

Derry Girls has the potential to be enjoyed for years to come, Shane Allen said

“There are shows being made now that won’t get fully appreciated and become part of the pantheon of comedy classics for ten years,” he said.

“Other genres just don’t get rediscovered over and over. Entertainment shows burn bright but is anyone watching the 2011 series of The X Factor? No. But Friday Night Dinner from that year continues to perform consistently year on year, and will for decades.”

Allen’s successor at the BBC, Jon Petrie, warned in May that the traditional domestic sitcom faced extinction if writers continued to focus on comedy dramas, which are easier to sell internationally. “The sitcom isn’t dead but it needs a couple of Berocca and a black Americano with two sugars,” he said.

Petrie said this week that the BBC was happy to take risks with shows that might fail.

“Big audiences for the first series is hard — look at Blackadder and Only Fools and Horses,” he told Radio Times. “We have to hold our nerve. And the rewards are not just financial. If you create a great sitcom, you’ve got a place in TV history.”

He said the Motherland spin-off Amandaland and Smoggie Queens, about a gang of bitchy drag queens in Middlesbrough, were possible long-running shows of the future.

Which BBC programme do you think has been the best use of the licence fee? Let us know in the comments below.