Leslie Grantham is no stranger to playing the lovable rogue. Having made his name as "Dirty Den" Watts in EastEnders, he is now playing racketeering cockney Private Walker in a stage adaptation of Dad's Army, which arrives soon at the New Theatre, Oxford, and The Alban Arena, St Albans.
And for the actor who recently turned 60, there's an unending attraction to playing the bad boy.
"Well, it's far more interesting than coming through the door and asking, "anyone for tennis"," says Leslie, in his trademark droll tones. "And besides, you wouldn't want to play an old fogey like Jonesy, would you?"
Taken from the original scripts of the hugely popular sitcom written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, the stage version of Dad's Army includes two of the so-called "lost episodes", which the BBC erased after transmission in 1969.
The first, A Stripe For Frazer, revolves around the competition between Frazer, the dour Scottish coffin maker, and Jones, the old boy of the platoon, when the pompous Mainwaring offers a promotion for one of his lucky soldiers.
The other, called The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker, catalogues Private Walker's desperate and madcap attempts to avoid the draft.
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"Out of all of Perry and Croft's comedies, Dad's Army is one of my all-time favourites," admits Leslie. "It's universally funny and has this great, British humour about it. They once tried Dad's Army as an American sitcom, but it didn't really work over there, probably because Americans didn't witness war first-hand until 9/11. But this comedy doesn't poke fun at the war, just ourselves.
"What's great about this country is that we don't take things too seriously. We're great at sending ourselves up."
The joviality of Dad's Army differs somewhat from Leslie's former long-running role as Den Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. Record audiences tuned in to see his character's final, and grisly, demise in 2005. So does he miss playing Dirty Den at all?
"Without Den I wouldn’t be in theatre. I might not be known at all, so I have plenty to thank him for."
Leslie Grantham
Leslie explains: "Well, in some ways it defined me as an actor and without Den I wouldn't be in theatre. I might not be known at all, so I have plenty to thank him for. But I love theatre work now, because you get that instant reaction."
Now touring the country with Dad's Army, Leslie has plenty of opportunity to work his stage magic as a member of the chaos-fuelled Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard.
Dad's Army was inspired chiefly by Jimmy Perry's own experiences in the Watford Home Guard as a teenager, and proved hugely popular with the television-watching public between 1968 and 1977. Several veterans of British film, television and stage starred in the sitcom, including Arthur Lowe (as Mainwaring), John Le Mesurier (as Wilson) and Clive Dunn (as Jones). With this success in mind, does Leslie feel the scripts work just as well on stage?
"Well, we're on a hiding to nothing in some ways, because the TV show was so popular," says Leslie. "But I think the key is in the expectation. People mustn't turn up and expect to see Arthur Lowe and all the others, because obviously it's a different cast.
"Audiences that get past that have really been enjoying it. We even get quite a few fans turning up in costume and they all join in when we say our catchphrases, like "You stupid boy", or "We're all doomed". It's been really great fun."
Dad's Army runs from Monday, April 14 to Wednesday, April 16 at New Theatre, Oxford. Details: 0870 607 7484 or www.newtheatreoxford.org.uk
And from Wednesday, May 21 to Saturday, May 24 at The Alban Arena, St Albans. Details: 01727 844 488 or www.alban-arena.co.uk
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