Dad's Army - Cultural Influence

Cultural Influence

The characters of Dad's Army and their catchphrases are well known in the UK due to the popularity of the series when originally shown and the frequency of repeats.

Jimmy Perry recalls that before writing the sitcom, the Home Guard was a largely forgotten aspect of Britain's defence in the Second World War, something which the series rectified. In a 1972 Radio Times interview, Arthur Lowe expresses surprise at the programme’s success;

We expected the show to have limited appeal, to the age group that lived through the war and the Home Guard. We didn’t expect what has happened – that children from the age of five upwards would enjoy it too.

The Sega Mega-CD port of the arcade game Mortal Kombat (developed by British programmers Probe Software), contained a cheat code (known as the "Dad's Code"), which allowed the player to rename the fighters to those of characters from Dad's Army.