Ben Elton
The writer, Ben Elton, is a self-confessed fan of Dad's Army, and as such many of the characters were influenced by the show. Fowler's relationship with Grim is very similar to that of Captain Mainwaring to Warden Hodges, in that they are both on the same side yet enemies. Also, Constable Goody is rather like Private Pike in being a 'stupid boy' who irritates Fowler. Constable Gladstone's habit of interrupting a briefing with a story about life in Trinidad is similar to Lance Corporal Jones's penchant for reminiscing about Sudan during Captain Mainwaring's speeches. Other references include in the episode Rag Week, when Fowler is briefly seen walking out of a shop called "Mainwaring's".
Ben Elton has not been shy to appear in the programme himself. In the first series the "WANTED" poster behind Fowler's desk in the briefing room is an E-FIT of Elton. He even takes a cameo role in the Christmas special episode, Yuletide Spirit.
Read more about this topic: The Thin Blue Line (TV series)
Famous quotes containing the words ben elton and/or elton:
“The earth only has so much bounty to offer and inventing ever larger and more notional prices for that bounty does not change its real value.”
—Ben Elton (b. 1959)
“If only the strength of the love that people feel when it is reciprocated could be as intense and obsessive as the love we feel when it is not; then marriages would be truly made in heaven.”
—Ben Elton (b. 1959)