Don't Panic! Dad's Army film breaks records at local venue

Featuring a roll call of British acting talent including Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Mark Gatiss, Toby Jones, Bill Nighy, Bill Paterson, Alison Steadman and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the film was seen by just under 1,600 people during a ten-day run in the McCarthy cinema in late February and early March.

Matthew Russell, the theatre’s chief executive said: “We’re delighted that so many people came to watch Dad’s Army in our beautiful Art Deco McCarthy cinema. This means that we’ve had four of our top ten films ever in the last four months – The Lady in the Van, which was screened in December, was third, Suffragette in November is in seventh place, and The Danish Girl in January is in eighth.

“And I know film fans will want to know what came second – it was The Theory of Everything, which screened in January 2015.”

Dad’s Army star Michael Gambon was seen on stage in Scarborough in 1990, when he performed the title role of Othello at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, the current theatre’s predecessor at Westwood, now part of Yorkshire Coast College.

The McCarthy Cinema has recently announced its film line-up for the next six weeks, starting with Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, starring Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, on now until March 10. That is followed by A Bigger Splash, March 11-13, The Hateful Eight, March 13-16 and The Revenant, March 26-28.

The original TV show ran from 1968 to 1977, attracting 18 million viewers at its height, and the original cast made a film in 1971.

Many people still tune in for repeats of the old show which was the creation of Jimmy Perry and David Croft.