Depending on your affection for classic British television, you’ll either find the new trailer for Oliver Parker’s Dad’s Army genuinely hilarious, or pretty unremarkable.
It’s British humor through and through, lifting inspiration from the eponymous BBC sitcom that originally ran for 9 season between 1968 to 1977. A big-screen rendition has flirted with cinema numerous times in the past, though Parker has whipped together a colorful, star-studded ensemble, enlisting the likes of Bill Nighy, Sir Michael Gambon, Toby Jones and Sir Tom Courtenay as members of the titular, bumbling platoon.
Taking place during the dying days of World War II, Dad’s Army unfolds across Walmington-on-sea, as our characters work to drum up morale amongst the home nation with the majority of the Home Guard fighting on the front lines. But when news breaks of a spy infiltrating their ranks, the regiment must search within their own ranks as they attempt to root out the source of the leak. Catherine Zeta Jones, Daniel Mays and Bill Paterson round out the cast.
Dad’s Army opens in the UK on February 5, 2016.
It is 1944 and World War II is reaching its climax. The Allies are poised to invade France and finally defeat the German army. But in Walmington-on-Sea morale amongst the Home Guard is low. Their new mission then – to patrol the Dover army base – is a great chance to revive spirits and reputation, that is until glamorous journalist Rose Winters arrives to write about their exploits, setting the pulses racing and putting the local women on red alert. MI5 then discover a radio signal sent direct to Berlin from Walmington-on-Sea. There’s a spy on the loose! The outcome of the war is suddenly at stake, and it falls to our unlikely heroes to stand up and be counted.
