Review of Were You Anyone Before Dad's Army play on the Isle of Wight

What a play! What acting!

So what was Arnold Ridley, the actor we all remember as Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army, really like?

I watched Were You Anyone Before Dad's Army at the weekend. This play is written by Nicolas Ridley, Arnold’s son, and what a wonderful way to tell his father’s life story on stage.

One of the scenes in the play (Image: Contributed)

And what a life! The dreamed sound of First World War fighting wakes old Arnold Ridley who is played superbly by Mansel David.

What a part! It’s huge! A lifetime of memories come flooding back to this old chap sitting in his chair in the retired actors’ home.

His young parents appear to him, and to us. His friends do too.

Ten other actors play one different part after another - and superbly – and with lightning costume changes - as Arnold thinks how his life happened.

He says lines from the very first time he ever appeared on stage in Bristol.

We experience his horrors of the First World War – sound, lighting, wounded soldiers, his own injuries at the Somme.

Like the stage play War Horse it feels real. We feel part of it.

The scene changes easily with props being part of the conversations, and sound being part of the story.

With vast Spanish flu deaths, Arnold gets into the Birmingham Rep. Then he moves to Plymouth. Acting! Work! It doesn’t last though.

His injuries make life difficult. But he does know theatre. He starts writing plays. Now suddenly his work gets noticed, and his play Ghost Train is a magic success, selling out in theatres all over the world.

He meets the agents and the film producers, but then comes financial loss, and along comes the Second World War in which he serves.

More playwriting. Books. More jobbing acting. Arnold is in there over the years until finally Dad’s Army written by Jimmy Perry and Richard Croft happens on television and it’s the perfect setting for this remarkable actor.

It’s hard to tell the real Arnold Ridley from Private Godfrey. And it’s hard to tell Arnold Ridley from this wonderful actor Mansel David.

This superb cast, this production by Theatre Reviva directed by Graham Pountney could be on in London’s West End, and sell out every night, just like Ridley’s own Ghost Train. A real theatre success!