We're not doomed! Bridlington could make millions from Dad's Army film

I AM on the corner of Bridlington’s wind-whipped High Street when a man with a glint in his eye comes up and introduces himself as the Mayor of Walmington-on-Sea.

“It basically involved standing on a podium for hours while they went up and down filming it with one of those cameras on tracks,” explains Cyril Marsburg of his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it big screen appearance.

“I wore the robes I had when I was Mayor of Bridlington, only I had to turn the chain round so they couldn’t see the name.

“They wanted me to do a love scene with Catherine Zeta-Jones,” he says, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But I had to draw the line somewhere, didn’t I?”

Bridlington is in the grip of Dad’s Army fever. Having long played bridesmaid to neighbours Scarborough and Filey, the town is enjoying its overdue stint in the spotlight as it prepares to host Wednesday’s Yorkshire premiere, with all the talk being who has, or hasn’t, secured a ticket.

“It’s absolutely marvellous,” passing pensioner Cathy Parker had told me earlier. “It was lovely to know they were doing something here and hopefully it will bring something to the town.”

She came down to the Old Town every day to have a look at filming. It’s her husband’s birthday the night the film comes out so they’re going to go and see it at the local cinema, the Forum.

“We might even be able to spot him in the background,” she says. “He was always getting in the way.”

When the makers of the new Dad’s Army film – which goes on general release next Friday – were looking for a town to stand in as the fictional Walmington-on-Sea, all roads led to this corner of East Yorkshire.

The chalk headlands at Flamborough were a perfect fit for the south coast, where the ramshackle Home Guard outfit was based in the classic sitcom, while the old world charm of Bridlington’s Old Town only needed a few adjustments to spirit cinemagoers back to the days when the bulldog spirit seemed all that stood in Hitler’s way.

“Bridlington offered us pretty much intact 1940s, or even a Victorian high street,” said production designer Simon Bowles.

“The windows and the structures of the shops themselves are so intact it’s a given, it’s beautiful. If I was in Pinewood Studios and I built a backlot set of an old seaside town high street, it would look like that.”

The old stone facade of the beauty salon on my right saw it used as the outside of Captain Mainwaring’s bank. The HSBC bank across the street became the public air raid shelter, ruled by the officious greengrocer Hodges. Further down on the left is Godfrey’s cottage, while back up the street is the gallery which doubled as Frazer’s undertakers.

Yellow lines on the road were covered up, TV aerials taken down and tell-tale wires boxed in to remove every sign of modernity.

The Old Town may now be getting back to normal, but many here are keen to keep just enough traces of its time as Walmington-on-Sea to woo the visitors they hope will descend as the film goes around the world.

“It really could give us a tremendous boost,” says David Hinde, town crier, chairman of the Old Town Association and unofficial cheerleader for all things Bridlington who also has a cameo in the film.

“I think we need to go back and recreate the Old Town as it was during the filming. People go to see the Emmerdale set but if they come up here and only see ‘Walmington-on-Sea’ on the front of the pub then they’re going to be disappointed.”

He identifies Bronte-dominated Haworth as the template he’d like to copy. “That used to be a bit down-at-heel but look at it now. We’ve got Hockney, Lawrence of Arabia was based here, Amy Johnson... all these things but we don’t capitalise on them. We need to seize this opportunity.”

With that in mind, from May coach tours will ferry visitors from Bridlington Spa to the various locations used in the film, including Flamborough’s North Landing, Danes Dyke, Sewerby Hall and finishing up in the Old Town.

Scenery from the movie will be displayed at the Spa and the 1940s- themed Summer Festival should prove popular, complete with parades by Home Guard re-enactment groups and, fingers crossed, a Battle of Britain flypast. There’s even talk of a tongue-in-cheek twinning with Walmington-on-Sea.

And such hopes of a tourist-led renaissance aren’t pie in the sky, either.

Creative England, the Government-backed agency which helped bring the Dad’s Army team to East Yorkshire, along with investment from Screen Yorkshire, insists being on the big screen is a proven money spinner.

“If a location has been on the screen then people will travel from far and wide to visit it if they’re fans of the movie,” says Leeds-based production liason manager Chris Hordley.

“The benefits can be far-reaching. Nationally, screen tourism brought in between £100m and £140m to the regions in 2014. And it’s not just local tourism, some of the most popular locations can attract up to £1.6m a year from international visitors alone.”

But what if, whisper it, the film itself isn’t particularly good? Wouldn’t that throw a bit of a spanner in the works?

“Even if you’re not a fan of a particular movie, people might say, I know that was filmed there and it looks fantastic so let’s go. Once they come they spend a lot of money, they stay in local hotels, dine in local restaurants or cafes and they buy souvenirs.”

And already there are signs the Dad’s Army effect might be working.

This windswept lunchtime finds Tim Hancher hard at work in The Lamp, the cosy restaurant he runs with wife Katherine in the heart of Bridlington’s Old Town.

The restaurant proved a popular meeting place for production crew during filming, as well as serving breakfasts to countless extras.

But long after the cameras have gone, the glare of publicity surrounding the film seems to be doing good things for business.

“In the last two weeks people have started to see Dad’s Army in the media and locals, people who live in Bridlington, have started to come into the restaurant,” Tim says. “A lot of them have said, ‘We haven’t been to the Old Town for years’.

“This part of Bridlington went off the map for a while and became a bit run-down. The pubs closed and the banks moved out. But I think that’s changing and East Riding Council seem to be getting a bit more involved.

“Two pubs have recently reopened and another one’s being refurbished. Hopefully the film is going to get more people down here. All we need now is a sequel.”

Dad’s Army opens in cinemas nationwide on February 5.