DAVID Benson and Jack Lane play 25 characters between them in Dad's Army Radio Hour, their staging of three of Jimmy Perry and David Croft's BBC sitcom scripts, at York Theatre Royal today (Thursday).

At 2pm and 7.30pm, the duo parade their great feats of vocal impersonation in My British Buddy, The Day The Balloon Went Up and The Deadly Attachment as they celebrate 50 years of Dad's Army in Owen Lewis's production, now on its premiere tour after London and Edinburgh seasons.

You may recall Benson from his show Think No Evil Of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams, wherein he talked about his comedy heroes, not only Williams, but also Morecambe and Wise and the cast of Dad's Army. "In my head, I was John Le Mesurier and I remember I would think in that voice and used to do five voices from the show," he says.

"My producer always urged me to do a Dad's Army show but I couldn't think of anything new to say or anything that wouldn't be tiresome! But then last year I got this brainwave when I did a show based on The Men From The Ministry, the long-running BBC comedy series. I was amazed how popular it was, with the audience getting so many laughs from the sound effects, and suddenly I thought, after 15 years of saying 'No' to Dad's Army, I could do Dad's Army Radio Hour, using Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles's radio adaptations."

Once the rights were secured by his agent, James Seabright, Benson set about finding a fellow actor to perform the Perry and Croft scripts with him. "My immediate thought was to ask Jack Lane to do it as I'd seen his Norman Wisdom show, Wisdom Of A Fool, in Horsham and was knocked out by him. He was the only actor I'd seen who, like I do in my shows, could turn into another character very quickly," he recalls.

Contact made, Lane came on board. "I just felt we were going to have the most fun together," Benson says. "Jack and I have the same [performing] technique, which makes him the perfect comedy collaborator for me." 

His instinct was right. "We got such a positive response at Edinburgh last summer where people said if they closed their eyes, they thought they saw the whole cast, which means they were using their inner eye, their imagination, listening to the words, making pictures in their minds.

"The great thing is we don't have to worry about costume changes because it's all sounds, so I can play Mrs Fox; Jack can play Mrs Pike and Private Walker's girlfriend, Miss Shirley, played by Wendy Richard in the TV series. We can switch characters really quickly as we just have to stand behind our microphones with the scripts!

"We never get nervous before doing it; we just love performing these scripts and I love watching Jack perform in those scenes when he has to 'talk to himself' playing two characters." 

Among Benson's characters will be Godfrey, Frazer, Walker, Hodges and Le Mesurier's Sergeant Wilson, his favourite. "When I was a schoolboy in Birmingham in the 1970s, experiencing such a traumatic childhood - as I talked about in Think No Evil Of Us - I loved the way Wilson was so distant from all the mayhem around him, though in real life Le Mesurier was a very anxious, troubled man who hid it behind a delightfully charming mask," he says.

"I know his widow Joan, who came to see Think No Evil Of Us, not knowing that I impersonated her husband in the show, and after she came backstage afterwards, we became firm friends.

"To hear all the secret stories of John Le Mesurier - which I couldn't possibly tell!! - has been fascinating, and he always feels so present in their Ramsgate home, because his chair is there and all his photographs."

One surprise maybe who is voicing Mainwaring, Arthur Lowe's irascible Captain. "Jack did the best Jones, his Pike is uncanny, and though Jack is 31 and a nice-looking young man, he plays Mainwaring when everyone expects it would be me," says Benson.

Put on the spot why Dad's Army has retained its popularity, he says: "Everybody loves the characters, and the show evokes the Second World War more vividly than war footage does.

"It's about Britishness and defending what is it to be British and to be silly old fools, which is something people identify with. There's a huge emotional attachment to it by people like me who watched it as a child and people then watching it with their children, and those children are coming to see our show now.

"Dad's Army is good-hearted, uncynical, but not soppy, and astringent too, like in the class war between Mainwaring and Wilson, and its humour appeals not only to British people but overseas tto.

"Basically it's a bunch of idiots pitted against an existential force and that's what everyone connects with." 

Seabright Productions present Dad's Army Radio Hour, York Theatre Royal, today (Thursday), 2pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Did you know?

Owen Lewis, director of Dad's Army Radio Hour, directed Madness singer Suggs's two stage shows, My Life Story In Words And Music and What A King Cnut.