Dad's Army is quite simply the most successful British TV sitcom of all time. Eighty episodes were made and are constantly repeated. The first black-and-white series, re-shown for the first time in 1999, attracted 4.6 million viewers, outperforming Have I got News for You and almost outstripping Channel Four's most popular programme, Friends. When the second series was shown on Saturday nights in 1998 it took 7 million viewers and 40 percent of the audience. Almost every comedy writer from Ben Elton and Richard Curtis to John Sullivan and David Renwick pay homage to this 'the perfect sitcom'. When BBC centre was blacked out on Tuesday 20 June for the first time in 40 years by a power cut Dad's Army was drafted in to save us from blank screens. Dad's Army is simply an icon in TV comedy. For the first time the complete illustrated scripts with introductions to each episode by the authors.