Chuck,
I think if you had been fortunate to watch a lot of Dad's Army then you would have identified with the Doomed drama Documentary. It's as much about the formation of the Jimmy Perry and David Croft partnership which went on to write some of our greatest comedies Hi De Hi, I't Ain't Half Hot Mum et al . Clearly the hierarchy in the BBC were difficult to deal with but I got the feeling David Croft was well liked and seemed to have the ear of the higher echelons within the Beeb. I suppose I have the advantage of having seen and owned copies of the shows plus BBC broadcast an episode every Saturday night .
In terms of the Doomed show it confirmed how difficult Arthur Lowe was to work with , the cast were frustrated because of the number of re-takes they had to endure , Arthur was notorious for not learning his lines couldn't really embrace scripts which I thought was beautifully illustrated when Jimmy tries to pass him the script to learn at home and he says " Oh No No No Joan won't allow that rubbish in the House" .
It certainly portrayed him in such a way that there seemed a mixture of sheer disbelief ,not only from the Beeb hierarchy but also some of the members of the cast, that he had been hired and how self indulgent he was [ the scene of him eating a huge plate of breakfast ] . As I said on the other thread I was stunned to see that John Sessions was playing him and didn't realise until the final credits rolled.
I think the show suffered from having to cram it all into an hour so you really only get a smattering of information about the characters and it is really more about the struggle to get the show to air. The Beeb are airing the show again today and tomorrow[a reflection on the scheduling ] , with the addition tomorrow of a repeat of Don't Panic the Dads Army story narrated by Victoria Wood which to me gives a better insight to the show albeit only a 50 minutes duration .