A private's progress to Dad's Army

Any Dad's Army fan knows that this classic of all British sitcoms was set on the South Coast of England.

But try to find the fictional Walmington-on-Sea there and you'll be almost as hapless as Captain Mainwaring and his men.

In fact, the cult comedy was filmed in and around Thetford in Norfolk, and the recent broadcast by the BBC of two 'lost' episodes is generating an interest in visiting those locations.

The perfect starting point for a Dad's Army recce is the Anchor Hotel in Thetford. The cast used to stay here and at the Bell Hotel, across the river, during filming, and the first scene of the first episode was filmed, in 1968, in what was the Anchor's Norvic Room, but which is now the High Seas Restaurant.

The rare seafront scenes were shot in Lowestoft, in Suffolk, and Winterton, but Thetford was used repeatedly in the 80 episodes of Dad's Army. It's a compact town, bisected by two rivers, the Little Ouse and the Thet, with narrow streets of flint-fronted houses.

I took a walk down Bridge Street to Newtown, where in one episode the orange-brick pre-War council houses formed the backdrop to a scene in which the platoon practised subterfuge cunningly disguised as dustbins, and down Bury Road to the derelict church of St Mary the Less.

It was in this churchyard that Corporal Jones undertook an obstacle course designed to prove he was fit enough to remain in the platoon. Over the river is Nether Row, where he showed off his butcher's van, newly converted as troop transport.

Nether Row's terrace of flatfronted cottages - renamed Percy Street on TV - were used countless times as a backdrop. When a German paratrooper's parachute got caught on the town hall clock, the warden stood down here and had bottles chucked at him by Pike.

I find Pike Lane - no relation to the 'Stupid Boy' - and go on into Guildhall Street. The Guildhall itself, a slightly eccentric Victorian building, became Walmington-on-Sea's town hall.

After lunch I drove north, on a die-straight road, through the pine plantations of Thetford Forest via Brandon, whose village station stood in for Walmington's.

I headed for the Stanford Battle Area where, in July 1942, 118,000 acres was evacuated so troops could train in secret for the eventual invasion of Europe. The 500 or so inhabitants of six villages - Stanford, Buckenham Tofts, West Tofts, Langford, Tottington and Sturston - were displaced.

Today, the villages are still marooned in a vast no-go area marked Danger on the map and, on the ground, with signs warning: 'Army Training Area, No Admittance Without Permit'.

Within the restricted zone the landscape has been preserved unchanged for 60 years. In this area, which you can enter only by prior arrangement, Dad's Army's military exercises were often filmed.

At Buckenham Tofts, Warden Hodges challenged the platoon to a cricket match and fielded his secret weapon, played by Freddie Trueman. At West Tofts Church, the platoon advanced on their token enemy behind portable gravestones, and on Frog Hill the sequence which closes each episode was shot.

To the north of the restricted zone is Watton Airfield, where the men tackled a runaway secret weapon - a giant, radio-controlled wheel packed with high explosives, which chased Jones's van.

Dad's Army location shoots always took place in summer in what you might assume was an idealised, now lost, English countryside. In fact it's still here, just as it was.

The proof is to the south of Thetford, in a clutch of charming Suffolk villages that also had regular appearances in the show.

I took a walk from Honington, where I recognised the parish church with a pretty little school alongside it. Here, Captain Mainwaring heard the bank had been bombed. Racing off to ensure the money was safe, he commandeered a horse and cart and careered off down a lane which fords the Black Bourn and doubles back to the next village, Sapiston.

A couple of miles down the lane is the village of Bardwell, where across a field is a splendid 16th Century pub called the Six Bells which also played a part and has a picture of the Dad's Army cast on the wall.

It was almost as if they were there with me.

? For guided tours in the Stanford Battle Area write to: Headquarters, Stanford Training Area, West Tofts Camp, Thetford, Norfolk IP26 5EP (01842 855235).

? Bressingham Steam Museum in Bressingham, near Diss (01379 687 386) opens on March 23 and has a permanent exhibition of Dad's Army memorabilia.