Blake Harrison: ‘Kissing Catherine Zeta-Jones was an honour’

Blake Harrison admits his kiss with Catherine Zeta-Jones in Dad’s Army was “worth getting out of bed for!”
The Inbetweeners actor stars as Private Pike in the movie adaptation of the much loved television series. In one scene, he is seen making an ill advised move on Catherine’s character Rose Winters, and he admits it was a moment he enjoyed filming.
“Yeah that’s worth getting out of bed for!” Blake said of the romantic scene during an interview on TV show Lorraine on Tuesday (02Feb16). “She’s a brilliant actress as well and it was such an honour to be there on set with these guys and with Catherine as well and yeah, we got to have a little kiss – what’s wrong with that?”
Blake got to star alongside a host of veteran actors in the movie, such as Michael Gambon and Bill Nighy. Acting in such a stellar cast was a unique, unforgettable experience for Blake.
“So many Knights of the Realm, Oscar and BAFTA winners – Toby Jones, Tom Courtenay, Bill Nighy – at lunchtime, for me, it was basically Gambon story time.
“I didn’t say a word pretty much every lunchtime because I was just letting them talk about the time they worked with (Marlon) Brando, or (Al) Pacino, and the days of The National and (Laurence) Olivier all this kind of stuff – I can’t really contribute much to that kind of conversation, so I was there just in awe of it – taking it all in.
“Michael Gambon is the funniest man I’ve ever met. Genuinely, he’s so, so funny.”
Blake also got the opportunity to act alongside Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike in the original series. Getting to hear Ian’s verdict of the film was the biggest compliment of all for Blake.
“He’s fantastic in it – he genuinely played a completely different character to Pike,” he said. “He was really great to have him around and there was a real moment on set when he walked on and everyone was like, ‘Oh this is so great!’ And I spoke to him after the premiere as well and he was a big fan of it and said some really lovely things to me about what I did with Pike as well – there’s no higher praise than coming from Ian.”