Dad’s Army is a TV series starring Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, and Clive Dunn. A ragtag group of Home Guard volunteers prepare for an imminent German invasion during World War II.
Release Date: July 1968
10. Mum’s Army
Air Date: 20 Nov. 1970Season 4, Episode 9
After Mainwaring announces that women are to join the Home Guard several lady friends of the platoon come forward, as does Fiona Gray, an elegant, quietly-spoken widow who has brought her mother down from London to escape the bombs. Mainwaring is very taken by her and contrives to have morning coffee in a local tea-shop she regularly uses, where they are interrupted by various platoon members. They are seen out a lot together and Wilson tries in vain to tell Mainwaring that he is the subject of gossip. Fiona realizes this and so decides to return to London without …
9. Asleep in the Deep
Air Date: 6 Oct. 1972Season 5, Episode 1
A bomb hits the gasworks where Godfrey and Walker are on duty and the platoon and Hodges go to rescue them from a small room in which Godfrey is asleep. Jones, who is in an outer chamber, slams the door, bringing the roof down and everyone except Jones is in the small room, which is rapidly filling with water. Eventually, after Hodges and Pike both get soaked, they escape from the cell, but, thanks to Godfrey shutting the door so that nobody catches a cold, they are still trapped in the building and Wilson has to wade through the water and out of the hatch to summon …
8. Battle of the Giants!
Air Date: 27 Dec. 1971Season 4, Episode 14
Already peeved because Captain Square has drawn attention to the fact that he is the only member of the platoon not to have medals – except Pike, who has his scout’s badges – Mainwaring is happy to take on the challenge of beating Square’s Eastgate platoon in an initiative test, a race to an old tower where the winner is the first to fly their flag. Jones gets a touch of malaria whilst driving the van and Hodges deliberately stops them to give Eastgate the advantage, after which a stand-off on a narrow bridge leads to Hodges getting pushed into the river. The …
7. The Day the Balloon Went Up
Air Date: 30 Oct. 1969Season 3, Episode 8
After Mainwaring complains that the men’s saluting is sloppy a runaway barrage balloon appears with the verger clinging onto it. He is rescued and various people, including Godfrey’s sister Cissie, are asked to hang onto it until Mainwaring takes charge. Unfortunately for him it takes off in the breeze with him holding onto the other end of its rope, dragging him through trees and a haystack until it stops on a railway bridge. The men are about to secure it but then an officer comes by and in order to perfect the saluting so beloved of Mainwaring they have to let go …
6. My Brother and I
Air Date: 26 Dec. 1975Season 8, Episode 7
Captain George Mainwaring berates Frank for writing a humorous draft magazine article on the Home Guard, especially because it mentions drinking. Next he ‘volunteers’ the platoon to host a sherry party for Home guard officers. His haughty attitude is duly dimmed when his brother Barry, a party toys salesman, arrives by train, who reveals their humble roots.
5. Ring Dem Bells
Air Date: 5 Sep. 1975Season 8, Episode 1
The Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard is excited to be selected to ‘act’ in an army film, but when it becomes clear they’ll play Nazis and how unkind the camera could be, Captain Mainwaring refuses ‘patriotically’ to participate; Frank and Arthur are chosen as German officers. The whole ‘cast’ is to travel in Jones’s butchery van on a hot day, only to be told their scenes are delayed. Against orders, they leave in costume for drinks in a bar, where the landlord is convinced they are enemy troops and informs the warden, who passes the panic message on to the police and the …
4. Menace from the Deep
Air Date: 13 Nov. 1969Season 3, Episode 10
Mainwaring and his platoon get into a pickle when they’re put in charge manning an observation post on a derelict pier.
3. The Deadly Attachment
Air Date: 31 Oct. 1973Season 6, Episode 1
After a surreal lecture on telling allied parachutists from German ones, the platoon is ordered to pick up a stranded U-boot’s crew. Wilson feels live hand-grenades are too dangerous for his hot-head mates and acts accordingly. As HQ’s armed escort is late, the Kriegsmarine captain can first play mind-games by drafting a reckoning ‘list’, then take Hodges hostage.
2. Time on My Hands
Air Date: 29 Dec. 1972Season 5, Episode 13
The platoon is called to seize a German pilot, who got stuck parachute-jumped on the bomb-damaged church hall tower clock. Getting him down is hard enough, given the language barrier. Then Jones manages to drop the ladder, the warden refuses to help. Even the clock’s hourly knighthood fight display figures seems to remember it’s German-made. Luckily, the vicar listened to fairy tales as well as Wilson.
1. Branded
Air Date: 20 Nov. 1969Season 3, Episode 11
It is revealed that Private Godfrey was a Conscientious Objector in the First World War, leading Mainwaring and some of the platoon to brand him as a coward. However, during an exercise in which Mainwaring collapses with smoke inhalation, it is Godfrey who, at risk to himself, rescues him. When Mainwaring and the others go to visit Godfrey, recovering in bed, they see a photo of him with a military medal, won in the First World War when he was a brave stretcher bearer who saved many lives. Mainwaring is ashamed and asks Godfrey to be the platoon’s official First Aid …