Dad's Army

Radio Times review

It's teatime in the Pike household, and young Frank joins mum and Sergeant Wilson after a day-long medical. Despite his croup, wonky ankles and a touch of "verdigris" if he stands on anything, "They passed me fit. I'm A1!"

Before he goes on active service - and before his celebratory fish-and-chip-and-fizzy-pop supper, Pike and Mainwaring give blood in the church hall. If only the captain hadn't boasted that his platoon would rustle up 100 pints to beat the total offered by the despised Hodges...

It's a delightful episode: a tidily constructed story, spicy glimpses of home life and a soupçon of pathos. A prize-winning pun from Wilson, too.

Pamela Cundell obituary

Warmhearted actor who played the amorous Mrs Fox in Dad's Army.

Radio Times review

Die-hards always look forward to certain things in a Dad's Army episode: for example, one of Jones's windy speeches. This one results in one of Mainwaring's most despairing puffs of the cheeks.

But before that the simmering resentment the captain has for his sergeant surfaces once more. The occasion is a visit from Lady Maltby (Mavis Pugh, who played shi-tzu-loving Mrs Chase in Fawlty Towers) to offer the platoon her Rolls-Royce towards the war effort. But despite the ill feeling between Wilson and Mainwaring, they are at least united in their dislike of the abhorrent Hodges, who is the butt of the final joke. Even Mainwaring smiles.

Radio Times review

You'd think the squad would welcome the chance to get out of their battledress, but donning morris-dancing outfits to raise money for a new Spitfire is another matter. Frazer moans like a drain about this "pansy Sassenach get-up", Wilson finds his dummy horse most awkward and Jones, too, is in a spot of trouble - and not just with his whiffling.

It seems the loyal lance corporal is having woman trouble: cue a deliciously awkward tête-à-tête between Mainwaring and Mrs Fox in the Marigold Tea Rooms - overheard by half the platoon. The captain is a picture of discomfort as the flighty Fox gets hold of the wrong end of the whiffling stick. Increasingly fraught discussions ensue over who should play Lady Godiva at the town carnival (listen out for Pike's brilliant Town Clerk impression). Writers Croft and Perry display their intimate understanding of the comedy motto "End with a topper, then top the topper". Dad's Army didn't go in for pay-offs very often, but this one is a corker.

Radio Times review

"Over the years that I've come to know the members of this platoon, I've grown quite fond of them, but I can't help feeling sometimes that I'm in charge of a bunch of idiots." It's not often that Captain Mainwaring is quite so scathing about his platoon, but he's prompted by a classic piece of long-windedness from leering loon Private Frazer. It's a towering moment in the midst of some lightweight field-exercise shenanigans, but you'll enjoy the effete expression from Wilson tanning his face while his captain blethers on, and another brief but heavenly example of under-the-influence acting from Arthur Lowe.

Fans of 70s comedy will enjoy the sight of Dave Allen stooge Michael Sharvell-Martin as the Lieutenant.

Radio Times review

The sight of the Vicar and Verger in battledress is just one of many rarities in this extraordinary affair. Among the others are Mainwaring laid up in a hospital bed (with ingrowing toenails), Frazer brandishing a live white mouse on parade and Godfrey having a big speech to remember. Also, poignantly, a note on the floor where James Beck should be standing. This was the first story not to feature Walker; thereafter, bizarrely, he was never mentioned again.

Overlooking a few old-school lines that don't bear repeating, there are a handful of treasures, including Wilson's annoyance at Mainwaring treating him like a labrador, and Frazer comparing the Verger's face to a sour prune.

Radio Times review

Anyone who enjoys the class collisions of Mainwaring and Wilson will be in heaven with this episode. In "The Honourable Man", Wilson becomes entitled following the death of his uncle. The news induces pride in Pike and his beaming mother, but brings out an assortment of colours in the Captain, including red for apoplexy and green for jealousy.

The welcoming preparations for a visiting Russian worker cause further explosions of pomposity. But the many other weapons in Dad's arsenal are discharged with equal efficacy, from Walker's leavening cockiness to Jones's "cobblers". It's a beauty.

Radio Times review

If you're wondering why almost none of this episode was recorded on video - even the interior scenes - a studio strike in 1973 meant it had to be shot on location with 16mm film. It's a needs-must approach that's appropriate to both the series and the episode. Because when the Home Guard takes an efficiency test, they need all their wits (ahem!) to overcome the bullying supervisor (Fulton Mackay in the same year he'd made his Porridge debut).

Anyone who's endured the nonsense of role-playing seminars at work will cheer Wilson's dismissive air, while the way Godfrey turns an anti-tank artillery piece into a chintzy armchair is a sight to behold.

Ian Lavender to have cameo in new Dad's Army film

Original Dad's Army star Ian Lavender is making a cameo appearance in the new film.

Radio Times review

Dad's Army goes a bit Mack Sennett in this episode when a sealed-order mission turns into a frantic choo-choo chase. King George VI is due to pass through the station, but a mix-up between sleeping pills and saccharine puts a spanner - or a defective brake wheel - in the works.

One false alarm sees Captain Mainwaring moving along a stopped train while sheepishly inquiring, "Your Majesty, are you there?" But the sight of the Vicar, Verger and Hodges on a pump trolley takes some beating.