With recent discussions about Only Fools, Fawlty Towers, Michael Caine films etc, how about one of the best comedy series ever
I can happily watch Dads Army over and over again - brilliantly funny, with an excellent cast of very good actors and actresses - so many superbly written characters and incidents / storylines
I can’t pick a favourite, although I suspect the ‘Deadly Attachment’ will feature as most people’s most memorable, but for me .....
The Test - when they take on the Wardens at cricket
We know our onions - when they have to go on an efficiency test and fire the Smith Gun using onions
High Finance - when Jones has an overdraft at the bank, and it transpires that there is a trail of debt around the village
Face on the poster - when Jones’ face is mistakenly used on an escaped POW poster
Round and round went the great big wheel - when Pike’s home made radio wrecks the test of a new wonder weapon
The two and half feathers - when Jones is accused of being a coward, and they go back in time to the Mahdist War and Capt Mainwaring turns into an expletive shouting Sargent
So many others of course
And the saddest one - A Wilson, manager - when Wilson finally gets his own branch to manage, but it’s destroyed by a bomb on his first day in the job
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Comments
I actually love Dad's Army and think it is criminally under rated when ever sit coms are discussed. It's certainly aged better than a lot of its peers. Mainly due to the fact its still acceptable to air.
It has slapstick, empathy, beautifully crafted scripts, a wonderful cast, historically well researched nostalgia and re-occurring jokes that seem never to tire.
It was well described somewhere as 'a half hour slot in the company of some good friends'
I must agree that 'The Two and Half Feathers' is up there for me but I also found a moving episode to be 'Mums Army' where Mainwaring falls in love.
The final episode when, after so many years of comedy at the expense of the Home Guard, they raise their glasses, break the fourth wall and toast those members who did step up between 1939-45 in the civil defences is a wonderful point of closure, much like that in Blackadder Goes Forth.
As standalone episodes, many are more like a good stage play, inevitable I suppose given the classic schooling and acting abilities of many of the cast members. Its also one of the few sitcoms that transfers into a longer movie format as well, the 1971 film being as easy on the eye as the sitcoms.
A brilliant show and a lovely thread, look forward to hearing other peoples favourite moments, I might have to go and watch a few episodes again now.
You can always tune in and know you’re in for half an hour of good honest old fashioned humour that seem to fit like a pair of old slippers.
Remember watching it back in its early days and my dad absolutely loving it.
Became a great favourite with my family, so to me it has even more sentimental value.
I am the only one left, god bless them all.
The only problem with the film - and I know the cast were very unhappy about this - was that the film studio insisted that Liz Fraser played Mrs Pike - it’s a good film though
"Shall I tell you about the old, old, empty house?
There was nothing in it."
When mainwaring got stuck to a barrage balloon.
When they thought their rowing boat crossed the channel and they spent the night in a train planning their escape, only to find they had hardly gone anywhere
dont know why but I just didn't find it very funny
I like the radio series too. I don't know the episodes well enough to be sure, but I always get the impression that the scripts were changed very little from the TV shows
Yes Minister is quality as well.
Nuff said.
Timeless programme that I've watched since a child and now my daughter is loving them.
Don't make programmes like this anymore.
I know there was one where Mainwaring says “ Don’t tell him Pike.”
But I must have missed the one where he says “Don’t tell him Spike.” 😏
Extraordinary!
Went to see the stage show in the 70s and at the time I was a little disappointed that a couple of the original cast weren't in it (John Laurie didn't do the shows and I think Clive Dunn shared the role with someone else and didn't do the performance I saw)