Soldiers and alcohol go together like rifles and bayonets – except for Captain Mainwaring, who has a long standing aversion to booze on account of his brother who likes it far too much. True he takes the occasional sweet sherry and there is a bit of doubt as to why Walker slips him the odd bottle of scotch. But basically the good captain doesn’t drink.

The same can’t be said of Captain Square who, on all the available evidence, only survived his time in the desert with El Lawrence because he was pickled in whisky. So when the Home Guard go on a training camp and Mainwaring finds himself spending the evening in the officers’ mess with a bunch of old soldiers, things are bound to get interesting.

This is from the Episode Fallen Idol, from the fourth series when Dad’s Army was pretty much at its peak. First screened on 18 December 1970, just before the Christmas special Battle of the Giants, another episode in which Colonel Square features heavily. So sit back, enjoy the clip and raise a glass to the health of Cardinal Puff.