Reporting House Cleared

The Desperate Drive of Corporal Jones has a special place in the Dad’s Army catalogue for me and it’s because of this moment. Somehow I managed to miss seeing this episode for many years and I think it was the last Dad’s Army episode I ever saw for the first time. It was recorded exactly 46 years ago today on 16 June 1972.

The format of many episodes was to have a central story-line accompanied by several only loosely connected comic scenes. That is the case with this episode, with the car and the tree being a good example (and a rare instance of stop-motion animation used in a sitcom). But that’s not the section I’ve chosen.

The moment I’ve chosen here brilliantly brings together all of the members of the Platoon the vicar, verger and Hodges in one explosive comic moment – which caused me to spit coffee across the living-room the first time I saw it.