Episode Guide (Series 4)
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1: The Big Parade (25 Sep 70)
The platoon has to lead a big parade to mark the start of Spitfire Week. Captain Mainwaring decides that they need a mascot. Private Sponge offers to let them have a ram from his farm, provided they can catch one. Private Pike ends up trapped in a bog. The parade finally gets underway without a mascot.
Also appearing:
Colin Bean (Private Sponge), Pamela Cundell (Mrs Fox)
2: Don't Forget The Diver (2 Oct 70)
The platoon are taking part in a big Home Guard exercise. They have to plant a bomb in a windmill occupied by the Eastgate platoon. Mainwaring and his men use various disguises to reach the windmill undetected. Jones manages to throw the bomb into the windmill, but gets caught up and carried aloft by the sails.
Also appearing:
Colin Bean (Private Sponge), Don Estelle (ARP Warden), Geoffrey Lumsden (Captain Square), Verne Morgan (Landlord), Robert Raglan (Sergeant)
3: Boots, Boots, Boots (9 Oct 70)
Captain Mainwaring becomes obsessed with the idea of healthy feet, so he organises a barefoot football game and a 20-mile route march. The members of the platoon conspire to sabotage Mainwaring's plans.
Also appearing:
Erik Chitty (Mr Sedgewick)
4: Sgt - Save My Boy! (16 Oct 70)
During manoeuvres on the beach, Private Pike gets trapped on barbed wire in the middle of a minefield. The tide is coming in and Pike can't swim, so the members of the platoon must find a way to rescue him before it's too late.
Also appearing:
Michael Knowles (Engineer Officer)
5: Don't Fence Me In (23 Oct 70)
The platoon have to guard a camp full of Italian POWs. When Walker is caught smuggling a group of prisoners out of the camp, Mainwaring suspects him of being a fifth columnist. Walker confesses that he's been employing the Italians to work on a night shift assembling radio parts.
Also appearing:
Edward Evans (General Monteverdi), Larry Martyn (Italian POW), John Ringham (Captain Bailey)
6: Absent Friends (30 Oct 70)
Captain Mainwaring has to attend a meeting. In his absence, Wilson gives the men permission to play in a darts match against the ARP wardens in a local public house. When Mainwaring arrives back unexpectedly, he orders Wilson to get the men out of the pub and back on parade. Wilson finds it difficult to persuade the men to return. meanwhile, Mainwaring has to deal with a suspected IRA terrorist.
Also appearing:
Patrick Connor (Shamus), J G Devlin (Regan), Arthur English (Policeman), Michael Lomax (ARP Warden), Verne Morgan (Landlord)
7: Put That Light Out (6 Nov 70)
Members of the platoon are manning an observation post in the local lighthouse, with Jones in charge. They accidentally switch on the light and can't find a way to switch it off again. The whole town is illuminated. When an air raid begins, the platoon have to find a way of extinguishing the light.
Also appearing:
Avril Angers (Telephone Operator), Gordon Peters (Lighthouse Keeper), Stuart Sherwin (ARP Warden)
8: The Two And A Half Feathers (13 Nov 70)
An old soldier named George Clarke, who served in the Sudan with Jones, joins the platoon. He tells everyone that Jones left him to die in the desert. When Jones starts to receive anonymous letters accusing him of cowardice, he decides that it's time to put the record straight. He reveals that he and Clarke were captured and that he rescued Clarke from certain death. Clarke leaves the platoon and the town in disgrace.
Also appearing:
John Ash (Raymond), John Cater (Private Clarke), Linda James (Betty), Parnell McGarry (Elizabeth), Gilda Perry (Doreen), Wendy Richard (Edith Parrish), Queenie Watts (Edna)
9: Mum's Army (20 Nov 70)
The platoon gets some female recruits. Mainwaring takes a fancy to one of them, Mrs Gray. When Mainwaring is seen in a cafe with Mrs Gray, rumours begin to spread.
Next day, Mainwaring discovers that Mrs Gray is leaving town. He goes to the station and tries to persuade her to stay, but she insists on leaving.
Also appearing:
Julia Burberry (Miss Ironside), Pamela Cundell (Mrs Fox), Rosemary Faith (Ivy Samways), David Gilchrist (Serviceman), Jack Le White (Porter), Melita Manger (Waitress), Deidre Prosser (Buffet Attendant), Wendy Richard (Edith Parrish), Carmen Silvera (Mrs Gray), Eleanor Smale (Mrs Prosser)
10: The Test (27 Nov 70)
The platoon is challenged to a cricket match by the ARP unit. Mainwaring appoints himself captain. Chief Warden Hodges enlists a professional cricketer, who joins the ARP unit so that he can play in the match. The wardens bat first and score well. The platoon struggles to reach the winning target, until Wilson and Godfrey save the day.
Also appearing:
Harold Bennett (Mr Blewitt), Don Estelle (Gerald), Freddie Truman (E C Egan)
11: A. Wilson (Manager)? (4 Dec 70)
Wilson is given a commission and becomes manager of the Eastgate branch of the bank, much to Mainwaring's disgust. Pike is promoted to Temporary Chief Clerk and Mainwaring sends a memo to Jones telling him that he's been promoted to sergeant. There's a mixup and everyone in the platoon thinks that he's been made a sergeant. Wilson's new branch is destroyed in an air raid and he returns to his old job in Walmington-On-Sea.
Also appearing:
Colin Bean (Private Sponge), Arthur Brough (Mr Boyle), Blake Butler (Mr West), Hugh Hastings (Private Hastings), Robert Raglan (Captain Pritchard)
12: Uninvited Guests (11 Dec 70)
The wardens' HQ is bombed, so they have to share the church hall with the Home Guard. Captain Mainwaring is very unhappy with the arrangement, so he tries to get the Wardens moved elsewhere. He's told that they can't be found alternative accommodation for at least a week. Meanwhile, the church hall almost burns down.
Also appearing:
Don Estelle (Gerald), Rose Hill (Mrs Cole)
13: Fallen Idol (18 Dec 70)
The platoon are on a weekend course. Captain Square talks Mainwaring into going for a drink at the Officers' Mess. Mainwaring gets drunk and wakes up next morning with a terrible hangover. In spite of this, he manages to save Jones' life.
Also appearing:
Rex Garner (Captain Ashley-Jones), Michael Knowles (Captain Reed), Geoffrey Lumsden (Captain Square), Tom Mennard (Mess Orderly), Robert Raglan (Captain Pritchard), Anthony Sagar (Sergeant Major)
Special
Battle Of The Giants! (27 Dec 71)
Orders arrive from Battalion HQ saying that the men should wear their medals at a special church parade. Captain Mainwaring has no medals to wear. He tries to avoid being present at church parade, but has to attend.
In the pub after church parade, Captain Square ridicules Mainwaring's lack of medals and claims that the Easgate platoon is much better than the Walmington-On-Sea platoon. Mainwaring challenges the Eastgate platoon to a series of initiative tests, with the vicar, the verger and Hodges as judges.
Jones has an attack of malaria which disrupts the Walmington-On-Sea platoon's progress in the tests. Godfrey has no quinine, so he gives Jones a bottle of tonic wine. Jones ends up very drunk.
The winning platoon is the one which is first to hoist its flag from the church tower. The Walmington-On-Sea platoon finish first, but run into problems when it comes to hoisting their flag. The Eastgate platoon catch them up and are first to hoist a flag, but it's the Walmington-On-Sea platoon's flag which flies. Walker reveals that he supplied both platoons with flags and that both of them had Walmington-On-Sea on them.
Also appearing:
Colin Bean (Private Sponge), Rosemary Faith (Barmaid), Charles Hill (Sergeant), Geoffrey Lumsden (Captain Square), Robert Raglan (Colonel)
Interesting quote:
Vicar: I shall read this only once, so you must listen very carefully.