Fallen Idol (Dad's Army) - Misplaced Pages

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13th episode of the 4th series of Dad's Army

"Fallen Idol"

Dad's Army episode

Episode no.

Series 4
Episode 13

Directed by

David Croft

Story by

Jimmy Perry and David Croft

Original air date

18 December 1970 (1970-12-18)

Running time

34 minutes

Episode chronology

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"Uninvited Guests"

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"Battle of the Giants!"

List of episodes

"Fallen Idol" is the thirteenth and final episode of the fourth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Friday 18 December 1970.

Synopsis

Captain Mainwaring has always epitomised the principle of military sobriety to his men, but, after Captain Square leads him astray one day in the Officer's Mess, he ends up inebriated. Only something genuinely heroic now can restore his damaged reputation in the eyes of his men.

Plot

The Walmington-on-Sea platoon arrive at a weekend country training camp to learn about handling bombs. The camp is run by the twitchy Captain Reed, who is frightened by the enthusiasm and lack of awareness shown by the Home Guard units. He is particularly unsettled by the Walmington platoon, especially Corporal Jones.

As the men bring their bedding into their bivouac tent, Private Pike tries to find his teddy bear, Mr. Snuggly. When Sergeant Wilson finds it, Mainwaring notices and Wilson reluctantly claims that the bear is his, so as not to embarrass Pike. Meanwhile, Jones has brought a mosquito net, despite Walker telling him there are not any around. Jones explains that he has had the net since his Sudan days, and that it helped to keep out snakes as well during cold nights.

Captain Square enters and convinces Mainwaring to set up an officers only section in the tent for himself and Wilson, much to the outrage of the men. He subsequently offends them by attending a select officers mess, drinking whisky with Square and his two colleagues, and playing "Cardinal Puff" while his men enjoy a couple of bottles of ale elsewhere. Most of the men are disgruntled, while noting this is not Mainwaring's normal behaviour. Frazer goes so far as to threaten to resign (his general surly attitude of late has led Mainwaring to suspect he is a communist, noting he "never plays Monopoly with the others" as evidence of his suspicions). After the men go to bed, a drunken Mainwaring returns to their tent only to be jumped on by Jones, thinking he is a thuggee.

The next morning, a rather hungover and worse for wear Captain Mainwaring joins his men for training. While at first things go seemingly to plan, potential disaster soon strikes when a stray grenade is fired into the roof of Jones's van. He starts to drive away, so Mainwaring gives chase on a bicycle, gets into the van and warns Jones, who abandons the van while it is moving. A cool Mainwaring then stops and evacuates the van, but it is stood next to power lines. Mainwaring immediately re-enters the van and recovers the grenade: his command of the situation restoring his reputation in the eyes of the platoon. After Mainwaring throws the grenade away and dives for safety he hears panting, looking up to see the grenade being held by a shaggy dog. Mainwaring flees, only to be chased down the road by the dog as the episode ends.

Cast

Notes

Cardinal Puff is a real-life army drinking game dating back to the 17th century. The prospective "Cardinal" must go through a series of rituals: tapping finger once above table, once under table, stamping left foot, stamping right foot, standing up, and banging the glass on the table before toasting Cardinal Puff. The rituals are repeated twice for the second drink to Cardinal Puff-Puff and three times for the final toast to the health of Cardinal Puff-Puff-Puff. If the drinker gets one of the steps wrong, he has to finish his glass and start from the beginning.
The dog at the end of this episode is a Bearded Collie.

The runtime of this episode is over 34 minutes.
This is Robert Raglan’s third appearance in series three. Somewhat unusually each time he appears in series three he has a different rank: HG Sergeant in “Don’t Forget The Diver”, Colonel Pritchard in “A.Wilson (Manager)?”, and Captain Pritchard in “Fallen Idol”. He would appear in the following episode, the 1972 Christmas episode “Battle of the Giants”, this time with his rank restored to ‘Colonel’ - he remains with this rank for the rest of his time on the series.

References

External links

"Fallen Idol" at IMDb

Dad's Army

Characters

Episodes

Adaptations & spinoffs

Merchandise

Other articles

Episodes
Series 1	"The Man and the Hour" "Museum Piece" "Command Decision" "The Enemy Within the Gates" "The Showing Up of Corporal Jones" "Shooting Pains"
Series 2	"Operation Kilt" "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker"†‡ "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret" "A Stripe for Frazer"†‡ "Under Fire"†‡
Series 3	"The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones" "Battle School" "The Lion Has 'Phones" "The Bullet Is Not for Firing" "Something Nasty in the Vault" "Room at the Bottom" "Big Guns" "The Day the Balloon Went Up" "War Dance" "Menace from the Deep" "Branded" "Man Hunt" "No Spring for Frazer" "Sons of the Sea"
Series 4	"The Big Parade" "Don't Forget the Diver" "Boots, Boots, Boots" "Sgt – Save My Boy!" "Don't Fence Me In" "Absent Friends" "Put That Light Out!" "The Two and a Half Feathers" "Mum's Army" "The Test" "A. Wilson (Manager)?" "Uninvited Guests" "Fallen Idol"
Series 5	"Asleep in the Deep" "Keep Young and Beautiful" "A Soldier's Farewell" "Getting the Bird" "The Desperate Drive of Corporal Jones" "If the Cap Fits..." "The King Was in His Counting House" "All is Safely Gathered In" "When Did You Last See Your Money?" "Brain Versus Brawn" "A Brush with the Law" "Round and Round Went the Great Big Wheel" "Time on My Hands"
Series 6	"The Deadly Attachment" "My British Buddy" "The Royal Train" "We Know Our Onions" "The Honourable Man" "Things that Go Bump in the Night" "The Recruit"
Series 7	"Everybody's Trucking" "A Man of Action" "Gorilla Warfare" "The Godiva Affair" "The Captain's Car" "Turkey Dinner"
Series 8	"Ring Dem Bells" "When You've Got to Go" "Is There Honey Still for Tea?" "Come In, Your Time Is Up" "High Finance" "The Face on the Poster"
Series 9	"Wake Up Walmington" "The Making of Private Pike" "Knights of Madness" "The Miser's Hoard" "Number Engaged" "Never Too Old"
000!!Specials	"Santa on Patrol"† "Resisting the Aggressor Down the Ages" "Cornish Floral Dance"† "Battle of the Giants!" "Broadcast to the Empire" "My Brother and I" "The Love of Three Oranges"
† Missing episode has been reconstructed using animation. ‡ Missing episode has been recreated with new cast

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