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4th episode of the 5th series of Dad's Army

"Getting the Bird"

Dad's Army episode

Episode no.

Series 5
Episode 4

Directed by

David Croft

Story by

Jimmy Perry and David Croft

Original air date

27 October 1972 (1972-10-27)

Running time

30 minutes

Episode chronology

← Previous
"A Soldier's Farewell"

Next →
"The Desperate Drive of Corporal Jones"

List of episodes

"Getting the Bird" is the fourth episode of the fifth series of the British television situation comedy Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 27 October 1972.

Synopsis

Sergeant Wilson is missing from the platoon, and Frazer assumes there has been an argument between him and Mrs Pike. Godfrey comments that he spotted the Sergeant with his arm around an attractive and much younger woman.

Plot

The episode begins with rumours abounding that Wilson has gone AWOL. Meanwhile, Jones is having troubles with his butcher's shop: shortages in rationed meat means his customers are getting more upset with him, which is affecting his mental health. Walker offers to give Jones a rabbit to skin (so he can sell the skin to a furrier), but Jones refuses as a single rabbit would make things worse, and confides he is desperate for off-the-ration meat.

The following evening, the platoon informs Captain Mainwaring that after a particularly heavy night drinking, Wilson was seen about town with a young woman (a Wren) on his arm. Pike reveals that Wilson and his mother had an argument about something, so he is not calling Wilson "Uncle Arthur" and will not take orders from him. However, Mainwaring informs Pike that unless he wants to be charged with insubordination, he will respect Wilson's position as Chief Clark and Sergeant in the bank and on parade respectively.

During this discussion, Wilson is found in the church hall, asleep behind the stage curtain. While Mainwaring berates the still tipsy Wilson in his office, Wilson begins to see pigeons on Mainwaring's bookshelf. Both believe this to be the result of Wilson's drunken state until Pike enters the office and points them out. Immediately, the office is filled with pigeons. It emerges that Walker had stored the birds in the boiler room and they had escaped. Walker secretly proposes to Jones to buy the pigeons from Walker to augment his supply of meat and is persuaded to help Walker to hide them in the church. However, Jones becomes suspicious when he hears on the radio that there is a sudden and unexplained shortage of pigeons in Trafalgar Square and ends the agreement.

On Sunday, Mainwaring and Frazer are welcoming people as they enter the church for the morning service when ARP Warden Hodges arrives and says to Frazer "I've been helping her (Mrs. Fox) with her blackout curtains". Just ahead of a church service, Frazer overhears a conversation between Wilson and the young woman wearing a Wrens uniform, where it is established that she is his daughter from a failed marriage before Wilson moved to Walmington-on-Sea. This is the reason for the argument between him and Mrs Pike: apparently it was a secret he had kept to himself. Wilson admits to Frazer that he has not seen much of her while she was growing up, but that he did his best to send her to a good school. Frazer replies that "she does you credit" and admits to Wilson that he knows he is prone to gossip but promises never to reveal Wilson's secret.

The hymns are ruined when the organ begins to play and dead pigeons are fired across the church: Walker is exposed as having hidden several of the pigeons in the organ pipes.

Cast

External links

"Getting the Bird" 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

Categories:

Synopsis

Plot

Cast

Further reading

External links