14th May, 1940: With the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany a horrifying reality, a new branch of the military was created out of the men not yet in the regular army. This force, first known as the Local Defence Volunteers, would soon become known as the Home Guard - but due to the vast number of elderly volunteers it also earned the nickname of "Dad's Army".

In Walmington-on-Sea, a town on the south coast of England, the Home Guard platoon is lead by Captain George Mainwaring, the pompous local branch manager of Swallow Bank. Alongside Mainwaring are his public school educated second-in-command and the bank's chief clerk Sergeant Arthur Wilson, and local butcher, old war horse and third-in-command Lance Corporal Jack Jones.

The main body of the platoon is comprised of a number of regular privates. The most notable of these are mummy's boy and bank clerk Frank Pike, pessimistic Scottish undertaker James Frazer, black market spiv Joe Walker and elderly medical orderly Charles Godfrey.

As if the Germans and constant threat of invasion weren't bad enough, the platoon have their own local problems, not least from common greengrocer and despised chief ARP Warden Hodges; Pike's interfering mother Mavis (who has a "relationship" with Wilson); the vicar and verger who run the church hall where the platoon parade; and Mainwaring's terrifying but never-seen wife Elizabeth.

Despite all that age, war, and their own pomposity, infighting and incompetence throws at them, these fine boys make up England's last line of defence against Nazi attack. God save them - and God help us!

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