Radio Times review

Anyone who enjoys the class collisions of Mainwaring and Wilson will be in heaven with this episode. In "The Honourable Man", Wilson becomes entitled following the death of his uncle. The news induces pride in Pike and his beaming mother, but brings out an assortment of colours in the Captain, including red for apoplexy and green for jealousy.

The welcoming preparations for a visiting Russian worker cause further explosions of pomposity. But the many other weapons in Dad's arsenal are discharged with equal efficacy, from Walker's leavening cockiness to Jones's "cobblers". It's a beauty.

Radio Times review

If you're wondering why almost none of this episode was recorded on video - even the interior scenes - a studio strike in 1973 meant it had to be shot on location with 16mm film. It's a needs-must approach that's appropriate to both the series and the episode. Because when the Home Guard takes an efficiency test, they need all their wits (ahem!) to overcome the bullying supervisor (Fulton Mackay in the same year he'd made his Porridge debut).

Anyone who's endured the nonsense of role-playing seminars at work will cheer Wilson's dismissive air, while the way Godfrey turns an anti-tank artillery piece into a chintzy armchair is a sight to behold.

Ian Lavender to have cameo in new Dad's Army film

Original Dad's Army star Ian Lavender is making a cameo appearance in the new film.

Radio Times review

Dad's Army goes a bit Mack Sennett in this episode when a sealed-order mission turns into a frantic choo-choo chase. King George VI is due to pass through the station, but a mix-up between sleeping pills and saccharine puts a spanner - or a defective brake wheel - in the works.

One false alarm sees Captain Mainwaring moving along a stopped train while sheepishly inquiring, "Your Majesty, are you there?" But the sight of the Vicar, Verger and Hodges on a pump trolley takes some beating.

Radio Times review

A chaotic whirl of flirtation and skirmish accompanies America's entrance into the war, as a deputation arrives in Walmington. A darts match in the Red Lion is arranged and a "Hi Buddy!" banner hung over the bar. But with the platoon's other halves donning gladrags for the occasion, noses are soon put out of joint.

An utterly untypical instalment gives fans plenty of incident and casting oddities to talk about. They include Pike's girlfriend Ivy, played here by Ian Lavender's then wife Suzanne Kerchiss, but in an earlier episode by Rosemary Faith. And Alan Tilvern plays the US colonel even though he had previously been a Spanish captain, Rodrigues.

Like Yanks in 30 minutes, the story is almost too eventful for its own good. I mean to say, Godfrey hitting a man over the head with a chair? That's just not on.

Emily Atack on the Dad's Army film set

She was best known for playing the sexy school girl all of The Inbetweeners' boys wanted to stare it. But on Thursday, Emily Atack was cutting a pin up image of a whole new calibre when she donned full costume on the set of the Hollywood adaptation of iconic BBC sitcom Dad's Army.

Dad's Army remake doesn't need Catherine Zeta Jones

Speaking as Captain Mainwaring's long-standing (and much-sitting) double, I must protest at the Hollywoodisation of this great English classic.

Radio Times review

Dad's Army turns into Trumpton in a late-1972 episode that drew more viewers (18.5 million) than any other. When challenged to outwit the Home Guard commando unit by planting a dummy bomb in their fuel depot, the platoon dress as firemen for their "secret" mission.

As you might expect from the outlandish premise, the humour is Norfolk broad - Pike getting squirted at regular intervals, Jones deafening everyone with the fire bell, and so on. That said, there are some lovely moments with Mainwaring getting snubbed at the Rotary dinner (writers Jimmy Perry and David Croft never failed to prick his pomposity). There's also a formative role for Geoffrey Hughes (two years later he had become Corrie's bin man Eddie Yeats) and, from Godfrey, the line "I wouldn't mind dressing up as a nun."

Radio Times review

"Tonight you may call me George." How often does Wilson receive such an invitation from his commanding officer? The captain throws open the doors of Mainwaring manor for a "civilian" shindig, and the prospect of actually seeing his spouse - she of bunkbed-bulging proportions and ear-splitting telephone manner - tantalises us like never before...

Less of a party and more of a wake, the bash is put out of its misery by an air raid - and a direct hit on the bank. So what to do with the money? It's an interesting, curiously mean-spirited outing, full of muttered put-downs and surly suspicion. Also some 18-carat lines, and a beautifully filmed finale.

BBC angers Yes camp with ill-timed Dad's Army episode

"A total of 80 episodes of Dad's Army were made by the corporation - and which one does it choose to show on the Saturday ahead of the vote?" a Yes campaigner [for Scottish Independence] wails. "The one in which Frazer - played by John Laurie - tells Mainwaring that he can run the platoon better than him, is put in charge and then makes a total mess of things. Thank you very much, Auntie Beeb."