Museum Piece
- Episode aired Aug 7, 1968
- 29m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
201
YOUR RATING
Mainwaring spots an opportunity to arm his men with exhibits from the local museum. Jones senior, the curator, has other ideas.Mainwaring spots an opportunity to arm his men with exhibits from the local museum. Jones senior, the curator, has other ideas.Mainwaring spots an opportunity to arm his men with exhibits from the local museum. Jones senior, the curator, has other ideas.
- Director
- David Croft(uncredited)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia"You ought to be with ITMA", says George Jones, referring to BBC Radio's hugely popular comedy series "It's That Man Again", which ran between 1939 and 1949.
- Quotes
Capt. George Mainwaring: By the power vested in me by His Majesty King George VI, I demand you open this door!
LCpl. Jack Jones: It's no good talking to him about King George VI, Sir. He still thinks Queen Victoria's the King!
- SoundtracksIn the Mood
(uncredited)
Composed by Joe Garland, Andy Razaf and Wingy Manone
Arranged and Performed by Glenn Miller
Featured review
A passably charming failure
DAD'S ARMY - SERIES 1
MUSEUM PIECE - EPISODE 2
After a fantastic first episode, Museum Piece is a dip in quality but it does immediately broaden the scope of the series to show the different kinds of comedy it would attempt across its run. In this case, we get a slapstick-heavy episode about the platoon trying to commandeer weapons from the local history museum. Dad's Army's hit rate with slapstick varied, with some excellent examples mingling with some utterly dreadful ones. Museum Piece leans more towards the latter, with some very silly stuff about trying to gain entry to the museum by force when the caretaker refuses to let them in. A scene where they try and use a battering ram, only for the caretaker to open both the front and back doors so that they run right through the building, just doesn't work. This is an ancient gag generally seen in the fast paced world of cartoons, but staged with a group of older men there just isn't the kinetic momentum to carry it off. Some of the non-slapstick humour falls flat here too. The idea that the caretaker is Corporal Jones's father is particularly confounding, since I always thought the joke with Jones was that his age was indeterminate-ancient. The gag here is the idea of such an elderly man still having a living father, but we're told he is 88, which immediately gives us some idea that Jones must be in his early 70s at the very most. It's a point of pernickety preference but it really didn't work for me.
This episode is an example of a series still finding its feet. There are several points of interest in this regard, such as a surprisingly more openly hostile Wilson, a fleeting mention of the ill-fated Bracewell, despite his character being deleted after episode one, and the first instance of Mainwaring ending up with cockeyed glasses, a punctuating button which often characterised Dad's Army's better attempts at slapstick. Museum Piece isn't a complete dead loss either. There are a few funny moments, including Mainwaring pretending to be German bomber and some nice farcical concepts involving a scout and a milkman. The script builds to a big finish which probably worked better on paper than its anticlimactic execution allowed for. There's a sense that the ambition of the concept has been scuppered by the limitations of the budget. A failure then, but a passably charming one.
MUSEUM PIECE - EPISODE 2
After a fantastic first episode, Museum Piece is a dip in quality but it does immediately broaden the scope of the series to show the different kinds of comedy it would attempt across its run. In this case, we get a slapstick-heavy episode about the platoon trying to commandeer weapons from the local history museum. Dad's Army's hit rate with slapstick varied, with some excellent examples mingling with some utterly dreadful ones. Museum Piece leans more towards the latter, with some very silly stuff about trying to gain entry to the museum by force when the caretaker refuses to let them in. A scene where they try and use a battering ram, only for the caretaker to open both the front and back doors so that they run right through the building, just doesn't work. This is an ancient gag generally seen in the fast paced world of cartoons, but staged with a group of older men there just isn't the kinetic momentum to carry it off. Some of the non-slapstick humour falls flat here too. The idea that the caretaker is Corporal Jones's father is particularly confounding, since I always thought the joke with Jones was that his age was indeterminate-ancient. The gag here is the idea of such an elderly man still having a living father, but we're told he is 88, which immediately gives us some idea that Jones must be in his early 70s at the very most. It's a point of pernickety preference but it really didn't work for me.
This episode is an example of a series still finding its feet. There are several points of interest in this regard, such as a surprisingly more openly hostile Wilson, a fleeting mention of the ill-fated Bracewell, despite his character being deleted after episode one, and the first instance of Mainwaring ending up with cockeyed glasses, a punctuating button which often characterised Dad's Army's better attempts at slapstick. Museum Piece isn't a complete dead loss either. There are a few funny moments, including Mainwaring pretending to be German bomber and some nice farcical concepts involving a scout and a milkman. The script builds to a big finish which probably worked better on paper than its anticlimactic execution allowed for. There's a sense that the ambition of the concept has been scuppered by the limitations of the budget. A failure then, but a passably charming one.
helpful•20
- phantom_tollbooth
- May 29, 2023
Details
- Runtime29 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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