Dad's Army (TV Series) The Man and the Hour (1968) User Reviews

A cracking start for what followed

[trimmerb1234 · 8/10 · 2 May 2015]

I think I perhaps saw this when it was transmitted in 1968. I remember not taking to the series for some reason - I found the credits with their superimposed figures rather ghostly and a little creepy. The series just didn't click with me.

47 years later I have a wholly different opinion - particularly of this the first episode. I am surprised how all the characters - and all the performances - were fully formed, up and running and how the entire ensemble clicked. This first episode revealed the likely relationship between Wilson, Pike and his mother was when Pike innocently mentions in everyone's hearing that Mrs Pike had known Mr Wilson since before he was born. Mainwaring's disapproving expression makes clear that he at least has put two and two together. Arthur Lowe's performance gives a great energy and movement to the episode - it also makes clear just how enthusiastic Mainwaring was to set up and lead Warmington on Sea's Local Defence Volunteers. Just why Mainwaring was so keen to be out of the house and be a respected man of action we gather in later episodes when we learn more about his home life. The template for the entire series seems to have been complete from the very beginning. Everything was there in finely chiselled detail, all drawn from life as it was in 1940.

By pure chance I was lucky enough to meet Jimmy Perry perhaps 10 years ago. He was jogging nearly opposite his old junior school (which had left deep and lasting impression). He was very civil, very willing to answer questions. In passing he mentioned that he had just written a book about the Dads Army series. I hadn't realised till reading the book that Pike was based on him as a youth - and that he had been the original "Stupid Boy!"

It started off very well.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 13 January 2020]

I have loved Dad's Army for many year, but have never seen the first two series, so I'm watching these with fresh eyes.

I love the way Mainwaring assumes command, he's so bossy and forthright, but as always his performance is so sincere, he's terrific throughout, as are they all.

The characters began in the same manner that they would continue in for years to come, Jonesy's enthusiasm, Frazer's sullen attitude, Godfrey's soft nature. Jonesy's application is so funny, his determination, no wonder he's a fan favourite. It doesn't really surprise me that Bracewell doesn't last, he's an odd fit.

I enjoyed this one. 8/10

The Man and the Hour

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 5 August 2018]

In his last ever television appearance shortly before his death. Arthur Rowe gave a cracking speech during the 1982 BAFTA awards. This first ever episode of Dad's Army starts of with a prologue, set some years after the war has finished. The local dignitaries of Walmington-on-Sea give a dinner to their most prominent citizen, Alderman George Mainwaring who stands to give a speech as to why he is backing Britain just as he did in 1940.

In this first episode, pompous banker manager George Mainwaring, appoints himself as a commander of the local defence committee that they intent to establish with no uniforms and some pepper spray. He was a commissioned officer and served in France in 1919. Well someone had to clear up the mess left behind.

His chief clerk Arthur Wilson who actually saw combat is his second in command. Along with the junior clerk of the bank, Frank Pike they seek to enroll volunteers. Most of the new recruits are elderly or unfit. Corporal Jones the local butcher saw service in the Sudan in the 19th century.

The cast that we grew to love really blended from the first episode. Corporal Jones and 'they don't like it up em.' Private Frazer the canny naval man from Scotland. The dithering Godfrey, Walker the spiv, always quick with quip and Chief Warden Hodges always the fly in the ointment.

In the first episode the newly formed Home Guard pretend to stop a tank. in the church hall. Godfrey is the only one with a gun which he borrowed from someone. Mainwaring wants it for himself and threatens to have Godfrey shot when he refuses to do so. As Walker notes, it would take some doing as Godfrey is the only one with a gun!

It is an amusing first episode, there are certain relationships that we learn more about such as the one between Wilson and Pike, especially when Pike's mother turns up to take him home as it is way past his bedtime.

The only oddity is the character of Bracewell who is discarded after this episode although the actor returns in some later episodes as another character.

Great start to the series

[grantss · 8/10 · 4 August 2022]

A great start to the series. Shows the unit's background: the backs-to-the wall moment in Britain's history, why Local Defence Volunteer units were formed, the initial impetus for this unit's formation and the characters involved. Some great humour too.

A fantastic first episode

[phantom_tollbooth · 8/10 · 29 May 2023]

DAD'S ARMY - SERIES 1

THE MAN AND THE HOUR - EPISODE 1

The first ever episode of Dad's Army begins with something you don't often see in a British sitcom: a cold open. This pre-credits scene shows the very elderly platoon at an I'm Backing Britain event, at which George Mainwaring is the guest of honour. Revered by the men, Mainwaring launches into a speech about how he remembers a time when everyone was "backing Britain", with spirit triumphing over adversity. There are no laughs in this cold open and it seems to function primarily as a way for writers David Croft and Jimmy Perry to underline the fact that Dad's Army is not intended to mock war heroes, as it was sometimes accused of doing. That they chose to do that through the use of a contemporary campaign that was treated with suspicion and derision in 1968 is perhaps questionable, although it fits that Mainwaring would be behind such a patriotic campaign and no real judgment is made of it either way. Instead, it is used as an effective way into the introduction of one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time. For all his bluster and pomposity, Mainwaring is also resourceful, resilient and, when the occasion calls for it, genuinely heroic. This opening assures us that, despite the clashes and farces to come, he will ultimately be recognised for these qualities.

Following a cold open that features no laughs at all, it's rather odd that the opening credits of this episode have an audience reaction to the famous image of the Union Flag arrow advancing across a map before being forced back by Nazi arrows. I've never thought of this as hilarious but the audience sure seems to think it is. Perhaps it's just too ingrained in my head as a symbolic opening sequence rather than an actual gag. I suppose I can see the humour in the way the retreating British arrow meekly points at the dominating Nazi ones, although it's hardly a laugh-out-loud moment. It does reinforce that theme that resonates throughout the series of a small force standing up to a larger one, but the laughter somewhat undermines the tone with which the subject is generally approached.

After that slightly odd beginning, The Man and the Hour becomes an excellent opening episode. There's a lot of work to be done in this tight half hour, with over half a dozen main characters to introduce and the whole premise of establishing the Home Guard to set up. There's a great opening scene at the bank, which introduces Mainwaring, Wilson and Pike and perfectly establishes Mainwaring's mix of effective leadership and inadvertent buffoonery by way of a gag involving an improvised megaphone. The smallest of seeds is also sown regarding Mainwaring's ongoing resentment of Wilson's higher social status, something that becomes a rich seam of satire later down the line. The episode then becomes a series of interviews with volunteers for the Home Guard, which allows Croft and Perry to give the audience a couple of minutes apiece with Godfrey, Walker, Frazer and Jones, in which they neatly establish their main character traits. There are a couple of inconsistencies (Frazer is said to own a philatelist shop, rather than his more fitting later job of undertaker), but basically these characters arrive fully formed and are instantly relatable. The script even makes room for a couple of smaller recurring characters like Warden Hodges and Mrs. Pike. A barely developed character called Bracewell, who's entire personality just seems to be Posh Bloke, was wisely dropped after this episode.

Even with all this set-up to plough through, Croft and Perry manage to keep things entertaining and even find room for a final scene of the platoon assembled in the church hall, where we would so often see them in future. Each scene builds smartly towards a punchline, with a particularly effective one in which Mainwaring is forced to address the entire platoon in the cramped conditions of his office recalling the famous State Room scene from the Marx brothers' A Night at the Opera. The ultimate punchline, in which the uniforms and weapons the platoon are awaiting turn out to be armbands and sachets of pepper, is followed by a rousing patriotic speech by Mainwaring which rallies the troops even in the face of disappointment. It's the perfect encapsulation of Dad's Army's optimistic outlook and ability to celebrate the heroes it depicts, not just in spite of their shortcomings but because of them. The key to this fine balance is in the title itself: The Man and the Hour. If at first it appears to be ironic, it is gradually revealed to be entirely sincere, as Mainwaring overcomes each small obstacle to make the best of the situation. A terrific way to kick things off.