Time on My Hands (Dad's Army)

"Time on my Hands" is the thirteenth and final episode of the fifth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army that was originally transmitted on the 29 December 1972.

Synopsis

A German pilot has bailed out and is now tangled up on the town hall's clock tower. Mainwairing's men are obliged to retrieve him. Getting up is not a problem - they can climb a makeshift ladder. Getting down again proves more difficult - Jones has broken the ladder.

Plot

The episode opens with Mainwaring and Wilson enjoying a relaxing morning coffee at the Marigold Tea Rooms when Pike bursts in announcing a Luftwaffe pilot has bailed out and landed on the roof of the town hall. Gathering together the rest of the platoon, they head straight for the town hall. When they arrive they find the ARP and Warden Hodges marshalling a large crowd of spectators, watching the stranded German on the clocktower. Mainwaring brusquely pushes Hodges aside and takes over command of the situation himself. He leads some of his men up a ladder to the tower, to try and rescue the German.

After a number of failed attempts to rescue him, they eventually manage to reach him using a pole found by Corporal Jones. Unfortunately the pole had been holding up the ladders up to the tower, which collapse, leaving them stranded. While Mainwaring puts the German pilot under close arrest, he and the rest of the men try and work of a way to get back down. Meanwhile on the ground level, a sneering Hodges mocks their predicament, enraged because it was he who had erected the ladders in the first place.

Eventually the platoon appear about to be rescued, by the Vicar.

Notes

This is one of the few episodes in which the platoon do not wear their uniforms for the whole episode.

Cast

References