Wake Up Walmington

Wake up Walmington is the first episode of the ninth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 2 October 1977.

Synopsis

Complacency is setting in amongst the townsfolk, so Mainwaring devises "Operation Wake-Up". He gets his platoon to masquerade as fifth columnists in "very sinister clothes" to shake everyone up.

He and his men dress up as "cutthroats and desperadoes" and begin roaming the countryside, acting menacingly. Their efforts to frighten the locals are unsuccessful at first, despite their attempts to put on foreign accents.

However, when at last they finally do manage to cause some concern with their talk of "blowing up an aerodrome", the frightened locals send out for the Home Guard. With Mainwaring platoon being obviously absent from their post, the neighbouring Eastgate platoon under Captain Square are called out. Tracking Mainwaring down to a disused flourmill, he and his men open fire, covering them in flour. The episode ends with Mainwaring and Square exchanging insults.

Notes

Pike dresses up as a Chicago gangster, based on films like Scarface. Mainwaring wore an eye-patch. Jones, taking the whole thing too far, dresses up as a nun. In the war there were numerous reports that German parachutists were disguising themselves as nuns, something referenced several times in the series.

This was Captain Square's last appearance in the programme. There is also a significant detail when, at a country pub a few miles outside Walmington, one character describes Dover as being about 20 miles away.

Cast