Time On My Hands (Dad's Army)

"Time on my Hands"
Dad's Army episode
Episode no.	Series Five Episode 053
Directed by	David Croft
Story by	Jimmy Perry and David Croft
Produced by	David Croft
Original air date	29 December 1972 (recorded 8 December 1972)
Running time	30 minutes

"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 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 to rescue the German.

After a number of failed attempts to rescue him, they eventually manage to reach the German 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 to find 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. The platoon suggests various ideas of getting down. Fraser tells a story of Lighthouse Keepers who were trapped in a lighthouse and decided to get out by dismantling it, they had gone mad from the isolation. Wilson tells a story his nanny told him: a Prince rescued a beautiful Princess trapped in a tower by firing an arrow into the tower; attached to the arrow was a piece of thread, attached to the thread was a piece of twine and attached to that was a rope which the Princess used to escape. Walker suggests using a rope in the tower to get down, Mainwaring claims he already noticed the rope and was waiting to see if anybody else would.

When the men try to free the rope, they accidentally start up the clock tower. After Jones gets caught up in (and rescued from) the clock automatons, and several of the men's finest hats are ruined to silence the large bell, an arrow loosed by the Vicar strikes the tower - a note wrapped around it states that there is a piece of thread attached to the arrow; attached to the thread is a piece of twine and attached to the twine is a piece of rope, just like in the fairytale Wilson's nanny told him.

Notes

This is the only episode in which the platoon do not wear their uniforms for the whole episode.
Mainwaring calls the bank "Martin's Bank", instead of "Swallow Bank" (like in the movie).

Cast

Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring
John Le Mesurier as Sergeant Wilson
Clive Dunn as Lance Corporal Jones
John Laurie as Private Frazer
James Beck as Private Walker
Arnold Ridley as Private Godfrey
Ian Lavender as Private Pike
Bill Pertwee as ARP Warden Hodges
Frank Williams as Vicar
Edward Sinclair as The Verger
Harold Bennett as Mr Blewitt
Colin Bean as Private Sponge
Joan Cooper as Miss Fortescue
Eric Longworth as Mr Gordon the Town Clerk
Christopher Sandford as The German Pilot

References

Dad's Army

Characters

Cast

Crew

Television
episodes

Series 1	"The Man and the Hour" "Museum Piece" "Command Decision" "The Enemy Within the Gates" "The Showing Up of Corporal Jones" "Shooting Pains"

Series 2	"Operation Kilt" "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker" "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret" "A Stripe for Frazer" "Under Fire"

Series 3	"The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones" "Battle School" "The Lion Has Phones" "The Bullet is Not for Firing" "Something Nasty in the Vault" "Room at the Bottom" "Big Guns" "The Day the Balloon Went Up" "War Dance" "Menace from the Deep" "Branded" "Man Hunt" "No Spring for Frazer" "Sons of the Sea"

Series 4	"The Big Parade" "Don't Forget the Diver" "Boots, Boots, Boots" "Sgt – Save My Boy!" "Don't Fence Me In" "Absent Friends" "Put That Light Out!" "The Two and a Half Feathers" "Mum's Army" "The Test" "A. Wilson (Manager)?" "Uninvited Guests" "Fallen Idol"

Series 5	"Asleep in the Deep" "Keep Young and Beautiful" "A Soldier's Farewell" "Getting the Bird" "The Desperate Drive of Corporal Jones" "If the Cap Fits..." "The King was in his Counting House" "All is Safely Gathered In" "When Did You Last See Your Money?" "Brain Versus Brawn" "A Brush with the Law" "Round and Round Went the Great Big Wheel" "Time on My Hands"

Series 6	"The Deadly Attachment" "My British Buddy" "The Royal Train" "We Know Our Onions" "The Honourable Man" "Things that Go Bump in the Night" "The Recruit"

Series 7	"Everybody's Trucking" "A Man of Action" "Gorilla Warfare" "The Godiva Affair" "The Captain's Car" "Turkey Dinner"

Series 8	"Ring Dem Bells" "When You've Got to Go" "Is There Honey Still for Tea?" "Come In, Your Time Is Up" "High Finance" "The Face on the Poster"

Series 9	"Wake Up Walmington" "The Making of Private Pike" "Knights of Madness" "The Miser's Hoard" "Number Engaged" "Never Too Old"

Specials	"Untitled Sketch" "Broadcast to the Empire" "Battle of the Giants!" "My Brother and I" "The Love of Three Oranges"