Plot
Captain Mainwaring is on the phone to GHQ, and it is clear he is not happy. He does not think his men will appreciate being taken off active duty for the next two weekends to relieve the troops at an Italian POW camp, and he is quite right. As they march towards the camp, Mainwaring reminds them to set a good example by looking nice and smart.
However, when they arrive, they find no one there. They interrogate a POW, but they have no luck until he opens the front gate. Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson arrive at the main hut, and confront the Italian general Monteverdi lounging in a wooden chair. He tells them that the regular troops have already left on "end week" leave, and he has placed himself in charge. Mainwaring is appalled by this. He is also confused as to why the Italians, as POWs, are not enemies to the British. Monteverdi tells him that they have allied themselves to the British and admits that he himself surrendered to them back in the African desert.
Corporal Jones' section come into the hut, and Monteverdi immediately recognises Walker and hugs and kisses him in the traditional continental greeting. Mainwaring is perturbed by this, but Walker denies all knowledge of ever meeting him before. It is clear that Mainwaring is not convinced. He orders Jones to group the POWs together for some drilling, but Jones' knowledge of Italian is limited and the POWs end up crashing into the fence.
That evening, Walker is skulking about outside the POW hut, where he meets with Monteverdi. He tells Walker that it is too risky to keep doing whatever they are doing. Walker insists that they will get the POWs out in the escape tunnel and they will have the radios working by dawn. They arrange to meet later, and sneak away, not knowing that Godfrey, who had been caught short, has overheard their conversation and alerts Mainwaring.
The platoon gathers outside the hut with the tunnel and rush in. But it is too late; the POWs have already escaped. Pike deduces that the tunnel is underneath the stove, and he is right. Mainwaring takes Pike and Jones through the tunnel, while Wilson, Godfrey and Frazer try to stop Walker from loading the men into the van.
They confront Walker outside the van, and Walker admits that he is using them as cheap labour to get some radios repaired for some clients. Mainwaring still has not arrived by this time, so Wilson and Frazer travel down the tunnel and find Mainwaring wedged in a wooden support. It is Jones who saves the day, by prodding Mainwaring with his bayonet.
Back outside, they see Captain Bailey arrive, and Mainwaring remembers that he rang GHQ about the regular troops' departure. After listening to Walker's explanation, Mainwaring orders him and Wilson to take the POWs back through the tunnel, and tries to stall Captain Bailey from entering the hut, but it is no use; he enters the hut before Wilson and Walker arrive with the POWs, and Jones is forced to sit on the stove to stop them getting in. Jones is determined to bluff their way out, so following an idea from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves , he and Pike send the same prisoners round again and again, but their plan is ruined when the missing POWs emerge from underneath the stove.
"The Showing Up of Corporal Jones" is the fifth episode of the first series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Wednesday 4 September 1968.
"Shooting Pains" is the sixth and final episode of the first series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Wednesday 11 September 1968.
"Under Fire" is a missing episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 5 April 1969. One of the three missing Dad's Army episodes, the videotape was wiped for reuse. The last episode of series 2, it was the final Dad's Army episode to be recorded in black and white.
"The Deadly Attachment" is the first episode of the sixth series of the British television sitcom Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Wednesday, October 31, 1973. It is arguably one of the best-known episodes of the series because of the comic aspects of a rare encounter between the platoon and the Germans. A scene in which a German officer demands to know Private Pike's name, and Captain Mainwaring says, "Don't tell him, Pike!" has been judged as one of the top three greatest comedy moments of British television.
"Branded" is the eleventh episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Thursday 20 November 1969. In the episode's plot, Private Godfrey admits that he was a conscientious objector during the Great War.
"The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones" is the first episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Thursday 11 September 1969. It is also the first episode to be made in colour, though it was originally broadcast in black and white.
"The Lion Has 'Phones" is the third episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 21 September 1969.
"The Bullet Is Not for Firing" is the fourth episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Thursday 2 October 1969.
"Something Nasty in the Vault" is the fifth episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Thursday 9 October 1969.
"Room at the Bottom" is the sixth episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army that was originally transmitted on Thursday 16 October 1969.
"Man Hunt" is the twelfth episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Thursday 27 November 1969.
"No Spring for Frazer" is the thirteenth episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Thursday 4 December 1969.
"Don't Forget the Diver" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 2 October 1970.
"Sgt – Save My Boy!" is the fourth episode of the fourth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Friday 16 October 1970.
"Put That Light Out!" is the seventh episode of the fourth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Friday 6 November 1970.
"The Test" is the tenth episode of the fourth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Friday 27 November 1970.
"A. Wilson (Manager)?" is the eleventh episode of the fourth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 4 December 1970.
"A Soldier's Farewell" is the third episode of the fifth series of the British television sitcom Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 20 October 1972.
"We Know Our Onions" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 21 November 1973.
"The Recruit" is the seventh episode of the sixth series of the British television sitcom Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 12 December 1973.
