Operation Kilt

Last updated

"Operation Kilt"
Dad's Army episode
Episode no.Series 2
Episode 1
Directed byDavid Croft [1]
Story by Jimmy Perry and David Croft [1]
Produced byDavid Croft [1]
Original air date1 March 1969 (1969-03-01) [1]
Running time30 minutes
Episode chronology
 Previous
"Shooting Pains"
Next 
"The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage"
List of episodes

"Operation Kilt" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army . It was originally transmitted on Saturday 1 March 1969.

Contents

Synopsis

The platoon have to defend the church hall from a platoon of Highlanders on an exercise.

Plot

Captain Mainwaring leads the platoon in required PT exercises, injuring himself in the process and being briefly interrupted by Mrs Pike, who brings a rifle bolt Private Pike left at home and that she cleaned in the sink. Captain Ogilvie of the Highland Unit then arrives to inform them that they are to participate in a training exercise where the Highlanders will attempt to capture the Platoon's headquarters, starting at 10pm the following night. A complicated system of paints will be used to mark the dead, wounded, and captured. Ogilvie is dismissive of the group's competency as soldiers and punches Pike in the stomach to test him, only to recoil in pain while Pike does not even flinch. After Ogilvie leaves, it turns out he punched Pike's rifle bolt which Pike had earlier put down his vest.

The platoon decides to sneak into the Highlanders' headquarters at a local farm to spy on them, so Private Walker and Private Frazer "borrow" a pantomime cow costume. Mainwaring dismisses the idea, insisting it will not work, but Walker and Frazer decide to try anyway, only to return bruised and battered after running into a bull. Sergeant Wilson then suggests a Trojan Horse, with a haycart containing a platoon member being placed at the farm. After Pike turns out to have hay fever, Lance Corporal Jones acts as the spy and discovers that the Highlanders plan to start early and sneak through the woods to get to Walmington-on-Sea.

Early that night, Mainwaring leads the platoon in rigging all the paths through the woods with man traps inspired by a Tarzan film. Seven traps work, but when Jones goes to lead the last man in the eighth trap, he gets caught himself. As the platoon rescue him, they find themselves at the mercy of Captain Ogilvie, the last free member of the Highland Unit. Declaring that they are now all "dead", Ogilvie goes to snatch their paint, only to blunder into the man trap. Mainwaring and Wilson are disgusted as they suddenly discover what Scotsmen really wear under their kilts.

Cast

Notes

  1. This programme was formerly one of the missing Dad's Army episodes and was thought to be irretrievably lost for many years. However, in June 2001 this episode and The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage were returned to the BBC. The film cans were in a poor condition and the film itself had seriously deteriorated. Following restoration by BBC technicians, it was repeated.
  2. The second series was scheduled originally to be broadcast in January 1969. Instead, the BBC decided to repeat the first series in January 1969 because they believed many people had missed the series when it had started in the summer of 1968. [2]

Related Research Articles

"Museum Piece" is the second episode of the first series of the British television sitcom Dad's Army. It was first broadcast on 7 August 1968.

"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.

"The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 8 March 1969.

"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.

"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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones</span> 1st episode of the 3rd series of Dads Army

"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.

"Menace from the Deep" is the tenth episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Thursday 13 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.

"Sons of the Sea" is the fourteenth and final episode of the third series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 11 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.

"Don’t Fence Me In" is the fifth episode of the fourth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 23 October 1970.

"Keep Young and Beautiful" is the second episode of the fifth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 13 October 1972.

"The King was in His Counting House" is the seventh episode of the fifth series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 17 November 1972.

<i>Dads Army</i> British TV sitcom (1968–1977)

Dad's Army is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran for nine series and 80 episodes in total; a feature film released in 1971, a stage show and a radio version based on the television scripts were also produced. The series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers and is still shown internationally.

"A Stripe for Frazer" is a missing episode of the British television comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 29 March 1969. Of the three missing Dad's Army episodes it is the only one to have been reconstructed using animation.

"Resisting the Aggressor Down the Ages" is the second Christmas Night with the Stars sketch from the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Christmas Day 1969.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Croft, David; Perry, Jimmy; Webber, Richard (2000). The Complete A-Z of Dad's Army. Orion. pp. 157, 169. ISBN   0-7528-4637-X.
  2. "Televiewpoint". Daily Mirror . 1 February 1969. p. 11. Retrieved 4 March 2020. A new series of Dad's Army starts in March. We are repeating the first series now because we think a lot of people missed it when it began in the summer.(subscription required)