Dad's Army

Gorilla Warfare - S7-E3

Revealing mistake: This actually happens throughout the entire show but is most obvious at the beginning of this episode: When they are in the churchyard it is obviously a studio stage, as there are shadows at all angles around the cast from the studio lights. Also, the lights are quite prominently reflected in Arthur Lowe's glasses.

Menace from the Deep - S3-E10

Revealing mistake: When Frazer is attempting to get the chocolate out of the crane machine, he tells Mainwaring to keep quiet. When he does this, he takes his hands of the machine, and it picks up the chocolate on its own, without anyone controlling it.

rabid anarchist

Battle of the Giants! - S4-E14

Revealing mistake: Just before the two vans drive round in circles, when Mainwaring has trouble with the gearbox, the shot from inside the van shows a house through the driver's window. But in the exterior shots there are no buildings around, just trees.

Is There Honey Still for Tea? - S8-E3

Revealing mistake: When Mainwaring first comes into the bank, followed by the workmen with his new door, behind them is the 'high street', actually a painted backdrop. This is normal routine for studio sitcoms, however Mainwaring and the others all cast shadows on the backdrop, revealing it as a studio set.

Time on My Hands - S5-E13

Revealing mistake: When the knight moves back and forth during the clock mechanism's operation, as he swings his sword, a blue pullover sleeve is visible beneath his armour, revealing that he is an actor in costume and not an automaton.

Time on My Hands - S5-E13

Revealing mistake: The lights in the café are not working, despite the room being brightly-lit from above (i.e. the brightness cannot be attributed to sunlight entering through the window).

Getting the Bird - S5-E4

Audio problem: Jonesy is playing the organ. A pigeon 'flies' out the top of the organ and lands on the keys, so Jonesy picks it up and moves it, taking both his hands off the keys. Yet the music plays on.

rabid anarchist

More mistakes in Dad's Army

Mainwaring: In the words of the great E.C Cochran. "Early to bed, early to rise, no jolly good if you don't advertise."

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The Royal Train - S6-E3

Question: A set of complicated events mean that Captain Mainwaring and some other members of the platoon have to drive a railway engine. After they leave the railway station it turns out that the railway engine has no brake wheel and cannot stop. The ARP warden, the mayor of Walmington, the vicar and verger take the brake wheel, jump on a handcar and chase after the engine. Catching up with the engine, they throw the brake wheel to Captain Mainwaring. The engine then reverses, so they must pedal the handcar even faster to avoid being run over. Could four men (all obviously in late middle age, and past peak fitness) pedal a handcar to outrun a railway engine at full steam? When the engine reverses, why do they pedal the handcar to stop being run over? Why don't they jump off the handcar, then pull the handcar off the track? (Also it takes the engine less than a minute to reverse. In reality, it would take several minutes to change a moving railway locomotive from forward to reverse).

Rob Halliday

Answer: The show is a comedy, this was played for comedic effect and to show that in times of extreme fear, in this case about to be crushed by a steam train, the men had an adrenaline surge strong enough to pedal fast enough.

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