Dad's Army - The Complete First Series Plus the 'Lost' Episodes of Series Two [1968]

Episodes from Series 1 are: 'The Man And The Hour' in which the men get together to form the Home Guard following a radio broadcast, 'Museum Piece' finds Capt Mainwaring looking for guns for his men in the local museum, 'Command Decision' finds a Capt offering guns if he can take command of the platoon, 'Enemy Within The Gates' sees Capt Mainwaring giving a lecture on the recognition of enemy agents when he learns there is a reward for every Nazi captured, 'The Showing Up Of Cpl Jones' finds the platoon finally getting their uniforms and CPl Jones attempting an assault course and 'Shooting Pains' finds a shooting contest arranged to see who will form the honour guard when the Prime Minister pays a visit. Series 2 episodes are: 'Operation Kilt' which finds the platoon being attacked by the Highland Regiment, 'The Battle Of Godfrey's Cottage' Finds the platoon leaping into action and taking Godfrey's cottage to set up a machine post and 'Sergeant Wilson's Little Secret' finds Sergeant Wilson overhearing a conversation which implies that he might be the father of an expected child but, as usual, he gets the wrong end of the stick.


Timeless British Comedy   January 12, 2005
John Austin (Kangaroo Ground, Australia)
35 out of 38 found this review helpful

There are several reasons for welcoming the reissue on DVD of the earliest two series of "Dad's Army". It's successful formula operated right from the start. In response to the threat posed by "Hitler's hoards" (depicted by arrows relentlessly advancing towards the coast of the English Channel in the opening credits), a pompous little bank manager at a minor township on the southern coast of England forms a local platoon of home guards. Its members are mostly elderly eccentrics, there is one "spiv" and there is one gormless young bank clerk. In a township inhabited by yet more eccentrics, pompous office holders, and rampant widows, the bank manager styles himself Captain Mainwaring, appoints his officers, and begins moulding his men into a "fearsome fighting force". Their attempts to obtain basic requirements such as uniforms and weapons, and to improvise meanwhile, form much of the material in these opening episodes.

Created and written throughout by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, its ultimate success was not assured. The mood of those who survived those desperate years was not likely to be in accord with slapstick comedy. However, the series tapped a deeper vein - Britishers' capacity to laugh at themselves - and within a few years "Dad's Army" had endeared itself to a world wide television audience and generated a feature film. Even so, the master tapes of the complete second series of six episodes were wiped or lost.

So a second reason for welcoming this DVD is that it includes three of the episodes thought to have been lost. And the third reason is that the loss has been made good by the inclusion of the three episodes still missing taken from a series of radio adaptations of almost all episodes made by Michael Knowles and Harold Snoad performed by the original cast.

Accordingly, this preserves as well as can be done the first twelve episodes of "Dad's Army".
All these episodes were filmed in black and white. Enjoy them while eagerly awaiting DVD reissues of the later (in colour) seven series!


truly Timeless... 6 stars out of 5   September 11, 2004
29 out of 30 found this review helpful

Surely no introduction to this DVD is required? The major strength of DAD'S ARMY was that it employed genuine actors for it's many roles and not just the comedians who were popular at the time. The talent on display in this series is staggering and such a great ensemble has NEVER been seen since. Another strength of the series was that Jimmy Perry went to great lengths to actually develop the characters instead of parading the same comedy ciphers each week and with such quality performers reading his scripts, the success was guarenteed. Later colour episodes like "MUM'S ARMY" may not be the funniest, but they contain heartbreaking scenes of Capt. Mainwaring losing his chance of true happiness in life, and the final scenes of the final episode "NEVER TOO OLD", where the cast pay tribute to the real Home Guard (and the spirit of war-time Britain in general) moved me to tears.
To those viewers only familiar with the colour series, these earlier black and white episodes will perhaps seem odd, but they will never the less enjoy them a lot! PIKE is perhaps a little too childish early on, but the blueprints of all the characters we love so dearly is laid out here. Surely ARTHUR LOWE was one of Britain's best ever actors, and Capt. Mainwaring has passed into television legend. This jumped-up "bank clerk" was probably one of the most arrogant, pompous and deluded characters ever committed to film, yet there's no way on earth any viewer can hate him as portrayed by Arthur Lowe. This disc is pure happiness committed to film: Not nostalgia for the sake of it, but because it's so wonderful to begin with.


The Finest Half Hour: or so it proved   May 17, 2005
Huw F. Clayton
23 out of 28 found this review helpful

Dad's Army is something of a national institution: the bungling ex-soldiers and gormless young draft-dodgers, led by a pompous bank manager and his rather vague Chief Clerk have entered television legend as much as their contemporary Doctor Who. But it may not have seemed that way with these opening two series. They have charm and wit, but they weren't major hits and looking at them it's easy to see why. The scripts were taking time to sort out, something that normally happens in a TV series as writing to a cast is always difficult at first, the sense of timing developed by the cast later on is conspicuous by its absence in much of the first season and a half, and there are obvious budget limitations. The last would never entirely disappear, but steadily the show's creators got rid of the first two faults. The radio episodes were a clever addition, although it can't be said that the DVD offers a very inspiring picture while they're playing (a series of CD sleeves scattered like a pack of cards). Had they been in colour, the surviving episodes might look better, but they feel a bit creaky now. This is a must have for diehard fans: it explains Walker's draft dodge, the whole formation of the unit and the sorting of the platoon into an (ahem) "fighting force," but to all others, save the money for the colour episodes.