Dad's Army

Battle of the Giants! - S4-E14

Continuity mistake: When the Walmington platoon stop their van to open the gate to let the sheep out in attempt to hold up the Eastgate platoons van the Eastgate van drives through the gate into the field with Hodges on his motorbike following, but when the camera cuts back to the road the Eastgate van and the motorbike are on the road behind Walmington's van, the Eastgate van and the motorbike are next seen coming out of the field further up the road.

The Royal Train - S6-E3

Continuity mistake: At the end when they line up for The Royal Train to pass there are six platoon members amongst those present, Private Frazer is not one of them. However, after the train passes and they are shown wet in head shots, he is present. As the camera pans out, we are back to the original six.

Battle of the Giants! - S4-E14

Continuity mistake: When Mainwaring and Square, driving the vans, are trying to push each others' van off the bridge, Hodges parks his motorbike at the end of the bridge behind the eastgate platoon's van. In all the following shots Hodges' motor bike has disappeared.

The Making of Private Pike - S9-E2

Continuity mistake: In this episode, Captain Mainwaring was given a new staff car. However, he already has one from S7 E5, The Captain's Car. What happened to the previous one is never explained, and surely he would not lose all reluctance to accept the job if he already had a staff car?

Show generally

Continuity mistake: (Colour episodes only) In the section of the closing credits that features the main cast members marching, the sky colour and positions of the shadows on the ground change depending on the actor being featured at the time (the sky is blue when Arthur Lowe, John Laurie and Ian Lavender are seen, but it is grey when John Le Mesurier, Clive Dunn, James Beck and Arnold Ridley feature). This is more obvious on episodes that have had colour restoration undertaken.

Battle School - S3-E2

Continuity mistake: The platoon's rifles have no fore sight at various times in this episode, at other times they are fitted. Most noticeable on the railway platform and the march to camp (missing), but when they arrive at the camp, all the fore sights are on. They are missing during the outdoor training scenes - and they are missing from the credits at the end of every episode when the platoon members are shown in close up (these shots were from this episode). (00:09:00)

Battle School - S3-E2

Other mistake: When the train stops Godfrey gets off to relieve himself but when he is climbing back in to the carriage the train appears to be already moving at speed because the background projection started moving too early.

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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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