Starring: John Laurie, Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Clive Dunn, Ian Lavender
Is There Honey Still for Tea? - S8-E3
Character mistake: When Mainwaring and the others are discussing how to break the news to Godfrey about his cottage, it is mentioned that the roof is made of thatch. However when Mainwaring, Wilson and Pike go to visit Godfrey, the roof of his cottage can be seen and it is slate, with no thatch anywhere in sight.
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.
Mainwaring: In the words of the great E.C Cochran. "Early to bed, early to rise, no jolly good if you don't advertise."
Trivia: The only member of the cast to have actually served in the Home Guard was John Laurie. Arthur Lowe, John Le Mesurier, Clive Dunn and Arnold Ridley were in the regular army.
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).
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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.