Knights of Madness

DVD, Dad's Army S9 (Knights of Madness)

I must admit to being slightly disappointed when I saw this. It was an episode I'd never encountered on TV, and had only seen a picture of Mainwaring in knight's armour in a book on the series. So when I finally got to watch it on DVD I'd been waiting a long time to see it, and consequently it didn't seem as good as I'd expected. I think because usually the 'historicals' were funnier and had more of a story to them (such as 'The Two and a Half Feathers' or 'A Soldier's Farewell'), where this was just an excuse to have Hodges and the Captain battling each other on horseback. In retrospect that's a pretty good reason for seeing it, alone!

Again there's a bit of continuity when Fraser asks why the platoon can't perform their morris dance, which they had played out before. And we get the usual committee scene in the church hall with the Town Clerk, Vicar, Verger and Hodges (and Mrs. Yeatman, who gets a bit more to do this episode). There are some fun moments, like Pike's humiliation at having to dress up as a Squander Bug, and the two dragons attacking each other until the platoon's version triumphs and chases Hodges off the field! But I did get the feeling they might have done some more magnificent medieval runaround from the pictures I'd seen. Goes to show that it's best to watch things without preconception.

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