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Dad's Army Season 3 Episodes
Season 3 Episode Guide
14 Episodes 1969 - 1969
Episode 1
The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones
30 mins
Mainwaring's lecture is a total mess on account of gas masks. To obtain rationed petrol, Joe convinces Jones to volunteer his butcher's van as platoon car. Alas, after they worked for days to make it fit for the platoon, HQ has it converted to gas. Meanwhile, to Mainwaring's snobbish horror, vulgar grocer Hodges makes his haughty entry as A.R.P. Chief Warden, and rival rooster in town and church hall.
Episode 2
Battle School
29 mins
It's Mainwaring's platoon's turn for a weekend of guerrilla warfare training at a rural facility. Thanks to train delay and the captain's disastrous sense of direction, they arrive late for dinner and sleep through breakfast. They do rather badly at survival course, but Mainwaring's determined to redeem their honor by attempting a challenge nobody ever pulled off: capturing the officer's HQ.
Episode 3
The Lion Has 'Phones
29 mins
Mainwaring gives the platoon a lecture in communications but when a German plane crashes into the town's reservoir it becomes obvious that many of the men have no idea how to use a telephone and, when Mainwaring gets through to the main exchange to notify the incident, the operator is no help. Whilst a guards officer attempts to take command of the situation from Mainwaring, Walker saves the day by getting the reservoir manager to open the sluices, forcing the Germans to swim for it.
Episode 4
The Bullet Is Not for Firing
29 mins
Mainwaring is extremely annoyed that all the platoon - except Godfrey, who was too slow - have used up all their ammunition firing in vain at a low-flying German aeroplane. An inquiry is ordered - along with a new case of ammunition, which duly arrives. The captain in charge of the inquiry, which takes place in the church hall in competition with choir practice, feels it a waste of his time but talks the men through what happened. Jones says he gave the order to shoot. Mainwaring corrects him by saying 'Fire', which the platoon does, making a hole in the roof.
Episode 5
Something Nasty in the Vault
29 mins
An unannounced bank inspector from head office is far from impressed by Mainwaring's bumbling while handling some minor cash deposit and black market matters with Jones and Walker. He gets really angry about the way military Home Guard considerations seem systematically to supersede bank interests. After an air raid alarm, an unexploded Nazi bomb is 'found' in the basement strong room and nearly made to explode by Mainwaring and Arthur. Bomb squad captain Rogers takes charge, but while he gets help, the men can't resist 'helping' themselves.
Episode 6
Room at the Bottom
28 mins
Sergeant Wilson secretly enjoys passing on HQ captain Bailey's finding that Mainwaring's captain's commission in the original local militia days is invalid, so he'll be reduced to lieutenant, as befits a platoon commander. When HQ concludes he's actually not even an NCO, he has to join the ranks under the Guard drill instructor he ordered himself. After the platoon's embarrassing failure at an exercise, everyone wants to have him reinstated, except Frazer, who smells opportunity.
Episode 7
Big Guns
29 mins
A large field gun has been delivered to the church hall for a demonstration by the platoon but none of them know how it works. After a process of trial and error using models to represent the town, the time comes for the gun to be fired but the men get tangled up in the netting enclosing it.
Episode 8
The Day the Balloon Went Up
27 mins
After Mainwaring complains that the men's saluting is sloppy a runaway barrage balloon appears with the verger clinging onto it. He is rescued and various people, including Godfrey's sister Cissie, are asked to hang onto it until Mainwaring takes charge. Unfortunately for him it takes off in the breeze with him holding onto the other end of its rope, dragging him through trees and a haystack until it stops on a railway bridge. The men are about to secure it but then an officer comes by and in order to perfect the saluting so beloved of Mainwaring they have to let go of the balloon.. .
Episode 9
War Dance
30 mins
Pike's work is suffering because he is distracted by his girl-friend Violet, whom Mainwaring regards as common as her mother used to clean for him. Furthermore at the upcoming platoon dance Pike is going to announce his engagement to her, which alarms Wilson as Mavis would never let her baby go. Mainwaring arrives at the dance with a black eye after a fight with his wife and, despite efforts by Jones - doing impressions - to stall Pike, the lad announces his big news. Mavis faints. Later she locks Wilson out of the house for not telling her of her son's plans and he joins Mainwaring, also shut out by his wife, in the church hall. Pike declares the engagement off after Mavis has thrown a bucket of water over him.
Episode 10
Menace from the Deep
29 mins
The platoon are on duty on a derelict pier, which they have reached by boat but, thanks to Pike's clumsiness, the boat has floated away, carrying their food. Hodges rows out to them in a children's boat to tell them to 'put that light out' and falls into the sea. Chocolate from a dispensing machine turns out to be a cardboard display but there is worse to come when a floating mine appears - though Hodges' bowling skills save the day when he blows it up.
Episode 11
Branded
29 mins
It is revealed that Private Godfrey was a Conscientious Objector in the First World War, leading Mainwaring and some of the platoon to brand him as a coward. However, during an exercise in which Mainwaring collapses with smoke inhalation, it is Godfrey who, at risk to himself, rescues him. When Mainwaring and the others go to visit Godfrey, recovering in bed, they see a photo of him with a military medal, won in the First World War when he was a brave stretcher bearer who saved many lives. Mainwaring is ashamed and asks Godfrey to be the platoon's official First Aid representative.
Episode 12
Man Hunt
28 mins
Walker has found a discarded parachute which he cut up to make ladies' knickers. This leads to an embarrassing examination of the ladies' pants to determine their colour as British parachutes are white and Germans are cream. Using a tracker dog the platoon go into the woods where they trap a man with a foreign accent - but he is an Austrian bird-watcher hunting the rare golden oriole. Eventually a German parachutist appears, asking to be arrested.
Episode 13
No Spring for Frazer
28 mins
During weapons inspection, Mainwaring scolds Frazer for losing a single spring, rendering the Lewis gun useless, and HQ has no spare parts, so even a court-martial may follow unless it's found. Frazer believes he left it is a coffin already delivered to the funeral parlor, where the men discover it's at Mr. Blewitt's surviving brother's home. The hilarious treasure hunt continues even after the burial.
Episode 14
Sons of the Sea
29 mins
When a bank client's debt means his rowing boat must be auctioned, Mainwaring can't resist acquiring it for platoon river patrols, however overstretched his men already are. Frazer supplements the nautical novice's Seascouts manual 'knowledge', and becomes the coxswain. But Mainwaring disregards all warnings, so they row through mist straight into sea. Hearing strange voices, they assume they are in Nazi-occupied France and hide, until they wake up in a moving train.
