"Round and Round Went the Great Big Wheel" is the twelfth episode of the fifth series of the British comedy series ''
Dad's Army'' that was originally transmitted on 22 December 1972.
Synopsis
Operation
Catherine Wheel has been set up in order to test the
War Office's latest weapon: a large,
radio-controlled, high explosive-carrying wheel. The
Walmington-on-Sea
Walmington-on-Sea is a fictional seaside resort that is the setting of ''Dad's Army'', including the BBC Television sitcom (1968-1977), the BBC Radio 4 series and two feature films ( 1971 and 2016).
Walmington-on-Sea is on the south coast of E ...
platoon is chosen for fatigues.
Plot
The episode opens with a General briefing two others in the War Office building in 1941: the General briefs the others about a weapon called the High Explosive Attack Device Propelled by Ultra High Frequency (HEADPUHF) and the test called "Operation Catherine Wheel". Several local
Home Guard units will be roped in to help during the test and the smarmy Captain Stewart tells them he will get the Walmington-On-Sea brigade to do the dirty work.
When Captain Stewart arrives in Walmington to recruit the platoon, Captain Mainwaring misinterprets his hesitancy in describing what exactly they are required for to mean 'special duties' – Stewart allows him to believe this to get his co-operation. Mainwaring debriefs the platoon down in the church crypt to maintain secrecy, but
ARP Warden Hodges barges in. Deciding they cannot trust him to keep quiet, they take him with them to the base where the test is taking place.
However, the men are annoyed to find that their 'special duties' involve dirty work such as peeling
potatoes
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...
, much to Hodges' amusement. Pike gets bored and sneaks out back to
Jones' van with Walker. It's revealed that Pike has built a
kit radio and brought it along, and they try to tune in to the comedy programme ''
Hi Gang!''. Unbeknownst to them, the signals from the radio interfere with the control signals for the secret weapon – a giant rocket-propelled wheel – and make it go berserk. It rolls out of the base during its demonstration test and the Walmington platoon find themselves having to pursue it – if they don't stop it, it will explode and the town will be destroyed.
The chase is a shambles, with the wheel repeatedly chasing the platoon's
van
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
and even appearing to ambush them (due to the signals from Pike's radio). Stewart, who has been following them, tells them that they can disable the wheel by cutting off its two
antennae. The men cut off the first antennae on the wheel's side with their
bayonets while driving past it, but run out of petrol soon after.
When Walker suggests they could use Pike's radio to lure the wheel, Mainwaring is infuriated about Pike's secret radio, but they follow Walker's plan, with Mainwaring, Hodges and Pike taking off on a commandeered motorcycle. While they're gone, Jones comes up with a plan on how to deal with the wheels top antennae, and they head to a nearby railway bridge. As Pike and Mainwaring lure the wheel under the bridge, Jones is lowered down and manages to cut the antennae off with a pair of
pruning shears, causing the wheel to topple over. The platoon gather around the fallen weapon as Jones reports "Mr. Mainwaring... I've killed it" and hang their heads in respect.
Cast
*
Arthur Lowe
Arthur Lowe (22 September 1915 – 15 April 1982) was an English actor. His acting career spanned 36 years, including starring roles in numerous theatre and television productions. He played Captain Mainwaring in the British sitcom ''Dad' ...
as
Captain Mainwaring
*
John Le Mesurier as
Sergeant Wilson
*
Clive Dunn as
Lance Corporal Jones
*
John Laurie as
Private Frazer
*
James Beck as
Private Walker
*
Arnold Ridley as
Private Godfrey
*
Ian Lavender as
Private Pike
*
Bill Pertwee as
ARP Warden Hodges
*
Edward Underdown as Major General Sir Charles Holland
*
Michael Knowles as Captain Stewart
*
Geoffrey Chater as Colonel Pierce
*
Jeffrey Segal
Jeffrey Segal (1 August 1920 – 5 February 2015) was an English actor and scriptwriter. He made his first screen appearance, as an extra, in the film '' Jew Süss'' (1934). From the early 1960s onwards he appeared in many British TV series, ...
as Minister
*
John Clegg as Wireless Operator
Notes
#This episode references the many different, and often bizarre, weapons tested by the
War Office at the time. In contrast to some of the schemes the 'big wheel' is actually rather practical. The weapon is based on a real device called the
Panjandrum although this was never radio-controlled.
#The HEADPUHF prop was not actually propelled by rockets. It was designed to have a human occupant in the centre, pedalling it along. When this mechanism broke down during filming the crew resorted to pushing it into shot and filming as it slowed down.
#Pike and Walker listen to ''
Hi Gang!'', a comedy radio show during
World War II. It featured
Vic Oliver, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
's son-in-law.
#The title of the episode is a covert reference to "
An engineer told me before he died", an extremely bawdy
Oscar Brand song of the day.
#This was the last appearance of
Michael Knowles in ''Dad's Army''.
References
External links
*
{{Dad's Army
Dad's Army (series 5) episodes
1972 British television episodes