Room At The Bottom (Dad's Army)
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"Room at the Bottom" is the sixth episode of the third series of the British comedy series ''
Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...
'' that was originally transmitted on Thursday 16 October 1969.


Plot

Wilson is sitting at Mainwaring's desk, when Captain Bailey from GHQ arrives. He asks Wilson about how long Mainwaring has been in charge. Wilson says it was ever since they were
Local Defence Volunteers The Home Guard (initially Local Defence Volunteers or LDV) was an unpaid armed citizen militia supporting the 'Home Forces' of the British Army during the Second World War. Operational from 1940 to 1944, the Home Guard comprised more than 1.5 ...
. Bailey is surprised because there were no commissions in the LDV, and Wilson admits that Mainwaring made himself a
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
. Bailey tells him that it is more ordinary to have a
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
in charge of a platoon, so Mainwaring must remove one of his pips. Wilson is delighted and is even more delighted when Walker brings him his new hat: a
beret A beret ( , ; ; ; ) is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap made of hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fibre. Mass production of berets began in the 19th century in Southern France and the north of History of Spain (1808 ...
. Wilson, with some glee, practises what he is going to say to Mainwaring, who then arrives, announcing that he has recruited a
Drill Sergeant A drill instructor is a non-commissioned officer in the armed forces, fire department, or police forces with specific duties that vary by country. Foot drill, military step, and marching are typically taught by drill instructors. Australia Aust ...
for drill practice. Wilson tells him about Bailey's visit, but Mainwaring laughs it off. He rings GHQ and speaks to a sergeant, who knows nothing about it. He waits for Wilson's explanation, and concludes that Wilson is jealous of him, and that is the reason why he bought a beret. GHQ rings; Mainwaring answers and is horrified to learn that Wilson was telling the truth. Wilson insists that he is sorry for Mainwaring, even though he is laughing in his face. Godfrey sees Mainwaring removing his pips, offering to assist based on his former experience in tailoring, but is quickly dismissed by Mainwaring, who is determined to make sure nobody finds out, but Godfrey blabs to the rest of the platoon. Frazer, Jones and Walker wonder whether he has been promoted to
major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
, though Walker hopes not, believing that Mainwaring is pompous enough already. When the parade is about to be dismissed, Mainwaring emerges from the office with a rubber tyre on his shoulders, covering up his badge of rank. Walker and Frazer point out that they cannot salute Mainwaring unless they can see his rank. A reluctant Mainwaring is about to reveal the truth, when the
Verger A verger (or virger, so called after the staff of the office, or wandsman in British English though archaic) is a person usually a layperson, who assists in the ordering of religious services, particularly in Anglican churches. Etymology ...
comes rushing in, announcing that the '' Bismarck'' has been sunk. The platoon cheer and Mainwaring quickly dismisses them, the Navy having "saved his bacon". The next day, Captain Bailey returns and tells Wilson that Mainwaring has not even been commissioned as a lieutenant, and he must join the ranks. He adds that Wilson will be in charge for the time being. Bailey gives Wilson the news in an envelope and leaves via the main hall so as not to disturb the platoon's drilling. Mainwaring then arrives and opens the letter as Wilson quickly leaves the office. He hears a shot and thinks Mainwaring has committed suicide. He rushes in and is joined by Jones, who explains that it was Godfrey's
rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...
that fired, and the two of them help a speechless Mainwaring into his chair. Wilson commands the next parade and admits he will be leading them on the divisional scheme on Sunday. Mainwaring enters, wearing a private's uniform, nobly declaring that the protection of the town must come before pride. The platoon, particularly Jones and Godfrey, are saddened as he joins the ranks. Wilson calls the platoon to attention, but Mainwaring mistimes his drill, while Jones has improved. However, the roles are soon reversed. Suddenly the pre-arranged Drill Sergeant Gregory turns up and immediately starts barking orders, insulting many members of the platoon. Mainwaring speaks up in their defence but, now as a private, is picked on for speaking out of turn. However, Gregory is soon given a taste of his own medicine when they practise sloping arms; Jones mucks it up, accidentally throwing his rifle on the Drill Sergeant's foot. At the exercise Wilson does not make a good job of leadership. Jones volunteers to be the scout, but ants climb up his trousers and he has to take them off to get rid of them. Believing this is the signal to advance, the platoon moves forward but soon find themselves in an ambush. It is a disheartened platoon that heads back to Walmington. Sponge remarks there will be no platoon left for the new officer to take charge of. Therefore, the platoon decides to write to GHQ, asking for Mainwaring to be commissioned. In his letter, Walker offers a couple of bottles of scotch "if it will tip the balance". Frazer declines to write with his colleagues, instead writing at home anonymously and asking for promotion himself. As a result of the letters, Mainwaring is reinstated, and everything is almost back to normal. He and Wilson then muse on the events of the past few days. When Wilson laughs at the fact that Mainwaring had had no authority whatsoever to command the platoon, the latter then shocks Wilson by saying that he, therefore, had had no authority to promote him to sergeant in the first place. Wilson realises what Mainwaring is implying, but the latter plays on the moment by saying that he was sure everything would be sorted out, and then says nonchalantly, "Perhaps you'd like to borrow my penknife" (to remove his sergeant's stripes).


Notes

*According to the Verger's announcement, the first half of this episode must be set on 27 May 1941. *When Drill Sergeant Gregory asks Walker why he is not in the army, Walker replies that he "got his ticket" for being
allergic Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermatitis, alle ...
to corned beef – a reference to the earlier episode '' The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker''.


Cast


Radio version

Although changes from the original TV episode were otherwise minor, there is no scene in the radio episode depicting the battle exercise. The platoon did participate in it, though, since Frazer, when commenting about the plunging morale of the platoon on the night Mainwaring absented himself, he remarks bitterly on the fact that "Sergeant Wilson led us straight into an ambush!" The surname of the character played by guest actor
John Ringham John Henry Ringham (10 February 1928 – 20 October 2008) was an English actor who appeared on both television and stage. Among his roles was that of Norman Warrender in the 1980s sitcom '' Just Good Friends''. Early life Ringham was born in C ...
was changed from Captain Bailey to Captain Turner, presumably because actor Michael Knowles, who co-adapted the TV episodes for radio with Harold Snoad, made occasional cameo appearances as "Captain Bailey", including in the radio episode, " A Stripe for Frazer".


Colour restoration of the original television recording

This episode of ''Dad's Army'', after its original broadcast on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
in October 1969 and repeat in May 1970, had only survived as a 16mm black-and-white film
telerecording Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 1940s ...
which had been transferred from the original colour videotape before that tape was
wiped Lost television broadcasts are television programs that were not preserved after their original airing, rendering them permanently unavailable for both public and private screening. Because of this, they are considered a form of lost media, par ...
and reused for reasons of cost. In 2007, James Insell, a preservation specialist at the
BBC Archive The BBC Archives are collections documenting the BBC's broadcasting history, including copies of television and radio broadcasts, internal documents, photographs, online content, sheet music, commercially available music, BBC products (includ ...
, established the
Colour Recovery Colour recovery (or colour restoration) is a process that restores lost colour to television programmes that were originally recorded on colour videotape but for which only black-and-white copies exist. This is not the same as colourisation, a pr ...
Working Group and in 2008, a new technique developed by member Richard Russell was used to restore the episode back to colour. The technique relies on the fact that some black-and-white film recordings contain the original PAL colour
sub-carrier A subcarrier is a sideband of a radio frequency carrier wave, which is modulated to send additional information. Examples include the provision of colour in a black and white television system or the provision of stereo in a monophonic radio broa ...
recorded on each film frame as a pattern of fine "chroma dots" and the software is able to decode these back to colour. This process is completely different from the artificial colouring technique that was applied to some black-and-white films during the 1980s – with ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' describing the group's new descrambling process as "akin to turning an omelette back into an egg". After being re-mastered with a high quality audio soundtrack, the resulting restored copy was as close to the episode's master recording as possible and is now kept as the official BBC Archive copy — this was broadcast again in colour for the first time since 1970 on Saturday 13 December 2008 on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
, and has been included in a DVD release called 'The Missing Episodes'.


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Dad's Army Dad's Army radio episodes Dad's Army series 3 episodes 1969 British television episodes