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The Worst Episodes of Dad's Army

Every episode of Dad's Army ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Dad's Army!

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Introducing the Walmington-On-Sea home guard. During WW2, in a fictional British seaside town, a ragtag group of Home Guard local defense volunteers prepare for an imminent German invasion.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    Dad's Army Season 6 Episode 7 - The Recruit
    7.0/10(157 votes)

    #1 - The Recruit

    S6:E7

    Whilst Mainwaring is in hospital, Wilson is in charge. Following Walker's speedy departure back to London, leaving only a note behind, Wilson decides to make up the platoon's numbers by allowing the vicar and the verger to join.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Dad's Army Season 1 Episode 2 - Museum Piece
    7.2/10(236 votes)

    #2 - Museum Piece

    S1:E2

    With the shortage of weapons, Capt. Mainwaring goes to the local museum to see if any of the guns on display can be used by the platoon.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Dad's Army Season 7 Episode 2 - A Man of Action
    7.2/10(133 votes)

    #3 - A Man of Action

    S7:E2

    Pike gets his head caught in the park railings and the platoon is summoned to help. Meanwhile, a large bomb has exploded nearby and puts out the gas and water. When Mainwaring returns from out of town, he puts everyone under martial law.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Dad's Army Season 7 Episode 3 - Gorilla Warfare
    7.2/10(143 votes)

    #4 - Gorilla Warfare

    S7:E3

    On a field exercise acting as commandos meeting a secret agent, represented by Mainwaring, the platoon must trust no one for GHQ has sends as counter-agents to catch them. The appearance of a gorilla compounds their problem.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Dad's Army Season 1 Episode 3 - Command Decision
    7.3/10(206 votes)

    #5 - Command Decision

    S1:E3

    Capt. Mainwaring, worried about the lack of weapons, gets a visit from Col. Square, an old soldier who offers to donate some guns from his collection, providing he can take command of the platoon. Mainwaring agrees until he sees the state of the guns.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 7 - Big Guns
    7.3/10(160 votes)

    #6 - Big Guns

    S3:E7

    A large field gun has been delivered for demonstration but none of the platoon 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.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  7. Dad's Army Season 5 Episode 12 - Round and Round Went the Great Big Wheel
    7.3/10(149 votes)

    #7 - Round and Round Went the Great Big Wheel

    S5:E12

    The War Office tests an experimental invention for delivering explosives. For secrecy, the test is done on the coast, using three local platoons. Mainwaring's vanity is weaponised to make him blindly volunteer for 'special duties', which turn out to be dirty work.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Dad's Army Season 1 Episode 6 - Shooting Pains
    7.4/10(188 votes)

    #8 - Shooting Pains

    S1:E6

    When news that the Prime Minister is to pay a visit to the area a shooting contest is held to see which of the local platoons will form the Guard of Honour. Walker gets a crack shot from the theatre touring show (Barbara Windsor) to take part as a member of the platoon but a surprise is in store for everybody.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 9 - War Dance
    7.4/10(165 votes)

    #9 - War Dance

    S3:E9

    Pike's work is suffering due to distraction from his girlfriend 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.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Dad's Army Season 4 Episode 4 - Sgt – Save My Boy!
    7.4/10(146 votes)

    #10 - Sgt – Save My Boy!

    S4:E4

    The platoon are on night watch in a beach hut, waiting for Pike to bring their tea but Pike has got himself tangled up on barbed wire in the middle of a minefield. Waiting for an engineer to free him, Mainwaring and Frazer mount a rescue attempt of their own, beaten to it by Godfrey. Pike is freed and when the engineer turns up he tells everyone that Pike was never in danger because the minefield was some two hundred yards further along the beach – though Jones knows better!

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Dad's Army Season 4 Episode 5 - Don't Fence Me In
    7.4/10(152 votes)

    #11 - Don't Fence Me In

    S4:E5

    The platoon is to guard a POW camp housing Italian soldiers and Mainwaring is suspicious because Walker seems rather too friendly with them. However, Walker explains that he uses them as cheap labour to mend radios and they go backwards and forwards in and out of the camp via a tunnel which they have dug beneath the stove. When an inspection is called for and only half the prisoners are available, Jones, doing the head count, makes them go round twice but the plan is rumbled when the missing half turns up.

    Director:Harold Snoad
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Dad's Army Season 7 Episode 4 - The Godiva Affair
    7.4/10(144 votes)

    #12 - The Godiva Affair

    S7:E4

    The platoon dresses up as Morris Dancers as part of a carnival to raise money for the town's Spitfire fund, which is still £2,000 short. A Lady Godiva figure will lead the parade but there is confusion over who this will be.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Dad's Army Season 7 Episode 6 - Turkey Dinner
    7.4/10(152 votes)

    #13 - Turkey Dinner

    S7:E6

    After the platoon accidentally shoots a turkey, attempts are made to return it to the local farmer, but he will not accept it so the men come up with the idea of providing a dinner for the local OAPs.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Dad's Army Season 9 Episode 1 - Wake-Up Walmington
    7.4/10(143 votes)

    #14 - Wake-Up Walmington

    S9:E1

    The war effort is wearing down the people of Walmington-on-Sea. While practising on a firing range, Mainwaring is told to keep the noise down and Hodges is verbally assaulted for his efforts as chief warden. Mainwaring decides to scare his townfolk by getting the platoon to dress up as fifth columnists and marching through the countryside 'asking ze questions!'

    Director:Robert Knights
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Dad's Army Season 9 Episode 2 - The Making of Private Pike
    7.4/10(143 votes)

    #15 - The Making of Private Pike

    S9:E2

    Mainwaring is to umpire in a war game exercise so he gets the use of a car. Pike meets a girl and uses the car to take her out, but they stay out all night, leaving the whole town scandalised.

    Director:Robert Knights
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Dad's Army Season 9 Episode 3 - Knights of Madness
    7.4/10(127 votes)

    #16 - Knights of Madness

    S9:E3

    During a Wings for Victory fundraiser, the platoon reenact the battle between St George and the Dragon, but friction starts when Hodges and the wardens plan the same thing.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Dad's Army Season 9 Episode 4 - The Miser's Hoard
    7.4/10(131 votes)

    #17 - The Miser's Hoard

    S9:E4

    Frazer, whom the town has been under the impression has meagre earnings, is, as a matter of fact, rather wealthy. Doctor McCeavedy alerts Mainwaring, who alerts Jones and very soon Frazer's fortune is the subject of town gossip.

    Director:Bob Spiers
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Dad's Army Season 1 Episode 1 - The Man and the Hour
    7.5/10(260 votes)

    #18 - The Man and the Hour

    S1:E1

    After listening to a radio broadcast asking for men to form what has been named Local Defence Volunteers (later to be renamed the Home Guard), George Mainwaring, a local bank manager, decides to act and form the platoon of his own accord. He appoints himself as Captain and recruits his chief bank clerk Arthur Wilson as the platoon sergeant as well as enlisting the bank's office boy Frank Pike. Several of the local tradesmen - including James Frazer, a philatelist shopkeeper; retired shop worker Charles Godfrey; Jack Jones the butcher and black market businessman Joe Walker - also volunteer their service for 'King and Country.' And so, The Walmington-on-Sea LDV is born.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Dad's Army Season 2 Episode 1 - Operation Kilt
    7.5/10(176 votes)

    #19 - Operation Kilt

    S2:E1

    When six members of the Highland Regiment attack the Warmington-on-Sea's HQ, the platoon has to come up with a scheme to capture the attackers.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Dad's Army Season 2 Episode 4 - Sgt Wilson's Little Secret
    7.5/10(166 votes)

    #20 - Sgt Wilson's Little Secret

    S2:E4

    Wilson overhears Mrs Pike telling Frank that she is expecting. Wilson assumes that she is pregnant and that he is the father, but it turns out that she's looking after an evacuee. Mainwaring advises that Wilson marry her, until she clears up the misunderstanding.

    Director:Harold Snoad
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 1 - The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones
    7.5/10(188 votes)

    #21 - The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones

    S3:E1

    Mainwaring's lecture is a total mess due to 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 ARP Chief Warden, and rival rooster in town and church hall.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Dad's Army Season 3 Episode 12 - Man Hunt
    7.5/10(155 votes)

    #22 - Man Hunt

    S3:E12

    Walker has found a discarded parachute which he cuts 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 birdwatcher hunting the rare golden oriole.

    Director:David Croft
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Dad's Army Season 7 Episode 1 - Everybody's Trucking
    7.5/10(143 votes)

    #23 - Everybody's Trucking

    S7:E1

    As all the road signs have been removed, the platoon are ordered to put up temporary ones to help a large convoy on manoeuvres due to drive through the area. However, due to the condition of the ground, Jones's van gets stuck in the mud.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Dad's Army Season 8 Episode 2 - When You've Got to Go
    7.5/10(140 votes)

    #24 - When You've Got to Go

    S8:E2

    Pike finally gets his call-up papers for the RAF, but when his blood donation to the Red Cross is checked, it is found to be from a rare group and he is designated exempt. But now he has to find a way to break the news to the platoon.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Dad's Army Season 1 Episode 4 - The Enemy Within the Gates
    7.6/10(193 votes)

    #25 - The Enemy Within the Gates

    S1:E4

    Capt. Mainwaring is giving a lecture on recognising enemy agents when he learns that for every Nazi captured there is a reward. Later on Jones and Walker capture two Luftwaffe airmen, although a Polish officer intends to claim the reward. Back at HQ the airmen escape on Godfrey's watch.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Worst Episodes Summary

"The Recruit" is the worst rated episode of "Dad's Army". It scored 7/10 based on 157 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 12/12/1973. This episode scored 0.2 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Museum Piece".