Everybody's Trucking

Everybody's Trucking is the first episode of the seventh series of the British television sitcom Dad's Army that was originally transmitted on Friday 15 November 1974.

Synopsis

Mainwaring's platoon have to signpost the route for a military convoy passing through the area. However, an abandoned steam roller and fairground organ trailer are blocking the route, which threatens to plunge the convoy into chaos.

Plot

In the church hall yard, Jones is showing off his newly restored butchers' van to the platoon. Mainwaring arrives with some very important news: three battalions of regular troops are to move into the Walmington and Eastgate areas as part of the divisional scheme, and as the signposts have been removed, the platoon have been asked to signpost the route to allow the convoys to pass through safely.

En route, they find the road blocked by an abandoned steam roller and fairground organ trailer, and a note from its driver reveals that he's gone to get some coal. Rather than wait for him to return, Mainwaring decides to drive around the vehicles. Whilst doing so, Jones's van gets stuck in the mud and before long it is joined by Hodges' van, his motor-bike and side-car and a coach carrying pensioners on a day trip (who take the opportunity to dance to the organ when Pike who is trying to move the trailer accidentally starts it up). With time running out, it falls to Godfrey's Auntie Elsie to save the day and divert the convoy.

Cast

Notes

1. This episode was mainly shot on location in the Stanford Battle Area in Norfolk, with the exception of the first scene in the church hall yard, which was shot at BBC Television Centre in West London. This was fairly unusual in an age where most sitcoms took place entirely on set.
2. According to "Dad's Army: The Story of a Television Legend", the bird song heard in the episode is in fact the whistling of guest star Felix Bowness, who played the coach driver.
3. The fairground organ which plays the Can-Can in this episode was (ironically) built by a German firm, Wellershaus, in the 1920s, and can be seen and heard at the Thursford Collection in Norfolk.

Radio episode

When this episode was adapted for radio, Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles made big changes to the script. The most significant change was that rather than being held up by a steam roller, the platoon is held up by a circus truck, containing one elephant.