A Man of Action

A parachute mine has ripped up 100 yards of railway track and the gas and water supplies have been cut, the telephone wires are down and Pike has got his head stuck through the bars of a gate. Mainwaring declares martial law.

Jones and Pike are out on patrol and whilst recreating a childhood prank, Pike gets his head stuck in the park gates. Mainwaring is in the church hall, conducting an interview and photo session with Mr Cheeseman, a member of the local press who is joining the platoon to report on its activities. Alerted by Jones, Mainwaring comes and rescues Pike - unable to free him, they lift the gates off their hinges and carry them back to the church hall (with Pike still trapped within them).

Once there, they discover Walmington-on-Sea is in the grip of a crisis. The town has been heavily bombed, leaving the water, telephone and other vital services damaged. The town is, in effect, totally cut off. As a consequence, an emergency meeting has been called by the town elders (namely the Vicar, Warden Hodges, Inspector Baker and Fire Officer Dale). Realising that the bickering committee are not providing effective leadership, Mainwaring orders his men to fix bayonets and steps in, effectively performing a coup d'etat and putting the town under martial law. Hodges implores Inspector Baker to arrest him, but Mainwaring points out that they are up against 16 fully armed men.

He begins issuing a number of stringent edicts to Wilson and Jones to shout from their bicycles, including: all looters being shot, all rumour-mongers, defeatists and those not following military law being imprisoned and for no liquor to be sold or baths to be taken without a permit, which Frazer supports (mainly because Mainwaring has given him responsibility for alcohol permits). Then gathering his men behind him, he marches on the town hall, denying accusations that he is behaving like "the dictator of some South American Banana republic". Jones has been given responsibility for bath permits, and old Mr. Bluett comes in, enquiring about how the system works.

Pike is still stuck in the gates, and several passers-by wrongly assuming this is some form of harsh punishment by Mainwaring. Despite the confident manner he had departed in, Mainwaring returns from his attempt to seize the town hall, indignantly explaining it was shut by the town clerk. He assures people that he will "deal with him in the morning". He again denies that he is behaving like a tyrant, and usurping the power of the land.

However, when a tough officer, Captain Swan, from GHQ arrives to take command over from him, implementing much the same policies as he had, Mainwaring is himself outraged and the episode ends with him being locked out of his own office, thanks to Frazer telling Swan where the office is. Wilson laughs at Mainwaring's hypocritical nature.

1. This is the first episode that introduces Mr Cheeseman as a member of the platoon. He had previously appeared in the episode "My British Buddy" as a reporter from the Eastbourne Gazette who photographed Mainwaring being punched by an American Colonel.