Dad's Army (TV Series) A Man of Action (1974) User Reviews

Stupid boy!!

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 7 January 2020]

A landmine destroys part of the local railway, and the lines for gas, water and the phone, Mainwaring treats it as an emergency and declares martial law, imposing heavy penalties for those that break the rules. All of this with Like indisposed and journalist Mr Cheeseman on hand.

It isn't as sharp as the earlier episodes, but it still has some fine moments, Mainwaring has always been power hungry, and this episode allows him to behave in the manner of a Dictator, the amusement comes when the same happens to him.

The scenes involving Like were utterly over the top, but funny,isn't it about time the stupid boy grew up a little? Perhaps not. Talfryn Thomas was good as Mr Cheeseman.

Favourite scene being Mr Bluett's conversation with Corporal Jones about the bath, Bennett was great in these.

Good humour 7/10

An overstuffed episode which dumbs down Mainwaring's character

[phantom_tollbooth · 5/10 · 21 July 2023]

A Man of Action is a strange episode of Dad's Army. It's a little funnier than the fairly mundane series seven opener Everybody's Trucking, but it purchases those laughs at the expense of character. It also feels like an episode that tries to cram too much into half an hour, beginning with a plot about Pike getting his head caught in some railings before segueing into a plot about an emergency situation causing Mainwaring to take charge and declare martial law. Why these two plots have been rammed together I have no idea. Perhaps the farcical Pike plot is a bit of a weak premise to carry an episode alone but the martial law plot has great potential if explored over a full runtime. Instead it is squeezed into about fifteen minutes and the thrust of it depicts Mainwaring as a megalomaniac who thrives on power with scant consideration for the war effort or the people his amateur dictator antics are affecting. Mainwaring has always been portrayed as basically heroic, with the good heart of a strong leader beating beneath his stuffy exterior. That's what makes him interesting and lovable. This version of the character is detrimentally dumbed down to the point of being unsympathetic. On top of all that, this is also the episode that introduces the character of Cheeseman, the fleeting Walker replacement who proved to be too underdeveloped and cartoony to endure. His presence does little to make A Man of Action any worse but it does increase the scattershot messiness, with another plot strand packed into an episode already juggling two.