Dad's Army (TV Series) Menace from the Deep (1969) User Reviews

Put that light out!!

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 1 January 2021]

A very funny episode, which sees Mainwaring and co left to man a gun on a pier, naturally mayhem follows.

It's a quality episode, with some genuinely funny moments, you know what's coming when you hear Larry Martin and Bill Treacher (Arthur Fowler) set the scene.

They truly did know how to write a script, and how to pen a funny scenario. The one liners, sarcasm and physical humour are wonderful, so often the latter came from Corporal Jones, but here we get it from Mr Hedges, this is one of his finest episodes, from parading around drunk in his pants, to shouting put that light out in a sinking dingy.

It is a formula that works, the team stepping in to take on a project, and things going wrong.

All in all, you couldn't want much more, half an hour of classic comedy. 8/10.

A number of important firsts for the series

[tfevans · 9/10 · 23 May 2021]

An engaging episode that establishes many of the familiar running jokes the show's known for, in particular Warden Hodges going in the water, and Frazer's stories. Mainwaring's insistence that the pier was blown up in the middle 'to stop the enemy landing troops there' is also a nice understated moment.

Classic "Marooned for a Night" Episode

[l_rawjalaurence · 7/10 · 27 October 2015]

This episode opens with two regular sailors (Larry Martyn, Bill Treacher) leaving their job of protecting Walmington-on-Sea pier from invasion. Captain Mainwaring's (Arthur Lowe's) merry band of Home Guard volunteers will assume responsibility for one week until the regulars take over once more.

There follows the usual collection of pitfalls and misunderstandings as Mainwaring tries to exert his authority over the platoon and ends up nearly falling into the water, Private Pike (Ian Lavender) forgets the food that the platoon have so carefully prepared for the night's vigil, and ARP Warden Hodges (Bill Pertwee) ends up drunkenly rampaging round the pier in his underwear.

There is a possible danger to life and limb, with Corporal Jones (Clive Dunn) discovering an unexploded landmine beneath the pier, but Hodges comes into his own with his cricketing ability to save the day (Pertwee in real life was an accomplished bowler).

Another half-hour of gentle comedy, punctuated by the underlying knowledge that the platoon could be in genuine danger if they stopped to think about it.

Very funny

[grantss · 8/10 · 24 August 2022]

Another hilarious episode of Dad's Army. The setting, a guardhouse at the end of pier, was original, as was the plot. Some great scenes. Any time the ARP warden got taken down a peg or two was always great.

One of my favourites. It's like a little play.

[phantom_tollbooth · 10/10 · 17 June 2023]

Menace from the Deep was the episode of Dad's Army I was always hoping would come on as a kid and, revisiting it, it's easy to see why. Following the platoon as they are tasked with guarding an observation post on a derelict pier, this half hour is packed with event, moving smoothly and rapidly from set piece to set piece. There's some broad but enjoyable slapstick involving Mainwaring trying to get into a rowing boat, some nice character comedy involving arguments over a hammock, the first example of one of Frazer's doomily portentous speeches, a splash of pathos as Pike apologises to everyone for stranding then without food, a terrific bit of business involving an attempt at Morse Code using a stiff window, and a routine involving a crane machine filled with chocolate that reaches Sisyphean levels of comic frustration. A terrible bit of drunk acting from Bill Pertwee aside, it's an almost perfect half hour that culminates with a genuine threat from a sea mine and a climax that once again draws on some information that Croft and Perry have surreptitiously seeded into the script earlier, a trick at which they had become adept by this point. With its alternate set and careful deployment of characters, Menace from the Deep feels like a wonderful little stage play, and all these years later it remains one of my favourite Dad's Army episodes.