| Everybody's Trucking | |
| Series 7, Episode 1 | |
 | |
| Air Date | 15th November 1974 |
| Written by | Jimmy Perry and David Croft |
| Director | David Croft |
| Producer | David Croft |
| Length | 30 minutes |
| Original Audience Figures | ? |
| Previous episode | The Recruit |
| Next episode | A Man of Action |
| List of episodes | |
Everybody's Trucking is the first episode of the seventh series of Dad's Army, which was originally transmitted on Friday 15th November 1974.
Synopsis[]
Mainwaring's platoon have to signpost the route for a military convoy passing through the area. An abandoned steam roller and fairground organ trailer is blocking the route, which threatens to plunge the convoy into chaos.
Plot[]
The episode begins in the church hall yard, where Jones is showing off his newly-restored butchers' van to the platoon. Mainwaring enters 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 has gone to get some coal. Rather than wait for him to return, Mainwaring decides to drive around the vehicles. Whilst doing so, Jones' 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. With time running out, it falls to Godfrey's Auntie Elsie to save the day and divert the convoy.
Notes[]
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.
The fairground organ which plays the Can-Can in this episode was built by the German firm of Wellershaus in the 1920's, and can be seen and heard at the Thursford Collection in Norfolk. The steam roller and the bus are on display in the Bressingham Steam Museum along with many other vehicles used in the series.
This is the first series of Dad's Army not to feature James Beck as Private Joe Walker since his death on 6 August 1973 aged 44