Caught In Some Brambles - Miss A Turn

Caught In Some Brambles - Miss A Turn

I had to open the door in my dressing gown this morning, which I'm not sure was an enlightening experience for the poor chap attempting to make a delivery at just after 8 am.

But I was happy to accept what he was thrusting at me, as it was a copy of the much-anticipated 'Dad's Army At 50!' magazine from the 'Radio Times' stable.

Edited by that nice Mark Braxton (hello sir!) and drawing on archive interviews conducted by Ralph Montagu in 2004, it's a lovely piece of work and a welcome addition to our collection.

So, it became the obvious thing to base today's video on and encouraged us to dig out a couple of our old annuals from World Distributors, a name familiar to older fans of 'Doctor Who'.

"Authorised edition based on the hilariously funny Television Series" is the bold claim on the front of these volumes and they are a reassuring mix of text stories, comic strips, poor jokes, historical facts and figures plus the obligatory rubbish dice game.

The 1974 annual (printed in Italy) informs us that 'Glass House' is army slang for a prison, originating from a prison in Aldershot that had a glass roof, so young readers might learn a thing or two. There's a story entitled 'Mum's Army' which sounds suspiciously like the 1970 episode 'Mum's Army' starring Carmen Silvera. This text story features "a massive woman with the look of a feared games mistress" going by the name of Miss Bush, so there's no similarity, really.

There's a page devoted to Chad, the bald-headed, long-nosed figure always depicted peering over a wall. Here he is asking "Wot! No Petrol?" and "Wot! No Bananas?" and he would later pop up in the 1984 'Hi-de-Hi!' episode 'The Epidemic', the last one to feature Jeffrey Fairbrother.

Most shocking of all, though, is the comic strip story 'Jones Saves The Day' which actually dares to show us the face of Mrs Mainwaring, something never actually attempted in the TV series. She visits Mr Hodges in his shop, where he tempts her with his massive tomatoes...

The 1977 annual follows a similar format, with stories such as 'Gorilla Warfare' (another oddly familiar title) and 'Raising A Stink'. It has to be said that some of the artwork doesn't bear much of a resemblance to the actors (something else it shares with the 70s 'Doctor Who annuals!) and the game 'Treasure Hunt' is a case in point. The 'Caught In Some Brambles - Miss A Turn' square has Pike eating a blackberry, but it's only his coloured scarf that alerts us as to who he actually is!

The 1977 annual cost you £1.10 on original publication, though sadly the 1974 one has the corner snipped out of it, which often happened when these were given as Christmas gifts. Decent copies will see you shelling our a bit more than that these days. of course, but they still seem like pretty fair value for money even now.

Just accept that some of the jokes in the annuals might fall somewhat sort of being "hilariously funny"...

(By Andrew Trowbridge)