Dad's Army (TV Series) Everybody's Trucking (1974) User Reviews

Charming humour at its finest.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 15 May 2018]

Dad's Army was always so beautifully written, with clever, witty one liners and superb dialogue, on many occasions it was the physically funny side of the show that shone through. Everybody's Trucking is such an episode. Some hilarious moments, including both Pike and Hedge's getting plastered in mud, and a side splitting scene where the vicar and group of pensioners offer to help pull Jonesy's van out of the mud.

Pike has some hilarious moments, by now the 'stupid boy' moments were in full flow, Mainwaring's put downs were hilarious. I hadn't realised Harold Bennett's Mr Bluet had appeared in quite so many episodes. Wonderful also to see Pamela Cundelll. Mrs Fox being a firm favourite.

Classic, 8/10

The turning point for Dad's Army

[Bert45 · 6/10 · 26 July 2019]

If there was a point at which this wonderful and fondly-remembered TV comedy began to show its age, it was in this first episode of the seventh series. Tragically, James Beck (Private Walker) had passed away during the previous series and it proved impossible to replace him. But something else happened that was barely noticeable at first - Arthur Lowe seemed to lose some of his enthusiasm for Captain Mainwaring. Strangely, the warmth left his character and he became more of a martinet than a leader of men. Some of his best catch-phrases lost their punch and his inimitable "slow burn" responses to frustrating situations were nowhere near as funny as they used to be. Whether or not Lowe thought that perhaps Dad's Army was in danger of going on too long, there was a clear decline in the quality of the show, and the storylines began to struggle for laughs. Fans will stay loyal to the series to the end - but perhaps the end should have come just a little sooner before all the older actors began to show their real age.

Something missing

[phantom_tollbooth · 5/10 · 20 July 2023]

By the start of the seventh series of Dad's Army, a change had definitely taken place. James Beck was gone, of course, which was a sad loss but something else was missing. There were plenty of other great characters who ought to have provided ample consolation for the loss of Walker, but the magic had somehow dimmed elsewhere and, in truth, had begun to dwindle even in the sixth series when Walker was still there. After three fantastic series consisting of a mammoth 13 or 14 episodes apiece, it's hardly surprising that Croft and Perry were struggling to find new angles from which to come at the material, but certain members of the cast seem to be losing enthusiasm too. Arthur Lowe feels slightly disengaged, possibly because the writing for Mainwaring had become less nuanced and more blandly buffoonish by this stage. John Laurie had started weirdly overplaying Fraser, which is never more blatant than in this episode when one of his once brilliant doom-laden monologues feels like pure pantomime. By contrast, Ian Lavender is really starting to nail the previously vaguely-defined role of Pike by this point, but sadly the improvement of the young cast member is paralleled by a loss of vibrancy from much of the older cast. Everybody's Trucking is still an entertaining enough episode but it gets by on the pre-established affection of the audience for these characters. The plot about Jones's van getting stuck in the mud is scarcely enough to fill the half-hour though and the laughs are few.