The Day the Balloon Went Up opens with a dated piece of wordplay in which Jones decries Walker's black market activity and, in response to Walker's protestations that his connection isn't black market but owns a Chinese restaurant, Jones replies "Yellow market, then!" I wouldn't normally bother flagging up one of these minor era-related lapses, as all old comedies have them and we'll discover comparable content in our current comedies as times move on and standards change. The only reason I mention it here is because after this sour opening note, The Day the Balloon Went Up barely puts a foot wrong again. This is an extremely strong episode, beginning with a brilliantly written parade scene in which Mainwaring addresses his troops' recent failure to salute an officer. This segues into an equally fine sketch about the Vicar finding a rude word daubed on his harmonium and blaming the platoon ("Now, Corporal Jones, do you see that word?" "Yes, sir." "Have you done that?" "Do you mean recently, sir?"), which is in turn interrupted by the Verger floating by the window entangled with a runaway barge balloon. Everyone is so thoroughly comfortable in their roles by this stage and Croft and Perry are writing to those strong performances, managing to fit in parts for the Vicar, the Verger and Hodges too. From the moment the balloon arrives, this episode becomes an excellent adventure caper, with great location footage and a bit of endearingly ropey back projection that recalls the sort Hitchcock was fond of using. Barrelling along at a lively pace and favouring character reactions and genuine excitement over the silly slapstick that marred some of the early episodes, The Day the Balloon Went Up has that lovely parochial action vibe of an Ealing comedy. Following the impressive, lengthy set-piece involving the pursuit of the balloon, the episode then ends with a great gag that cleverly ties in with some information subtly seeded into the narrative at an earlier stage. Following on from the disappointment of the smaller scale filler Big Guns, The Day the Balloon Went Up is testament to how Dad's Army was really starting to get a handle on all its varied comedic styles.
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