User Reviews

Essentially a rehash of the series 4 episode The Two and a Half Feathers, A Soldier's Farewell doesn't feel recycled because it distinguishes itself in a few significant ways. The Two and a Half Feathers had been a fairly high stakes story about Jones's reputation being threatened, which culminated in him telling a tale from his days in the Sudan in which his former comrades were played by the main Dad's Army cast. By contrast, A Soldier's Farewell is a low stakes episode in which a quiet, cosy toasted cheese supper with Wilson and Jones leads to a strange dream in which Mainwaring fulfils Hodges' long time prophecy by becoming Napoleon. Again, the other characters in the dream are played by the rest of the cast, with the role of Josephine going to a bus conductress who had charmed Mainwaring earlier in the episode.

Although it takes its cue from The Two and a Half Feathers, I think A Soldier's Farewell is actually a stronger episode. I like the laidback storytelling, particularly the scene in the office in which Mainwaring and Wilson share a rare moment of open intimacy as Mainwaring admits he values Wilson's comradeship. There's a vicarious pleasure in watching these characters we've grown to love enjoying the rare treat of a cheese supper in wartime. The dream sequence cleverly uses snippets of dialogue from earlier in the episode repurposed in a new context, in just the manner a scrambled, slumbering brain would create. Finally, there's that downbeat running theme of Mainwaring's unhappy marriage, which always gives an episode that edge of affecting melancholia even when played for laughs. The fact that Mainwaring dreams of the conductress with whom he had the most fleeting of positive interactions is a sad indictment of his relationship and you wonder how often he still dreams of Mrs. Gray in this way.