Room at the Bottom
Encyclopedia

Synopsis

Room at the Bottom is the 17th adapted radio episode of Dad's Army. The synopsis remains virtually unchanged from the TV episode, although there are a few minor changes in terms of actions performed by certain characters.

Plot

Wilson is sitting in Captain Mainwaring's chair when Captain Turner (John Ringham
John Ringham
John Henry Ringham was a British character actor of both television and stage who appeared in over a hundred screen appearances in a wide variety of roles....

) walks in and asks Wilson about Mainwaring with respect to his commission. When Wilson reveals that he had "made himself one", meaning a captain, Turner reveals that Mainwaring had never held the rank and that he had to "take one of his pips off", meaning that he is only a lieutenant.

Turner leaves moments before Mainwaring arrives, and the subsequent exchanges between Mainwaring and Wilson and between Mainwaring and the (unheard) sergeant at GHQ take place. Mainwaring is displeased at what he thought was Wilson's deception when Turner himself rings and confirms what Wilson had told him. As he is about to cut off one of the pips from the shoulder epaulettes of his uniform with a penknife, Wilson, shocked, thought he was going either to harm or kill himself, but then Godfrey walks in and offers to help Mainwaring by virtue of the fact that he was, after all, employed in tailoring for 35 years. Nevertheless, Mainwaring is embarrassed at his demotion and hits upon the idea of wearing the rubber shoulder protectors invented by Walker.

However, when Mainwaring address the men, Jones points out that the men cannot be expected to salute him if they cannot see their badges of rank. Mainwaring is saved only when an excited Frazer bursts in and announces that the German battleship Bismarck has been sunk. Mainwaring seizes upon the men's cheering as the ideal pretext to dismiss them. Wilson comments, "Once again, the Royal Navy's saved your bacon!"

On the next parade night, Turner comes again and revealed to an astonished Wilson that Mainwaring actually has no rank at all and therefore no authority to command the platoon. He leaves a letter for Wilson to give to Mainwaring, who, having been left alone in the office, reads the letter and goes "No ... Oh, my God!" A shot then rings out, prompting Wilson to dash back into the office and rush over to Mainwaring who declares softly, "I'm wounded, Wilson ... inside!" Jones then bursts in and announces that Godfrey's rifle had discharged accidentally.

Moments later, it is clear that everyone knows of Mainwaring's demotion ... and deception ... when Jones blurts out: "I can't get over it! Mr Mainwaring was never an officer at all!" Frazer is totally unsympathetic and says that Mainwaring alone is responsible for what has happened to him. The men are incredulous when Mainwaring himself walks in, intent on rejoining the platoon as a private. He is allowed to fall in but makes as much a hash of standing to attention on time as Jones used to do, something that Frazer comments on mockingly.

It is then that Drill Sergeant Gregory (Jack Watson
Jack Watson (actor)
Jack Watson , was an English actor who appeared in many British films and television dramas from the 1950s onwards....

) appears and insults practically every member of the platoon, both collectively and individually. He leaps upon Wilson's addressing Mainwaring as "Sir", mockingly saying: "What is he, a knight? Looks like a rough night to me!!!" When Wilson points out to Gregory that "Mr Mainwaring used to be our officer", Gregory retorts, "I HATE officers!!!"

On the next parade night, when Mainwaring absents himself, Frazer bemoans the fact that the morale of the platoon has sunk, while Godfrey suggests they all write to GHQ asking for Mainwaring's reinstatement. Frazer, for his part, suggests in his letter that, having been the alleged victim of jealousy whenever promotions came up in the past, he become the new C.O. of the platoon, signing himself "a well-wisher".

Finally, Captain Turner announces Mainwaring's reinstatement as C.O. and confirmation of his rank as captain to a joyful platoon, apart from Frazer who mutters "Bloody disgrace!" Mainwaring makes his entrance and the troops sing "For he's a jolly good fellow" in chorus. After Turner leaves, Mainwaring thanks the men and Frazer tries to play the part of the loyal soldier by suggesting that he could consider him for the rank of lance-corporal, to which suggestion Mainwaring says, somewhat dismissively, "I'll bear that in mind, Frazer!"

He and Wilson then muse on the events of the past few days. When Wilson laughs at the fact that Mainwaring had had no authority whatsoever to command the platoon, the latter then shocks Wilson by saying that he, therefore, had had no authority to promote him to sergeant in the first place. Wilson realises what Mainwaring is implying, but the latter plays on the moment by saying that he was sure everything would be sorted out ... and then says nonchalantly, "Perhaps you'd like to borrow my penknife!"

Cast

The cast of the main characters from the TV series was almost completely unchanged, apart from Edward Sinclair
Edward Sinclair
Edward "Teddy" Sinclair was a British actor most famous for his role as the verger Maurice Yeatman in Dad's Army. He also made appearances in Z Cars and Danger Man.Edward's father was the son of a stage actor who died when he was 14...

 (The Verger) and Ian Lavender
Ian Lavender
Arthur Ian Lavender , better known as Ian Lavender, is an English stage, film and television actor, best known for his role as Private Frank Pike in the BBC comedy series Dad's Army.-Early life and career:...

 (Private Frank Pike
Private Frank Pike
Private Frank Pike is a fictional Home Guard platoon member and junior bank clerk portrayed by Ian Lavender in the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. He is frequently referred to by Captain Mainwaring as "stupid boy".- Personality :...

), who did not appear. Even if James Beck
James Beck
Stanley James Carroll Beck was a British actor best remembered for his role as Private Joe Walker, the cockney spiv in the popular BBC sitcom Dad's Army. The cast was mainly composed of older actors, but Beck was one of the younger members.-Early life:Beck was born in Islington, North London and...

 had already passed away, his character of Private Joe Walker
Private Joe Walker
Private Joe Walker is a fictional black market spiv and Home Guard platoon member portrayed by actor James Beck on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. James Beck died suddenly in 1973, and is featured in just under three-quarters of the episodes...

 did not appear, either; neither did that of Private Sponge (Colin Bean
Colin Bean
Colin Bean was a British actor best known for his role as Private Sponge in the Second World War sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 to 1977, appearing in76 of Dad’s Army’s 80 episodes....

).

Drill Sergeant Gregory was played by Jack Watson
Jack Watson (actor)
Jack Watson , was an English actor who appeared in many British films and television dramas from the 1950s onwards....

, who makes several appearances as different characters in the 20-episode first radio series, including that of "Captain Ogilvy" in Operation Kilt
Operation Kilt
-TV episode:Operation Kilt is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army which was originally transmitted on Saturday 1 March 1969.-Synopsis:The platoon have to defend the church hall from a platoon of Highlanders on an exercise.-Plot:...

 and "Major Smith" in Battle School.

The surname of the character played by guest actor John Ringham
John Ringham
John Henry Ringham was a British character actor of both television and stage who appeared in over a hundred screen appearances in a wide variety of roles....

 was changed from "Captain Bailey" to "Captain Turner", presumably because actor Michael Knowles
Michael Knowles
Michael Knowles is an English actor and scriptwriter.-Career:Knowles is best known for his role as Captain Jonathan Ashwood, in the 1970s sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum . He also played The Honourable Teddy Meldrum in the BBC comedy drama You Rang, M'Lord? , and starred in the sitcom Come Back Mrs...

, who co-adapted the TV episodes for radio with Harold Snoad
Harold Snoad
Harold Edward Snoad is a British television producer and director.Beginning his career in the 1960s, he has worked on many comedy shows for the BBC, including the sitcoms Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, Ever Decreasing Circles and Keeping Up Appearances...

, made occasional cameo appearances as "Captain Bailey", including in the radio episode, A Stripe for Frazer
A Stripe for Frazer
"A Stripe for Frazer" is an episode in the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Saturday 29 March 1969.This episode is currently missing from the BBC's television archives after they wiped the tapes to reuse them. This is one of three Dad's Army episodes still missing...

.

Colour restoration of the original television recording

This episode of Dad's Army, after its original broadcast on BBC1 in October 1969 and repeat in 1970, had only survived as a 16mm black-and-white film telerecording which had been transferred from the original colour videotape before that tape was wiped and reused for reasons of cost. In 2007 James Insell, a preservation specialist at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 Archive, established the Colour Recovery Working Group and in 2008 a new technique
Colour recovery
Colour recovery is a process which can restore lost colour, specifically to television programmes which were originally transmitted in colour, but for which only black & white copies remain archived...

 developed by member Richard Russell
Richard T. Russell
Richard Thomas Russell is the creator of the BBC Basic for Windows programming language and the author of the Z80 and MS-DOS versions of BBC BASIC....

 was used to restore the episode back to colour.

The technique relies on the fact that some black-and-white film recordings contain the original PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...

 colour sub-carrier recorded on each film frame as a pattern of fine "chroma dots" and the software is able to decode these back to colour at the rate of a frame per four seconds. This process is completely different from the artificial colouring technique that was applied to some black-and-white films during the 1980s — with The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

describing the group's new descrambling process as "akin to turning an omelette back into an egg".

After being re-mastered with a high quality audio soundtrack, the resulting restored copy was a true representation of the episode as originally recorded and is now kept as the BBC Archive copy — this was broadcast again in colour for the first time since 1970 on Saturday 13 December 2008 on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

, but has so far not been included in the DVD release of the complete collection.
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