late; the POWs have already escaped. Pike deduces that the tunnel is underneath the stove, and he is right. Mainwaring takes Pike and Jones through the tunnel, while Wilson, Godfrey and Frazer try to stop Walker from loading the men into the van. They confront Walker outside the van, and Walker admits that he is using them as cheap labour to get some radios repaired for some clients. Mainwaring still has not arrived by this time, so Wilson and Frazer travel down the tunnel and find Mainwaring wedged in a wooden support. It is Jones who saves the day, by prodding Mainwaring with his bayonet. Back outside, they see Captain Bailey arrive, and Mainwaring remembers that he rang GHQ about the regular troops' departure. After listening to Walker's explanation, Mainwaring orders him and Wilson to take the POWs back through the tunnel, and tries to stall Captain Bailey from entering the hut, but it is no use; he enters the hut before Wilson and Walker arrive with the POWs, and Jones is forced to sit on the stove to stop them getting in. Jones is determined to bluff their way out, so following an idea from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, he and Pike send the same prisoners round again and again, but their plan is ruined when the missing POWs emerge from underneath the stove. Cast Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring John Le Mesurier as Sergeant Wilson Clive Dunn as Lance Corporal Jones John Laurie as Private Frazer James Beck as Private Walker Arnold Ridley as Private Godfrey Ian Lavender as Private Pike Edward Evans as General Monteverdi John Ringham as Captain Bailey Larry Martyn as Italian POW Notes The episode title is drawn from the song of the same name, which is heard in the episode. A number of references are made to opera in this episode. Mainwaring complains about "guarding a lot of comic-opera soldiers", while Godfrey, when first trying to communicate with the Italians, says, "Your tiny hands are frozen, come and warm them by the fire," which is from the opera La Bohème. It is the only Italian he knows. The Italian prisoner of war who meets the platoon at the gate of the prison is played by Larry Martyn who would later go on to play Private Walker in the BBC Radio version of Dad's Army after James Beck died. Further reading External