A couple of soldiers from the Army Dental Corps - an unbending old sarge (Kenneth Cranham) who wants to earn the medal he once got for changing a tyre on the battlefield, and a gormless young private (Leon Bill) - go Awol, slip across to France to see some action and do the enemy some damage, and end up accidental heroes.
John Henderson's film has a surprising easy-going likeability because it's largely character-driven. Dad's Army aficionados will warm to the charm of national self-deprecation in khaki of War Office bumblers (Derek Jacobi, Julian Glover) and a Cabinet Office grande dame (Phyllida Law) programmed to murmur: "Yes, Prime Minister." And I've seen many worse Churchill impersonators than David Ryall.
