Series 2 Episode 5: A Stripe For Frazer

[Chris]

Is it worth a thread for this episode now that the animated version has been released? Have to say I really enjoyed watching this.

[Andy Howells]

I should think so Chris, an animated episode of a lost TV episode warrants some recognition and we can still hope one day the original film will turn up!

[Dave Homewood]

Fingers crossed someone will ring the BBC within 24 hours of broadcast saying "Hey, I have a copy if that show you broadcast last night."

[Chris]

"I've got another couple as well...errrr...under fire and the loneliness of the long distance walker. They any use to you?" I can dream.

[wiwik]

I'm really missing everything lately, ain't I?

ETA: OMG, I'm the Verger!!! ...It does explain why I feel so miserable.

[tslyne]

I watched this on Netflix. I enjoyed it. I’m glad they made it.

[Col]

A 2016 Radio Scotland interview with animator Chris Bowles as he discusses his work on 'A Stripe for Frazer'.

Interview

[Alan Hayes]

Basing my comments here on the animated version released in 2016, which I watched for the first time today.

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It's Frazer's turn to get the spotlight in this episode, and John Laurie milks it for all it's worth - one of his great performances from the early days of Dad's Army.

This is what people now refer to as a 'bottle story', one where the action takes place entirely in the main setting for the series (in this case, the church hall and Mainwaring's commandeered office that adjoins it). The episode features no location filming.

With the return of Colonel Square (last seen in Command Decision), we get some nice continuity references about their last meeting with him, and also the pay-off to something that occurred in that episode (Square believing that the currants that Mainwaring finds on his desk and eats are flies) when Square gives Mainwaring a gift - a jam jar containing some flies as he knows Mainwaring "likes them". I suspect this mystified some viewers both at the time and when the animation was released (and ditto for The Lost Episodes adaptation which contains the same joke, with no explanation). It is worth noting that there was a 7 month gap between the original BBC1 transmissions of Command Decision and A Stripe for Frazer. Maybe audiences had better memories then!

If the episode has a weakness, for me it's the way that Jones - competing with Frazer for the promotion Corporal - doesn't really get that much to do and is just carried along with the action. He is completely drowned out by Frazer's power-crazed mania.

I'd rate this one as a 7/10 mainly because it lacks the ambition of the four episodes that preceded it - particularly in terms of it settings.

[petere]

Yes seven months is a long time but on the other hand the ”Currant scene” is a really, really funny and memorable one! In my opinion its one of the funniest moments of the whole series.

[Alan Hayes]

But if you'd seen it just the once, would you necessarily remember it 7 months later? Seemed a rather long-distance punchline to me!

[petere]

This theme with Frazer’s ”power hunger” seems to be recurring through the series. For example both ”If the cap fits” and - to some extent - ”When did you last see your money” explore the subject.
There are probably more episodes but I can’t come up with any more here and now.🤔

[Dave Homewood]

One of the great episodes, Frazer is my favourite character and John Laurie was brilliant. Such a shame the visuals are lost. The recent remake isn't a patch on the energy of the real thing heard in the 1960's soundtrack and the radio episode.

[Alan Hayes]

Having watched the animation and then - after I reviewed the episode - the Lost Episodes remake, I can only agree. They are good for filling in the gaps but they can never be replacements. I must say I've revised my opinion a little about them. I don't think they're terrible, but they do look under rehearsed. As for the casting, I think Mathew Horne is the standout actor, with Timothy West also doing well. I think they succeed because they're both trying to play the part, not the trying to play the original actor playing the part (which is nigh on impossible).

[Dave Homewood]

That's exactly how I see the three remakes, good fillers but woefully under-rehearsed. They are not comfortable in the characters and it shows. Some of the actors look self conscious about it, the guy who played Frazer especially. And Pike was just a terrible casting choice. The real Dad's Army were playing themselves so did not have to fit into a mould, whereas the new cast have been poured into a mould but were not yet properly set when used.