The King Was in His Counting House

Mr. Mainwaring is organising a drinks party at his house, in spite of his wife's fears that he and his men will "get drunk and smash the house up". He informs Wilson he may call him George at the party, something Wilson takes great delight in. However he sternly tells him he cannot call him "George" during work hours and turns down Mr. Pike's request to also call him "George" at the party.

The party starts off with Jones' section in attendance and clearly very uncomfortable. The stilted conversation remains until the arrival of Walker, with his girlfriend Shirley, which immediately throws George off kilter. He serves them a small amount of beer and sandwiches, which they quickly wolf down, after which George gives them a guided tour of the room, while Walker gets down to business with Shirley on the sofa.

Much excitement is generated by the imminent arrival of Mrs Mainwaring, but an air raid warning sees her scurrying to the shelter before being introduced or even being seen by any of the platoon members (or audience). Mr. Hodges arrives, and a few moments later bombs land on the allotments, the taxi garage and the bank. Alarmed, Mr. Mainwaring and his men hurry round to the bank to salvage the money. They secure it and carry it back to the church hall where they plan to count it. Mainwaring orders the other section to guard the money, but they refuse out of spite as they weren't invited to the party, forcing Mainwaring to promise to throw them a party next week.

After a very long night, they eventually total it up. They then attempt to carry it to Eastgate using a horse and cart supplied by Walker and their own bicycles. A short way into the journey, the money starts blowing out of the hamper used to carry it. Trying to alert Mainwaring's attention to this, Pike fires his rifle, only to frighten the horse and send it charging off into a field with the platoon following close behind on their bikes.

1. This episode maintains and builds on the running joke of the non-appearing Mrs. Mainwaring. She at last seems about to appear, we hear her footsteps, then she runs off when the siren sounds. As Fraser puts it "we'll never see her now".
2. In this episode, Mainwaring attempts to hide his lower-class background by claiming his father was a member of "the Master Tailors' Guild"; when he leaves the room, Jones disdains Mainwaring's claims by revealing that Mainwaring's late father was not a tailor, merely a draper with a small business in a side-alley and sold poor quality workman's trousers. Mainwaring's profligate brother, Barry, confirms this fact in the episode My Brother and I.

"The King was in his Counting House" is the sixteenth episode of the two series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on 24 November 1972.

• Croft, David; Perry, Jimmy; Webber, Richard (2000). The Complete A-Z of Dad’s Army. Orion. ISBN 0-7528-4637-X.

• "The King Was in His Counting House" at IMDb
• "The King Was in His Counting House" at TV.com