Dad's Army

Mainwaring decides the platoon needs a mascot for a big parade and settles on a ram as the ideal choice. He then sets about finding a suitable animal, but the task of catching an appropriate ram turns out to be far more challenging than he expected.

The Big Parade is a programme presented in the format of a single episode. It falls squarely within the genre of a scripted instalment, offering a self‑contained story that unfolds over its runtime. As an episode, it delivers a concise narrative rather than an extended series, and its structure is designed to resolve the central situation within the allotted time. In this instalment, the platoon’s commanding officer, Mainwaring, comes to the conclusion that the unit needs a mascot to lead them in a forthcoming parade. After weighing his options, he settles on a ram as the ideal representative. The plan, however, quickly runs into trouble when the task of locating and securing a suitable animal proves far more problematic than he had imagined. The difficulty lies not in the idea of a ram but in the practicalities of catching one that meets the platoon’s requirements. Mainwaring finds that the process of tracking down a fitting candidate is considerably harder than simply deciding on the species. The episode therefore centres on his attempts to overcome this unexpected obstacle, highlighting how a seemingly straightforward decision can become a surprisingly demanding endeavour.