Broadcast to the Empire
"Broadcast to the Empire" is the fourth (and final) Christmas Night with the Stars sketch of the British television comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Monday 25 December 1972. A full-length radio version was also made, entitled Ten Seconds From Now, which was the last radio episode to be made. Synopsis The platoon are very excited as they have been chosen to take part in the BBC Radio Christmas Broadcast To Absent Friends, in which they are due to perform a short dramatised presentation about their duty as members of the Home Guard, just before The King's Christmas Message. Plot The platoon is excited by the broadcast, which they will be performing from the church hall where a microphone and radio speaker have already been set up. There is a great deal of excitement in the platoon, though the typically cynical Chief ARP Warden Hodges bets they will "make a right mess of it"; he then leaves to go and listen on the Verger's wireless. During a run-through practice of the script, the BBC producer, Mr. Willerby Troughton-Maxwell (who is heard from Broadcasting House over the speaker), annoys Captain Mainwaring by telling him he "does not sound