The final episode of series 2 is the last of the lost episodes. That also makes it the hardest episode to judge, since Under Fire relies heavily on slapstick which can't be seen in the radio version and is executed by a completely different cast in the 2019 remake. From what I can glean from the remake, the slapstick is smaller scale than some of the really daft examples from the series and has the potential to be reasonably effective, but it goes on too long, with a scene of the platoon trying to extinguish a fire in the church hall seeming to last forever and getting progressively less funny. Jones's doddering spillages are initially quite amusing but by the end of the episode everyone is flapping around on the floor. Given that it is built around silly errors by the platoon and ends with Wilson wondering how Britain can possibly win the war in the face of such incompetence, Under Fire has surprisingly despairing undertones that indicate that the series has moved past the concerns about making fun of the Home Guard, which it carefully skirted in series 1 with a more reverent and dramatic tone. A weak ending to a second series which showed a marked improvement across three great episodes but floundered in the remaining three.
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