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[[File:uxb_256_x_192_2870.jpg|frame| Do not try this at home.]]
A 1979 ITV series about the activities of a [[Bomb Disposal]] unit in Britain during [[World War Two]].
Lieutenant Brian Ash is a newly-commissioned officer assigned to [
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* [[Anyone Can Die]]
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Many of the bomb-disposal devices, at least on first appearance. The fuse extractor can only be used on level ground (the bomb is stuck in a wall halfway up a building). The clockstopper is an enormous magnet that stops the timer but not the spring-loaded [[Booby Trap]]. The steam steriliser is too big for the section lorry and vibrates constantly. In the final episode they're using a primitive metal detector and assume it'll be unreliable too, especially as it's detecting a bomb where there's no impact crater. Turns out it's detecting a bomb that fell early in the war but was not reported.
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* [[The Casanova]]: Ivor Rodgers -- Ash consults him on the best place to take a married woman on a date. Rodgers congratulates Ash on his good sense. "At your age there is no more dangerous sport than deflowering debutantes."
* [[Cool Car]]: Ash's MG.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: In "A Quiet Weekend" Ash and his married [[Love Interest]] Susan Mount slip off to a country hotel for an illicit affair. The nervous couple break down in giggles at the sight of a painting of a rampant stag.
* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|Surprisingly averted in that Ash is still alive at the end of the series, though played straight in that his prospects are poor as a disabled veteran with no relevant skills in the civilian world. There are hopeful indications however that he'll be able to get on with his life with the support of his wife and friends.}}
* [[The Dulcinea Effect]]: Cpl Salt is always willing to help a [[Damsel in Distress]], {{spoiler|which eventually leads to his death.}}
* [[Eek!
* [[The End - or Is It?]]: In "Butterfly Winter" hundreds of anti-personnel bomblets are scattered over a village and the entire unit has to take part in disposing of them. As the unit drives away at the end of the episode, a bomblet they've missed is shown hanging from a tree above the road.
* [[The Engineer]]: Lt. Brian Ash
* [[Ensign Newbie]]: Every officer by default at the beginning of the war, as there's no training or experience in bomb disposal available. Furthermore there's no point wasting Sandhurst-trained officers on [[High Turnover Rate|a job that will get them killed in a few weeks]], so bomb disposal officers are just promoted up from the ranks.
* [[A Father to His Men]]: Major Luckhurst. Ivor Rodgers takes on this persona after he's promoted to command of the unit.
* [[Gallows Humor]]: Rodgers is a master.
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* [[Got Volunteered]]: Everyone assumes you have to volunteer for such dangerous work. They're wrong.
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: {{spoiler|A mine he's defusing goes off in Ash's face, and though he survives his psychological problems are likely to continue for years afterward.}}
* [[The Home Front]]: Which in this case is the front line.
* [[Idiot Ball]]: The authorities have made no preparations for bomb disposal whatsoever, originally telling police and air raid wardens to just pile up UXB's somewhere out of the way.
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** Ash tries to free the detonator from a bomb stuck halfway up a brick wall by kicking it -- causing it to fall thirty feet to the ground. He gets strips torn off him by his CO, especially since the building it was stuck in was useless to the war effort.
* [[If You Die, I Call Your Stuff]]: Ash finds himself being issued with the uniform and billet of the last man killed.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: In "Just Like a Woman" audience tension is created when a kid sneaks off to look at the bomb being defused, but when it goes off he suffers no major injuries despite having a hut collapse on him.
* [[Kill It
* [[Mad Scientist]]: Dr Gillespie is building a [[Heath Robinson Machine]] in his backyard for steaming explosives out of bombs. He even has a [[Mad
* [[The Neidermeyer]]: Captain Francis chews out Ash for burning toast, purely because he's jealous of a magazine article that Ash appeared in (under orders from his superiors). He also [[Apathetic Teacher|fails to train Ash despite being Training Officer]], leaving him to pick up everything from his sergeant. When [[Tyrant Takes the Helm|Francis becomes OC of the unit]], he starts making Ash's life miserable in surrogate revenge for [[Jerkass Woobie|his own wife having an affair]] with a young officer.
* [[Never Found the Body]]: Because there's usually nothing left to find.
* [[Oh Crap]]: Several of these, usually along the lines of "It's started ticking", "We have to move the bomb to get at the fuse" or "It's that new type that's blown up anyone who's tried to defuse it so far."
* [[Officer and
* [[Really Gets Around]]: Norma Baker, who gets turned on by the danger of air raids and sleeps with any lodger who's willing.
* [[Sacrificial Lamb]]: A bomb disposal officer is killed in the opening scene. Ash is his replacement with a life expectancy of only seven weeks.
* [[Sergeant Rock]]: Sergeant James
* [[Screw the
* [[The Scrounger]]: Corporal Mould, the mess orderly. Sapper Wilkins from Ash's section.
* [[The So
* [[The Squad]]: 347 Section, Ash's command.
* [[Stock Footage]]: Used for the opening credits, including a [[Creation Sequence]] of (presumably German) bombs being manufactured.
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[[Category:British Series]]
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