Jeffries writes well and has a broad bank of cultural, literary and historical references to draw upon, but this attempt to develop a memoir of life lived with television, into a broader social commentary is ultimately as ephemeral and unconvincing as much of what appears on the box. After all, there is only so much critical analysis Dad's Army can sustain. Sure, Jeffries hits his mark at times, but what might have been an entertaining series of articles for Es- quire or The New Yorker is quickly overstretched as he struggles to fill a book.