Why we're Dad's Barmy!

DAD'S ARMY is the king of sitcoms. Thirty years after it first hit our screens on July 31, 1968, repeats showing pompous Captain Mainwaring and his platoon of bungling misfits still attract more than eight million viewers. But the wartime comedy, currently being rerun on BBC2, wasn't destined for success. Here Richard Webber reveals 20 FASCINATING FACTS about the show, and over the page find out why Ian "Pikey" Lavender insisted on wearing that scarf...

1The show was originally called The Fighting Tigers until the BBC's Michael Mills, then Head of Light Entertainment, suggested it be renamed Dad's Army.

2The fictitious setting of Walmington-on-Sea started out as Brightsea-on-Sea.

3Jimmy Perry wrote the part of the cockney spiv Walker for himself.

4The role of Captain Mainwaring was offered to comedy actor Thorley Walters and Jon Pertwee, of Doctor Who, before Arthur Lowe was considered. Arthur didn't appeal to the Beeb because he was a big hit on ITV - as draper Leonard Swindley in Coronation Street.

5It was originally intended that Frazer, Walmington's peppery undertaker, would be a fisherman and butcher Jones an ironmonger.

6When the first episode was screened on July 31, 1968, co-writer David Croft had to suppress the results of an audience survey. "There was a terrible reaction to it," he admits. "I think the most positive comment was 'Quite like it', while most people said things like, 'Don't the writers know the war's over?'."

7Jimmy Perry and David Croft were paid pounds 400 per script. John Le Mesurier (Sergeant Wilson) was paid pounds 262, Arthur Lowe got pounds 210, Clive Dunn (Lance Corporal Jones) pounds 210, John Laurie (Private Frazer) pounds 105, Jimmy Beck (Private Walker) pounds 78 and Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey) pounds 63.

8Barbara Windsor made a guest appearance in episode six, Shooting Pains, and cricketing legend Freddie Trueman was in the 36th episode, The Test.

9Location shooting always took place in Norfolk, normally around Thetford, because David Croft wanted somewhere that had lots of evergreen and battle areas.

10Arthur Lowe had an insatiable appetite and insisted that Mr Kipling cakes should always be served with afternoon tea.

11Arthur had a clause in his contract saving him the embarrassment of removing his trousers. In the Dad's Army movie where the platoon are marching in long johns - Lowe is missing!

12Other familiar faces seen in Dad's Army include Wendy Richard (Walker's girlfriend), Nigel Hawthorne (an angry man), ex-EastEnder Bill Treacher (a sailor), and Geoffrey Hughes, Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances (a soldier).

12Arthur was often late setting off for location shooting, claiming that early mornings played havoc with his lavatorial arrangements. So Jimmy Perry introduced him to bran. Arthur later told him it had changed his life!

14When first offered the role of Wilson, John Le Mesurier didn't think the show would last because there was no romance in it.

15Jimmy Beck, who played Walker, was a commercial artist before he turned to acting.

16Frank Williams, the huffy, ineffectual vicar was only recruited for one episode - the 13th - but the character worked so well he soon became a regular.

17Success of the TV series led to a string of spin-offs, including 70 radio episodes, a movie, stage show, board games, videos, records, annuals, mugs, T-shirts and appreciation societies in England and New Zealand.

18Mainwaring's claim that Air Raid Warden Hodges, played by Bill Pertwee, was jumped up because he was only a greengrocer generated a flood of complaints from real-life greengrocers.

19The famous signature tune was sung by Bud Flanagan. His fee was pounds 105. When he turned up to record it, he hadn't learned the song. In the end the tune was eight takes pieced together.

20In 1975, Perry and Croft considered calling it a day, but David Attenborough, then controller of BBC1, persuaded them to continue and another two series were written, making a total of 80 episodes.

THE NOT-S0

STUPID BOY

IAN LAVENDER SAYS LANDING THE PART OF PIKE WAS A SMART MOVE, AS RICHARD WEBBER FOUND OUT

For 30 years he's been frozen in time, the perpetual "stupid boy" with an Army forage cap jammed on his head and a home-knitted scarf knotted tightly at his neck.

It's an image most 52-year-old fathers with two grown-up sons would choose to forget.

Yet every day Ian Lavender gives thanks to Private Pike, the Home Guard dimwit in Dad's Army who made him a star.

And he won't hear a word said against the late Arthur Lowe - Captain Mainwaring, the bumptious commander of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard, who was forever questioning Pike's intellectual capabilities.

Ian was just out of drama school and the youngest member of the cast when he landed his role on the show destined to become a comedy institution.

But he was terrified at the prospect of working with such experienced stars as Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier, the show's Sergeant Wilson.

He needn't have worried. "Everyone took me under their wings right from the start and looked after me," says Ian.

"Arthur was especially kind.

"During the first series I had little to do, but he told me not to worry as that would come. In the meantime he told me to get a funny costume and to always stand near him. So when I was told to get a scarf from the wardrobe department, I picked one with really loud, clashing colours."

Ian's biggest problem playing Pike was how to cover his grey hair. "I turned grey at a very young age, so I had to use colour spray and Brylcreem, which works wonders because it shines and reflects the light," he says. "But I had to dye it when it came to the film and stage show."

Pike's character was loosely based on writer Jimmy Perry's experience as a teenager in the Home Guard.

And although he was fun to play, Ian never treated him as a fool.

"I never thought of Pike as an idiot," he says. "Pike was just rather sheltered and naive.

"However, my fan mail was always from young girls or old ladies - never anything in between. Sadly I was never an idol for nubile 18- year-olds."

When Ian got the part he was more interested in what it would do for his pocket, rather than his career. "I just saw it as several weeks of guaranteed TV work while most of my mates were getting just the odd play or an episode of Z Cars," he says.

"I don't think it was ever the funniest thing on TV. The important factor was that everybody could watch it, and still can. It's ideal family viewing.

"One of its greatest strengths was the pairing of John Le Mesurier and Arthur Lowe.

"They worked so well together. Arthur and John weren't bosom buddies or natural social companions, but they liked each other. It was inspired casting and writing."

Since hanging up Pike's scarf 20 years ago, Ian has been concentrating on pantomimes and theatre work. But he is just happy to be alive after recovering from cancer of the bladder six years ago.

"It's no good doing things that you'll regret afterwards, life's too short for that," says Ian, who's married to Michele, a choreographer and director, and has two sons, Daniel, 25, and Sam, 23.

"Yes, playing Pike has held me back in some ways, but what he's allowed me to do far outweighs any disadvantages.

"I'm just glad that Dad's Army was a success as much for my father's sake as mine.

"He didn't really want me to go to drama school, so I am glad he was able to see my success before he died. For that, I'll always be grateful."

THE CAST

JAMES BECK (PTE. WALKER)

His death in 1973 at only 44 was a huge blow to the cast and some even thought the series might not survive. He was opening a fete when he suddenly felt ill and was rushed to hospital. He died while undergoing surgery for a suspected ulcer.

JOHN LAURIE (PTE. FRAZER)

He was already in his 70s when Dad's Army came along. "He certainly wasn't enthused by the idea, but he never turned work down," says his daughter Veronica. It took a lot of pressure to make him agree to do another series, but he later called Dad's Army "the finest pension an old man could have." He died of emphysema in 1980 at 83.

JOHN LE MESURIER (SGT. WILSON)

He appeared in 100 films including I'm All Right, Jack and The Battle of The River Plate before he took the part of Wilson. He was also the voice of the Homepride flour commercials. He died in 1983 aged 71. His last words were: "I've had enough now"- a TV in the hospital ward was showing one of his films at the time.

ARTHUR LOWE (CAPT MAINWARING)

When Dad's Army finished he only did work he wanted to do, and if a part could be found for his wife Joan. She was in Dad's Army as Miss Godfrey. Arthur's son Stephen says his father was not unlike Mainwaring in real life. "He could be very pompous." He died in 1982 aged 67 after a stroke in his dressing room at a theatre in Birmingham.

ARNOLD RIDLEY (PTE GODFREY)

An established actor and playwright, he was the oldest member of the Dad's Army cast. He wrote more than 30 plays including The Ghost Train and spent two decades as Doughy Hood in the radio series The Archers. He was also in Crossroads. He died in 1984 aged 88.

CLIVE DUNN (LANCE CORP JONES)

Only now is he the age he was meant to be when he played Jones 30 years ago. "I always played older characters but didn't mind as it seemed to work," says 78-year-old Clive. He played Charlie Quick in the children's show Grandad and had his own series My Old Man.

THE FANS

Dad's Army is an addiction that's been passed from father to son in the Jeffries household.

Not a week goes by without dad David and son James, 11, watching at least two episodes.

James is such a fan that he has his own Home Guard uniform.

"I love Dad's Army and it's still the funniest programme I've ever seen on TV," says James at the family's home in Brightlingsea, Essex. "All my friends at school watch it too."

Father, son and mum Sue, 34, are all members of the Dad's Army Appreciation Army which has 300 members world-wide. "Dad's Army's appeal is that it shows people pulling together," said David, who works for the Ministry of Defence. "It is really timeless. There is no smut. We all know that Sgt Wilson is Pike's father, but the writers didn't have to be blunt about it."

Ex-taxi driver Robert Fleming is so keen on Dad's Army that he's thinking of building a replica in his garden of the hall where the Walmington- on-Sea Home Guard get together. "It would be a place where my friends and I can hold our own Home Guard meetings," says Robert, 55, who has 'Home Guard' mannequins inside his Hampshire home and a huge 1940s khaki Bedford 3-ton truck in his drive.

"Dad's Army is a brilliant programme. It was so amusing and just plain good fun for all the family."

THE WRITERS

When, as a 15-year-old, Jimmy Perry peddled his bike to join the Watford Home Guard, he knew he was prepared to die for his country, if necessary.

He spent four years as a member of the real Dad's Army, an experience he'll never forget and one which he drew on when he co- wrote the series with David Croft.

"I was excited, just like Pikey," says Jimmy. "I couldn't wait for the Germans to come.

"It was a terrible time, but, just like many other youngsters, it didn't affect me as much."I couldn't wait to get my hands on a rifle. My mother didn't like it very much, especially as we had to bring our rifle home, even though I was too young to be allowed ammunition."

After working all day in a munitions factory, Jimmy spent several evenings a week attending lectures, or guarding various sites around Watford. "We used to strip down and reassemble Lewis guns. There were two teams and everyone was blindfolded. When the whistle went we'd strip it down as quickly as possible, then put it back together again.

"There were cheers for each side; it was like The Generation Game only we were dead serious.

"This may sound a bit hammy, but I was very proud to be alive during a period that is the greatest time in the British people's history - a time when the whole nation stood shoulder to shoulder."

WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT DAD'S ARMY?

You can read Dad's Army - A Celebration, by Richard Webber, price pounds 14.99, while Dad's Army - The Missing Scripts, by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, is published by Virgin in September. To join the Dad's Army Appreciation Society, send a s.a.e. to Jack Wheeler, 8, Sinodun Road, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8AA.

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