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I think that means the Vicar (Frank Williams?) is the only surviving member of the cast I think. Playing the type of character he did made Ian Lavender seem younger to me than he was - thinking about it, Private Pike was a career high for him wasn’t it.Originally Posted by jon1959
RIP
Just checked on that out of curiosity, he appeared in 240 episodes of Eastenders. Never watched it so it passed me by.
Frank Williams died in 2022. There are sadly no more regular Dads Army characters alive
End of an era. I enjoyed watching the Dads army film a few years back with Toby Jones and Catherine Zeta Jones
Missed that, my sister worked in the New Theatre for a while in the eighties and said that although Frank Williams was far from the biggest prima Donna she met, he was the most camp actor she came across while she was there.
Don’t tell him Pike! Who can forget that episode?
R.I.P.
Absolute classic...along with Del boy and the Chandeliers....and the open bar fall......nothing remotely funny like that anymore...today they would probably ban Dad's Army in case it offended the Germans...
You know what is coming but you still cannot help laughing.
Damn nostalgia. The hiraeth kicks in strong when I think of those long-ago days snuggled up in the living room, coal fire blaring, with mum and dad, laughing at Capt. Mainwaring's pomposity. So many great characters. The vicar, the air raid warden, the spiv, the veteran of Omdurman, the undertaker, the sissy boy, the disrespected public school boy. What a gift that show was. RIP Pike.
mid 1980's I was doing a degree with the OU. I would go with other students to my tutor's house for a cupper and a chat. My tutor was a student during the war and was put in the Home Guard. We were talking about comedy and I mentioned Dad's Army. His reply - 'It wasn't comedy, it was a documentary'
Dad's Army , Porridge , Rising Damp and a few others were very well written , the sarcasm of John Le Mesurier taking the piss out of mainwaring fat tory boy was superb
But Only Fools and Horses , One Foot In The Grave etc were rubbish and very dated now
It was surprisingly good. Probably not that surprising with Toby Jones in it.
My old grampy was in the Home Guard in Cardiff during the war (he was born 1901) and he hated Dad's Army. For him it was just disrespectful, and a subject that shouldn't be a source of comedy. For the rest of the family, including our granny - his wife - it was hilarious. Apart from Clive Dunn's Corporal Jones - my mam didn't like him (the wrong sort of stupid!).
Clive Dunn was a socialist and hated working with Arthur Low who was a raving tory and apparently every bit as pompous and bullying in real life as he was on the screen
Fair points, but..... 'Grandad'.
Sounds like your mam was a woman of taste and refinement. Corporal Jones was the one character in Dad’s Army I couldn’t take to and “the wrong sort of stupid” is as good a way as any to explain why.
Classic comedy and one that has grown on me since the first showings as much of it went over my head at the time.
Liked James Beck as the spiv and John "we're doomed" Laurie.
John Le Mesurier as Wilson I wasn't fussed on but now probably my favourite.
As for "Don't Panic don't panic..." Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones, they should have had a proper old fella (a la Godfrey) rather than someone dressed as one.
Jonesey was a very silly character and I doubt many viewers found him funny, apart from young kids.
That dreadful song Grandad apart, did he do anything else?
RIP Private Pike.
From Wikipedia:
In 1968, Lowe was cast in his best remembered role, as Home Guard platoon leader Captain Mainwaring in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977). Some colleagues on the show later remarked that the role resembled him: pompous and bumbling. Frank Williams said he felt this perception was unfair: "He certainly didn't suffer fools gladly and always knew his own mind, but he also had an ability to laugh at himself. Personally, I found him to be a most kind and generous man".[43] David Croft said Lowe had to be treated with kid gloves. He had firm ideas on what he was willing to do and never took his script home, which resulted in uncertainty over his lines.[44] He could be pompous and over time his part was written so there was a blurring of the line between actor and character.[44] An oddity of his contract was that he would never have to remove his trousers.[45]
Lowe held conservative political views and disapproved of the left-wing politics of his co-star Clive Dunn.[46] Dunn, in turn, described some of Lowe's opinions as outrageous, but as an actor rated him "ten out of ten in his field". Despite some tensions, Jimmy Perry described the cast as a "marvellous bunch of pros" with "no sort of volatile animosity between anybody".[46]
Clive Dunn's comments here reflect an attitude on the part of the left that was standard in those days — that an artist's genius (Jane Fonda, for example, perhaps a little self servingly) should be appreciated despite his or her politics. That tune has changed. Today's left sees nothing but politics.
Is the last paragraph your view or Wikipedia?
It's ironic really as in America if you were left wing they tried to frame you for being a communist
Arthur Miller for example
Not sure that last comment is true. I regard myself and most of my closest friends as 'of the left' but generally we are happy to distinguish between an actor's ability on screen or stage and their political views.
I like and appreciate a lot of Clint Eastwood, David Lynch, Ian Curtis and others. Even Edward Fox. All of the political right. Don't like their politics but that is a totally different thing.
I don't agree with cancelling or airbrushing artists, writers, musicians or thinkers who I disagree with, that display outdated or offensive views, or have transgressed in some way. It may be right to show a brief sensitivity warning before playing the Dambusters film on Boxing Day, but the name of Gibson's dog is not a reason to ban the film. Kevin Spacey is a great actor whatever crimes he has committed.
There have always been people on the left, the right and the middle who want to suppress views or opinions they dislike - that isn't a recent thing. But I don't think it is a majority view on the left. No calls for book burning, and if anything the most vocal blacklisters and cancellers in recent years have been from the other side (exacerbated by the positions taken on Israel-Palestine).
It seems there may be a lot of noise on social media to shut down opposition views - I don't look at that enough to form an opinion - and from one side that plays into the endless 'woke' frothing in the Tory press - but from the little I have seen it looks like a cultural reaction (in both senses of the word) not political.
And Joan Armatrading.
It really hurt when she came out as a Thatcher fan - but that doesn't change her musical and songwriting genius.
I still listen to the show on IPlayer ,great car travelling comedy , i find the content easier to absorb than watching on TV
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b009v6h3nradio 4
Taking petty politics out of this of course Joan was a fan she wasn't blinkered and you could see what she just did as a women for women rose up through a grossly male orientated westminster with its bigotry yep on both sides ( one side still hasn't let a lady trough ) she beat it all and still kept a home and cooked , became PM and yes a huge world leader that why millions of women like Joan admire her for she was one of the first ..
Well done Joan brave shout out
I must admit, I do like a lady trough
‘Kept a home & cooked’? Went there for tea with Mark or something, did you?
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