Arthur Lowe

The assault-course scrapes and don't-like-it-up-'ems were all very well, but there was nothing like a bit of life-or-death to vary the pace and bring out the best in the cast. When an air raid leaves Mainwaring and Wilson cradling an unexploded bomb in the bank vault, the rest of the platoon run about like headless chickens. Walmington's well-oiled machine soon cranks up a gear, however: Frazer's fishing skills come to the fore, Pike keeps away the riff-raff; Godfrey rustles up some coffee.

Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier sell their sweaty predicament like the seasoned pros they were, and the former's "Oh come on, Wilson, cheer up" brings quite a lump to the throat.

Prepare for a blast of monochrome nostalgia with the first ever episode, The Man and the Hour. It opens in the "present day" (1968) as the aged members of Walmington on Sea's defunct Home Guard gather to support the economy-boosting I'm Backing Britain campaign.

Then the years roll away and we are at the town's bank at the start of the war with pompous manager Mr Wainwaring (Arthur Lowe) preparing for the Nazi onslaught: "They'll be as dead as mutton from Stead and Simpson's to Timothy White's". He's galvanised by Antony Eden's radio appeal for Local Defence Volunteers, and urges Pike to put the word out that there will be a meeting in the church hall. And so it begins...

From the archive: Arthur Lowe, captain of comedy

Dad's Army scriptwriter Jimmy Perry salutes Arthur Lowe, Captain Mainwaring of the Home Guard, who has died aged 66. This article was originally published on 16 April 1982.

Ernie Wise's terrible plays and the A-listers they attracted to 70s staple The Morecambe and Wise Show are the focus of this week's raid on the sketch cabinet. There are marvellous clips of Arthur Lowe, Peter Cushing and Penelope Keith sending themselves up, but the icing on the guest-star cake was Oscar-winning Glenda Jackson. As M&W scriptwriter Eddie Braben says, "She brought out the best in them, as they did in her."

The Eric and Ern missteps aren't glossed over, however. One film - a deal-sweetener for the pair's migration to ITV and shown only once on telly - is fascinatingly terrible. But otherwise the deluge of punchlines will leave you satisfyingly soaked.

There's a very good chance that you haven't have heard of Parsley Sidings - and there's a reason for that. Namely it was one of the comedy shows that fell victim to the BBC's tape wiping policy, which saw many shows being lost.

It's always a shame, but even worse when you learn more about the people involved. The leads are played by Arthur Lowe and Ian Lavender from Dad's Army; the other two regulars were Kenneth Connor and Liz Frazer, both noted Carry On actors; and on top of that, it was written by Jim Eldridge, the creator of the long-running Radio 4 series King Street Junior, the first comedy drama as we would recognise it today.

Luckily for us, most of the episodes have since been rediscovered and Radio 4 Extra is now giving them their first repeat run since their debut back in the early 1970s on Radio 2.

Anyway, back to the show. The series is set in a small railway station managed by station master Horace Hepplewhite (Lowe), whose family have managed the station for generations. He's keen on his idiotic son Bertrand (Lavender) to take over, though he really doesn't want to. The other staff consist of Gloria Simpkins (Frazer) - who is in love with Bertrand - cockney porter Percy Valentine (Connor) and 90-year-old signalman Mr. Bradshaw (Connor again).

Listening back on these missing recordings, there are still some laughs, despite the poor quality of the recordings. However, there's one big problem, which is that because we're so used to everyone involved doing much more famous (and superior) work, this fades in comparison. When you hear Lowe and Lavender acting as the Horace and Bertrand, you can't help but picture Mainwaring and Pike. Shame.

It's worth listening to Parsley Sidings of course, but it doesn't stand up in its own right. You're probably better off watching Dad's Army, a Carry On film, or listening to an episode of King Street Junior (once the BBC eventually get round to releasing it commercially, which they haven't yet).

Most episodes of this early 1970s sitcom by Jim Eldridge had been wiped and lost for good until a listener sent in some home recordings. Fans of Dad's Army or the Carry On films will want to tune in: Arthur Lowe plays the station master at a hopeless backwater railway stop where the trains always run late, with Ian Lavender as his son!

Kenneth Connor and Liz Fraser also star. It's Lowe's show, as he reprises his signature comic persona of a pompous bumbler authoring his own embarrassment, with a fair bit of help from his unreliable underlings.

Here's a surprise. This is a Seventies sitcom by Jim Eldridge (who went on to write the peerless King Street Junior). It's about a sleepy backwater railway station where all the trains run late and it had a marvellous cast: Arthur Lowe, Ian Lavender, Kenneth Connor, Liz Fraser. All the episodes were thought to have been lost. Or hiding under someone's bed. Then a listener wrote in, sending the missing programmes and Keith Skues, the original BBC announcer on the series, came in to recreate the original opening and closing announcements (seems they are still missing). Worth hearing and not just out of historic interest (it's repeated throughout the day, in true Radio 4 Extra form).

If you've never seen this Dad's Army story (1969 episode 'War Dance'), you might think you're watching a different programme. It's an extraordinary episode: Pike itching to announce his engagement, laid-back Wilson rounding on his superior with "My God, Mainwaring, you can hit pretty low when it suits you!", and the good captain himself getting sloshed. The occasion for all this odd behaviour is the Home Guard dance.

Pike's revelation that he's taking an ATS girl sparks lots of juicy private-life speculation, and some epic snobbery from Mainwaring. It's an unusual outing but a wonderful one. And Arthur Lowe really did play a phenomenally good drunk. Do we give this fine leading man the respect he deserved? Or remember how wide-ranging Dad's Army could be? We certainly should.

A thoroughly charming, warm-hearted comedy about the relationship that formed on the set of Dad's Army between John Le Mesurier and Arthur Lowe. They were like chalk and cheese, personally and politically, but bonded in what would remain a lifelong friendship.

Here's a play about the friendship that grew between the two lead actors in Dad's Army, John Le Mesurier (played by Anton Lesser) and Arthur Lowe (Robert Daws), which began on the TV series and lasted all their lives. Playwright Roy Smiles switches between the letters the pair exchanged in the 1980s, remembering how they got to know each other making the show, and afterwards, showing why such different people remained such pals. Maybe part of it was the integrity of the David Croft and Jimmy Perry scripts which, 40 years on, still shine.