Reputations: Arthur Lowe

Biography series casting new light on the lives of renowned figures from all walks of public life. Actor Arthur Lowe found fame as the pompous Captain Mainwaring in the classic wartime sitcom, Dad's Army. But when he died, aged 66, he was playing pantomime and provincial theatre. Bad health, including the sleeping sickness narcolepsy, contributed to this decline but many point to the Svengali-like influence of his wife, actress Joan Cooper. Reputations reveals the surprising life and sad decline of Arthur Lowe.

A profile of Arthur Lowe, the actor who found fame as the pompous Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army. With contributions from son Stephen Lowe; Peter Campbell (Lowe's agent); army colleagues Norman Hewitt, Ernest Skidmore and Norman Littlechild; actors Martin Benson, Pamela Cundell, William Roache, Betty Driver, and Bill Pertwee; stepson David Gatehouse; Richard Gatehouse (first husband of Joan Cooper, Lowe's wife); writer/producer Jimmy Perry; John Newman (producer of play 'Home at Seven'); and Roger Richardson (theatre company manager, 'Home at Seven').