WHEN SITCOM
THE legendary cast of Dad’s Army have been regular guests in millions of living rooms over the decades. But for one family, Captain Mainwaring and his men were literally sitting on their sofa most weekends.
The much-loved sitcom has been the subject of much reminiscing this week following the death of Ian Lavender, who played mummy’s boy Private Pike in the hit long-running series, and who poignantly was the last of the main characters to pass away.
But for Nick and Penny Croft, the son and daughter of Dad’s Army writer David Croft, the memories are even closer – and the feeling that Ian’s death at the age of 77 sadly marks the end of an era is even stronger.
The siblings were in their early teens when their dad’s Second
World War sitcom, which he wrote with Jimmy Perry, became a massive success on the BBC.
And while they would sit down with the rest of the nation to watch the show every
Friday night, they also got to know the cast, who would often come round for dinner parties and barbecues.
The production was such a family affair that the kids would even go into the BBC studios to watch the episodes being filmed, and got to see the making of some of TV history’s most famous and funniest moments.
Penny, now a TV writer and producer herself, also became a lifelong friend of Ian, and was with him just two days before he died. She says the actor knew his time was coming and was remembering the good times.
“We talked about my parents, and we reminisced about shows and other things that he’d done,” Penny recalls.
“He’d been very ill for a long time and he was happy to go. In the days before he died both his sons were with him, and his best friend Rick Wakeman also spent time with him.
“He got to be with everyone he loved and he was in a good place.”
She adds: “He was well aware what it would mean for Dad’s Army.
“I remember when Frank Williams [Rev Timothy Farthing] died two years ago, we went for a coffee and he said: ‘Oh, God, Penn, it’s only me now.’
Penny first met Ian when the Dad’s Army cast came round to their house.
Ian, then aged 22, was closer to their ages so would spend time with them.
Nick, who was 15 when Dad’s Army first aired, remembers: “He had more in common with us, so would want to sit with us, or would come and look us out whenever they were round. He was always very cheeky and very amusing.
“Not that he ever felt left out by the others. They looked after him like one of their children. But people like Arthur [Lowe], John [Laurie] and Arnold [Ridley] had already lived very colourful lives and they all loved to tell stories, and Ian was more often put in the position of listening.
“That’s why he came looking for us. He’d say: ‘I can only hear these stories so many times,’ and come out and ask what we were up to, bring us a Coke or something. He was a very kind man.” Penny, who was 13 at that time, recalls: “Ian was the only person I felt any affinity with, because for me all the others were just old men wandering around the house.
“So we’d talk about teenage things like pop music, because he was just a kid like us. “We grew up together, and I even ended up living close to him, we were close friends for 50 years, right until the end.”
Nick, 70, a singer-songwriter whose new album, Beyond Why? was released yesterday, says Ian was one of the few actors who wasn’t like their Dad’s Army characters. He recalls: “They were all lovely people. John Laurie liked to sort of entrance you, he loved to tell you stories. Arthur Lowe was a bit pompous and standoffish, it was his character but he was also like that.
“He invited us all on to his yacht on the Thames, he wore his Admiral’s hat and bossed everyone around.
“John [Le Mesurier] was someone I liked to talk to. He was very keen on jazz and used to be found in Ronnie Scott’s place at night.
“Perhaps the member of the cast we were closest to, after Ian, was Clive Dunn. We both had houses in the Algarve and we’d always meet up there.”
Private Frank Pike was frequently a target for the derision of Captain George Mainwaring, with the nowfamous putdown, “stupid boy”.
Nick laughs: “You could never say Ian was a stupid boy, he was actually quite astute. He was a very good actually and knew how to get into the part.”
Penny says she watched almost all of