Jimmy Perry interview

The sitcom writer talks about his life in showbiz, his Dad's Army heroes and the one that got away...

Banning It Ain't Half Hot Mum from TV is a 'shame'

Banning this generation from watching It Ain't Half Hot Mum is a "shame", the show's creator Jimmy Perry has said, as he argues parts that fall foul of modern sensibilities are just "historical truth".

Jimmy Perry turns 90: a tribute to the genius

Is there anyone living in Britain today who has contributed more to our Gross National Happiness than Jimmy Perry? This is the man who not only created and co-wrote the nation's best loved and most enduring comedy series, Dad's Army, but who also, along with his writing partner David Croft, gave us two other hugely popular shows, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Hi-De-Hi! as well as the witty Upstairs, Downstairs pastiche, You Rang, M'Lord?.

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.

No other character in revered sitcom Dad's Army embodied the bulldog spirit better than Lance Corporal Jones. As played for nine years by Clive Dunn, who died last month at the age of 92, Jones was young at heart, intensely loyal and loved by the British public. Co-writer Jimmy Perry based Jones on an old soldier he'd known in the Home Guard who was often heard to remark, "They don't like it up 'em."

Bewigged and moustached, Dunn was only in his 40s when the show began, which enabled him to perform enthusiastic stunts. And so convincing was Dunn at quavery-voiced dodderers that the BBC brought him back in 1979 for kids' sitcom Grandad - also the title of his sleepy, number-one chart hit.

But if it's Dad's Army you're after, don't panic, the 1977 Christmas special is at 8.20pm.

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.

This documentary on Dad's Army. star John Le Mesurier contains only one clip when he is not performing - and that's from his appearance on This Is Your Life, honouring his then wife Hattie Jacques.

At the time she was having an affair with her driver John Schofield who she had installed in the family home, moving her husband into another room.

You'd never guess that from his demeanour here, so in a way this was very much another acting job.

His third wife Joan also appears here, talking candidly about her own doomed affair with his best friend Tony Hancock.

So you could say Le Mesurier was proof that nice guys finish last (where love is concerned anyway).

Nobody has a bad word to say here about the man whose perfect manners, playfulness and lack of ambition made him so universally adored.

Dad's Army co-writer Jimmy Perry explains how he was initially infuriated by his slightly negative, laid-back approach to the plum role of Sgt Wilson, who rather than barking orders asks, "Would you mind awfully falling in?" and wished he'd do more with it.

But it was precisely this distracted air that made the character so enduring and soon they were writing Wilson based on Le Mesurier himself.

It's fascinating to hear how he ­cultivated a unique aura of uselessness to the extent that he couldn't even make a cup of tea.

Or how he turned up for his first day in the Army with his dinner jacket, jazz records and golf clubs.

Whether or not that was all just an act too, John Le Mesurier was definitely one of a kind.

You have been watching... Barbara Windsor! Great fun to see "Babs" guest-starring in this 1968 parade for the Walmington-on-Sea platoon. She plays the exotically named Laura la Plaz, a stage crack-shot whose help is covertly needed in a spot of Home Guard target practice. But first she has to drag up in army fatigues, pebble glasses and moustache.

Look out, too, for a cameo from Dad's Army co-writer Jimmy Perry as an awful, "My wife is so fat" comedian. Six episodes in and the friction between Mainwaring and Wilson - one of the show's comedy keystones - is in full flow. The humour even extends to the unintentionally hilarious end credits.

David Croft, who died in September, will go down as one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in the history of British TV comedy, having co-written and produced a raft of our most popular sitcoms, including Dad's Army, 'Allo! 'Allo! and Are You Being Served? This hour-long documentary celebrates his work, alongside that of long-term collaborators Jimmy Perry and Jeremy Lloyd - and features more than a few riotously funny clips from the shows themselves.