Arthur Lowe's son on growing up with Capt Mainwaring

Stephen Lowe reveals his father's battle with narcolepsy and why the wife of the Dad's Army actor missed his funeral.

Video: Birmingham Walk of Stars award for Ian Lavender

The Dad's Army actor Ian Lavender who played Private Pike in the hit TV series, has been recognised on Birmingham's Walk of Stars.

Birmingham-born Mr Lavender said he was "very proud" of hi home city when he received the honour.

He joins the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and ELO's Jeff Lynne, who have also been honoured on the Broad Street trail.

As Private Pike, he famously wore an Aston Villa scarf. The actor said when he attended his first game at Villa Park last year, he took the scarf with him.

Book review: Dad's Army, The Story

Few sitcoms have aged as well as Dad's Army.

Radio Times review

Walmington-on-Sea's Home Guard wasn't in the habit of grappling with the enemy - barrage balloons and ARP wardens, yes, but not the Nazis. People only remember Philip Madoc's surly U-boat captain in The Deadly Attachment. There were other occasions, however, and tonight's was the first. There are even subtitles, the dialogue for which was written by actor Nigel Rideout (here playing a German) - reportedly for an extra £10 in his pay packet!

These were nascent years for the sitcom. It's endearingly low-rent - all the action of an air raid is conveyed by sound effects - and packed with interest: Jones swears at one point and Godfrey rather lets the side down.

Radio Times review

Captain Mainwaring is clearly enjoying being in charge of his Local Defence Volunteers, but pressure is mounting on him at their lack of weapons. Then Colonel Square (Geoffrey Lumsden) pays a first visit, offering rifles on the condition that he takes over command. It's a well-scripted dilemma introducing a nice note of drama, and leads to an untypically emotional outcome.

It's also a noteworthy episode for Jones, who cries, faints and makes a surprising confession. The usual sloppy drill and ineffectual training are geed up by some amusing horseplay (look out for the film being reversed). And it's helpful for the purpose of one punchline to know that Odol was a toothpaste!

Radio Times review

The appropriately titled Museum Piece, from August 1968, sees Walmington-on-Sea LDV - still without uniform or any sense of cohesion - trying to take arms against the sea of troubles. Typically, however, the volunteers are outwitted by an 88-year-old man (the father of Lance Corporal Jones, no less!). What's needed is a dash of cunning, not to mention a few slugs from a bottle of whisky - and that's just by Private Frazer.

A quaint feature of these early outings, a Pathé-style catch-up with the platoon, gives us plenty of knockabout silliness. A temperamental Chinese rocket gun and a recalcitrant horse add to the fun.

Meet Frank Williams: the great survivor of Dad's Army

He is the man whose face probably first comes to mind if one is asked to think of a fictional television vicar. Actor Frank Williams first put on his dog collar to play the part of the Reverend Timothy Farthing in Dad's Army 46 years ago. Now 83, he's still going strong, appearing in the new film of Dad's Army, released early next year and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. He is touring the UK in a show in which he recalls his long career. Along with Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike, Frank is the only surviving regular cast member from the original series.

Radio Times review

A chance to discover how it all began, as BBC Two repeats the show's black-and-white curtain raiser. If you've never seen it before, check out the amazing prologue - the only time Dad's Army was set in the present day (1968).

"Alderman" George Mainwaring is guest of honour at Walmington's "I'm Backing Britain" campaign launch, and addresses older versions of his former platoon members. They include Godfrey (with glasses), Pike (smoking, with 'tache), Walker (without 'tache) and Frazer (ancient, like George Bernard Shaw). We won't quibble about how old some of these characters would have to be - although we don't see Jones, sadly.

Then we hurtle back to the war years, when a comparatively polite Mainwaring first galvanised the men of the town into a defence force ("Ah, thank you, Mr Wilson"!).

It won't be the sitcom you're used to (Frazer introduces himself as the owner of a philatelist's shop; Godfrey is the only volunteer to possess a gun...) and yet it's a superb scene-setter, raring to burst out of the blocks and full of rousing speeches about unbreakable spirit and bulldog tenacity.

It's formative and fascinating.

Archive: review of Dad's Army debut episode from 1968

Dad's Army attracted an audience of nearly 20 million in its heyday but the Telegraph's 1968 review of the much-loved sitcom's first-ever episode was only lukewarm. This review was published on August 1, 1968. It was written by the-then Telegraph TV critic Sean Day-Lewis, half-brother of Oscar-winner Daniel.

Radio Times review

It's funny to think that what was unpopular back in 1977, when this episode was first broadcast, remains unpopular today. When Private Frazer rounds on Mainwaring with the words "I don't trust banks, I don't trust bankers and I don't trust you!" he gets a warm round of applause from the studio audience. You see, the captain has been dropping unsubtle hints when he learns that the wily Scot keeps his savings in the form of a stash of gold sovereigns.

It's a not-so-familar episode that gives plenty of airtime to the manic gibberings of John Laurie (who plays Frazer), but there are other delights, too: the rare spectacle of a tiddly Sergeant Wilson, a scene set in Hodges' greengrocer's, Fulton Mackay in his second (different) guest role for the show and Jones blowing accidental raspberries during a gas-mask drill.