Ian Lavender attends the World Premiere of 'Dad's Army' at Odeon Leicester Square on January 26, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Ian Lavender was forever associated with his most famous role, the hopelessly wet and naive Private Frank Pike in Dad’s Army: when he appeared on Celebrity Mastermind many years later and was asked his name a fellow contestant yelled out "Don’t tell him Pike", in reference to a famous scene from the much-loved sitcom. Born in 1946, Lavender had just left theatre school when cast alongside a stellar cast of stage and screen veterans as a member of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon. The show was a huge success — as many of a third of Britons tuned in for each episode — but it also meant Lavender was hopelessly typecast for the rest of his career. "It did, but I would be a fool to have regrets," he said. "Private Pike took me from obscurity into the TV big time. I could never have achieved that if I hadn’t learned to say: ‘Ooh Captain Mainwaring, my mum said even if the Germans come I mustn’t catch cold’." Lavender’s other major role was a four-year stint on the soap EastEnders. He died on February 2 aged 77. — Agencies
