#mrs. baddeley

[gallifreyanhotfive]

CHRISTMAS PARTY AT 22 EDWARD GROVE!

Arrive on the 24th of December to count down the hours until midnight!

Come one, come all! We'll have a hours and hours of merriment playing a murder mystery game, a great big turkey for Christmas dinner, and who can forget about Mrs. Baddeley's plum pudding! Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without Mrs. Baddeley's plum pudding. It just wouldn't be Christmas.

Come to Edward Grove, Christmas Eve!

[doctorwhoisadhd]

theres just so many interesting things you could do if you staged chimes of midnight tbh....

[dykebeckett]

I’ve never had plum pudding because I’m an American from now not a british from the past. I don’t think I would like it even. But god damn christmas WOULDN’T be christmas without mrs baddeley’s plum pudding

[cultfaction]

Preview: The Secret of Nimh (Bluray)

In 1979, legendary animator Don Bluth made the decision to leave Walt Disney Productions and establish his own animation studio with several former Disney employees. The newly established Don Bluth Productions first made a short – Banjo the Woodpile Cat – and then its first feature: The Secret of NIMH, adapted from Robert C. O’Brien’s popular children’s book Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The…

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Hermione Baddeley (Brighton Rock, Passport to Pimlico, Mary Poppins)— An absolute mainstay of British films from this period. She’s an icon who never takes shit from anyone in any of her movies, dresses for the occasion, and has the best line delivery! Also she started out in silent movies, and was a close friend of Noel Coward. In a desperate attempt to appeal to a large tumblr fandom, I will also point out that her first husband and one of her children were both called David Tennant. You like that name, don’t you tumblr??

Glynis Johns (Mary Poppins, The Court Jester)—LISTEN, I'd let that woman's voice with all its gravely hoarseness (positive) wash over me all goddamn day, but if that's not enough she managed to play the straight woman to Danny Kaye's jester, all with her cleavage so plunging it might as well have been catapulted into the ocean right after Basil Rathbone

This is round 1 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Glynis Johns propaganda:

She walks the line between sexy and cute. Her best role for me is in "The Court Jester as Maid Jean. She's fantastic as the soft but tough captain of the outlaw band and she looks stunning in every gown she wears throughout the film. And of course we can't forget her iconic turn as the suffragette mother, Mrs. Banks, in Mary Poppins! Also shoutout to her distinctive and beautiful voice, kind of smoky and husky. Extremely hot and set her apart from many of her peers."

"Listen, listen. I was raised on Mary Poppins and "Votes for women! (step in time)" single-handedly taught me how to be a feminist. Also The Court Jester is one of my favourite movies of all time and she is UNBELIEVABLY gorgeous, charismatic, funny, and clever in it. She knocks several men out. Absolute icon."

"Like Bette Davis she has eyes to die for. Unlike Bette Davis you felt comforted by them, even when she was batting her eyelashes at you. Would glady go to Downing Street with her and throw things at the Prime minister"

"She had this wonderful wit and charm to her no matter the role and the most distinctive, striking voice!"

"She was amazing in Mary Poppins (the Suffragette song is severely underrated) and apparently she was Welsh? National pride! And she advocated for arts funding in Wales, which is very cool. Also, she died recently (RIP) making her one of the last survivors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, according to Wikipedia. Also also, she just has a cheeky energy I like? And her eyes are beautiful!"

"I mean, incredibly beautiful and talented, can do drama can do comedy. And she was a mermaid."

"I love Glynis Johns. Most of the reason is The Court Jester where she's a sensible and capable foil to whatever what going on with Danny Kaye at the time. She was also the first star I based an OC on. An OC that I still have to this day! Anyway here have some YouTube links love u bye"

Mermaid clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1jUEA03mYTk

Court Jester (sharing a bed trope): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d_qG9i054U

Court Jester (seducing the king): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-GuqFYElKg

"VOTES FOR WOMEN! Well, votes for this woman. Please."

Hermione Baddeley propaganda:

Propaganda for both Hermione and Glynis:

[thatscarletflycatcher]

The @hotjaneaustenmenpoll tournament has inspired me to finally write this post, this more than a post, this bit of FUNDAMENTAL Austen adaptation research.

It is well known that there was a Mansfield Park adaptation in 2007, for which the reception went from "eh?" to "huh?", but what most people around here probably don't know, is that this was the cover for the DVD release in Spain:

And you'll naturally ask, who is that handsome blonde man on the right? He definitely isn't Michelle Ryan, we know what she looks like.

He's Baddeley. The butler. The butler at Mansfield Park. Emma's 2020 class commentary this, and Emma 1996 (ITV) social commentary that, but has any of them put a servant on the cover? Thought so. And people have the gall of calling this a bad, unfaithful adaptation :P

So, in honor of Baddeley and his being the only servant I can think of in the Austen canon of whom we have some pov writing, and what is better, that pov is inner snarky thoughts about Mrs Norris, let's have every time Baddeley shows up in MP 2007, witnesses iconic events, and wins his spot on the DVD cover.

Here we have Baddeley serving some refreshments during Henry and Mary's first visit to Mansfield:

Here we have him also serving some wine to sir Thomas during the very awkward dinner that followed his return from Antigua:

Here we have Baddeley making sure Fanny's special picnic goes perfect:

That includes making sure nobody is dying of thirst (dancing is a very taxing activity!):

Here we have him at the zenith moment of his telling Mrs Norris that she's not wanted:

Evil never rests, and neither does Baddeley's commitment to keeping people hydrated, in this case, during a mouth-drying reading of Shakespeare by Henry:

Sometimes Baddeley's work involves improvising, and taking on jobs others would have considered beneath their title, such as carrying Edmund's bags:

Or helping sir Thomas get out of his traveling coat:

But this also has its rewards, as door watch duty allows him to witness the moment sir Thomas yeets Mrs Norris out of Mansfield:

Alas, in a clear commentary on the class issues of the regency era, despite his relevance to the plot and constant presence at life turning moments of the family, he was not invited and nowhere to be seen at Edmund and Fanny's wedding, while absolute strangers got to witness the momentous occasion instead.

Baddeley, friend, don't be sad. You were there, in our hearts.

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … December 13

1904 – The Iowa Supreme Court rules that "irresistible insane impulse" is a possible defense against a charge of sodomy.

1904 – Glen Byam Shaw (d.1986) was an English actor and theatre director, known for his dramatic productions in the 1950s and his operatic productions in the 1960s and later. Created CBE in 1954, he also received the Hon DLitt of the University of Birmingham in 1959.

In the 1920s and 1930s Byam Shaw was a successful actor, both in romantic leads and in character parts. He worked frequently with his old friend John Gielgud. After working as co-director with Gielgud at the end of the 1930s, he preferred to direct rather than act. He served in the armed forces during the Second World War, and then took leading directorial posts at the Old Vic, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Sadler's Wells (later known as the English National Opera).

Byam Shaw was born in London, the youngest of five siblings. He was educated at Westminster School, where his contemporaries included his elder brother, James Byam Shaw, later a well-known art historian, and John Gielgud, who became a lifelong friend and professional colleague.

Byam Shaw's first appearance was at Torquay in the west of England, in C. K. Munro's comedy At Mrs. Beam's. In 1925 he made his London debut, playing Yasha in J.B. Fagan's production of The Cherry Orchard, in a cast that included Alan Napier as Gaiev, O.B. Clarence as Firs and Gielgud as the young student Trofimov. Over the next few years Byam Shaw appeared in three more plays by Chekhov, and in plays by Strindberg and Ibsen. He made his New York debut in November 1927 as Pelham Humphrey in And So To Bed.

Actress Constance Collier was impressed by Byam Shaw and used her influence to gain him roles. Among those to whom she introduced him was Ivor Novello, then a leading figure in London theatre. She directed them both in the play Down Hill in 1926. Byam Shaw and Novello became lovers for a short time. This drew him into contact with the poet Siegfried Sassoon, another friend of Collier; he and Byam Shaw became close. Their friendship lasted for the rest of Sassoon's life, although they ceased to be sexual partners quite quickly; Sassoon became involved with Stephen Tennant, and Byam Shaw fell in love with an actress,��Angela Baddeley. They married in 1929. The marriage, which lasted until her death in 1976, was, Denison writes, "a supremely happy one, both domestically and professionally"; the couple had a son and a daughter.

1912 – England requires flogging for a second violation of the 1898 law prohibiting Gay solicitation.

Peter Dorey (L) with Ernest Cole

1947 – Peter Dorey (d.2021) was the co-founder of Gay’s the Word, the first bookshop in the UK dedicated to selling books and magazines for the LGBT+ community.

Dorey founded the shop in Bloomsbury, central London, together with Ernest Hole and Jonathan Cutbill, in 1979. Naming the shop after the Ivor Novello musical, the trio aimed to provide a safe space where LGBT+ people could meet and share a love of books, including many titles that were not available elsewhere.

Peter Dorey was born in 1947 in London to Frederick and Irene Dorey and educated at Preston Manor Grammar School in Wembley. Whilst at the University of Leeds he became interested in broadcasting, working for the student radio station on campus. Upon graduating he joined the BBC as a sound engineer, spending more than 20 years at studios in Belfast and Bristol. It was at a meeting of Gay Icebreakers, a social group, that he and his colleagues came up with the idea of a specialist bookshop for the LGBT+ community, with Dorey providing the funding.

During the miners’ strike of 1984-85, the bookstore became the meeting hub for Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), a group which raised funds for striking coalminers in south Wales. Their story is celebrated in the film Pride (2014), directed by Matthew Warchus.

As the subject of long-term surveillance and institutional homophobia, Gay’s the Word was raided in 1984 by HM Customs and Excise, which claimed that “indecent or obscene” material was being held there. Thousands of pounds of stock was removed by Customs officers whilst Dorey and his colleagues were charged with conspiracy to import indecent books, under the archaic Customs Consolidation Act of 1876.

Questions in parliament from Chris Smith and Frank Dobson and pressure from campaigners forced a review of the case. A crowdfunding campaign raised £55,000, including £3,000 donated by the author Gore Vidal. Smith came out as Britain’s first openly gay MP a few months later. The charges against Dorey and his co-directors were eventually dropped.

Dorey met Timothy Groom in 1985 and they were partners until Groom's death in 2010.

1948 – Tom Walmsley, born in Liverpool, England, is a Canadian playwright, novelist, poet and screenwriter.

Born in Liverpool, Walmsley came to Canada with his family in 1952, and was raised in Oshawa, Ontario, and Lorraine, Quebec. He dropped out of high school and battled addictions as a young adult.

In addition to his plays, Walmsley was the winner of the first Three-Day Novel Contest in 1979 for his novel Doctor Tin. He later published a sequel, Shades, and another unrelated novel, Kid Stuff. Walmsley wrote the screenplay for Jerry Ciccoritti's film Paris, France in 1993. Ciccoritti also later adapted Walmsley's play Blood into a film.

Walmsley's style of writing ranges from the naturalistic to the poetic and, at times, the absurd. He moves easily between dramatic and comedic, and some of his "darkest" work is treated with a cutting sense of humour. His most common themes include sex (both hetero- and homosexual, often involving sado-masochistic fetishes, adulterous affairs, and, in the case of Blood, incest), violence, addiction (to alcohol and heroin in particular), and God (from a Christian perspective). He rarely deals with politics directly, although he openly displays a distaste for middle-class morality and social conservative interpretations of Christianity.Early in his career, Walmsley summarized his sense of personal identity as "blond, stocky, below average height, uncircumcised, bisexual, tattooed, with bad teeth and very large feet".

1975 – Lionel Baier, born in Lausanne, is a Swiss film director. He began his career with a short called "Good Enough To Eat" and two docs: one for Swiss television called The Pastor, the other about gay pride in the Valais.

At 28 he released his first feature, a breakout festival hit, Garcon Stupide, about a confused, uneducated, perpetually frisky 20 year-old named Loic who wants more than the quick tricks he turns with older men on the streets of Lausanne. The marketing department tried to sell Baier's follow-up, Stealth, as another gay romp but the character's main preoccupation is coping with the discovery that his family's background is Polish, which leads to a road trip, which leads to a providential hookup.

In 2009, Baier made Another Man about a straight writer who stumbles into a job as a small-town newspaper movie reviewer For something different, the next year Baier shot Low Cost on his cell phone in a month. Low Cost is a 60-minute drama about a 34 year-old who knows when he's going to die. In 2013 he released Great Waves, his first period drama, set in April 1974 during Portugal's Carnation Revolution.

1990 – Anton Hysén is a Swedish footballer who plays in the Swedish third division for Utsiktens BK, which is coached by his father Glenn Hysén. He is a former member of the Swedish national under-17 association football team and was given a trainee contract with BK Häcken from 2007 to 2009,[3] but was hindered by injuries and instead joined Utsiktens BK, for whom he plays in his third season. He was previously a member of Torslanda IK. His older brothers are football players Tobias Hysén (half-brother) and Alexander Hysén. He won the seventh season of Let's Dance, being the first openly gay person to win this competition.

He came out as gay to the Swedish football magazine Offside in March 2011. Daily Mail has described Anton as the "first high-profile Swedish footballer to announce that he is gay" and as the second active professional football player to come out, after English footballer Justin Fashanu in 1990. The BBC called him "a global one-off".

Hysén was profiled on Swedish broadcaster TV4 on March 9, 2011, in a debate show moderated by Lennart Ekdal titled "Can gays play football too?".

He works part-time as a construction worker.

1999 – US Defense Secretary William Cohen ordered a full review of the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. The policy had recently been criticized for creating a hostile environment.

2002 – The Belgium Senate approves same-sex marriage, making Belgium the second country to do so.

[citizenscreen]

Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay, Bill Macy as Walter Findlay and Hermione Baddeley as Mrs. Nell Naugatuck in the groundbreaking “Maude” (1974)

[landscaping-your-mind]

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Mrs. Baddeley's plum pudding!

[bethanydelleman]

Very, VERY minor

Context Below:

The young son of the Lucas family who says if he is was as rich as Darcy he'd drink a bottle of wine a day.

Unnamed woman who blocks Darcy from sitting beside Elizabeth post Lydia.

Baddeley is the butler, he clearly has beef with Mrs. Norris and it's funny.

Dick Jackson was going to "steal" some dinner according to Mrs. Norris and she made him cry.

Edward and then Robert's prospective fiance, according to Mrs. Ferrars

Robert threw all his building plans into the fire (allegedly) and told him to build a cottage

John Thorpe didn't want to drive around his sisters!

Sarah Morland is the one who says Henry doesn't need directions to the Allens even though he's clearly trying to get Catherine alone.

None of these last 4 characters appear on page but I think their descriptions should suffice. Dick Musgrove is the son who died at sea and was at one point under Captain Wentworth.

[acrossthewavesoftime]

I would like to know something from/about "It had begun to snow again" from the WIP folder ask game. :-)

Thank you so much for the ask!

There are two of you who asked about it, so you'll have another snippet to read alongside the one I'm going to share with you. :-)

That's the name of the Henry Clinton and Mary Baddeley project I hope to work on more extensively again in the near future.

For Reasons That Be, I have a much better understanding of a great many things now, especially when it comes to 18th century material culture, and am looking forward to including my new-found knowledge about such things as 18th century drinking glasses and porcelain ware into the story.

The not quite so little snippet I am going to share with you under the cut is heading in a different direction entirely: Mary Baddeley has an awkward problem she needs to address with Clinton: The problem? Her husband's, ahem, creative (read: exploitative) solution to wanting a promotion that is bound to make things between Mary Baddeley and Henry Clinton even more painfully awkward than they already are. The scene is based on sentiments expressed in Clinton's memoir:

“What is it he wants?” he asked, and, attempting a smile, added: “You need not worry. If it is money he desires, you shall give him none, and he must inevitably go away; I will not suffer his presence in my house for longer than is necessary on account of the demands of propriety that your wedded state dictates. Five minutes, ten perhaps, and there shall always be someone at the door; you shall be quite safe from him.”

“He wants something else entirely.” Mrs. Baddeley’s voice adopted a firmer tone now, that however receded to a whisper. “He wants me to— he wants me to seduce you, sir.”

He did not know whether to laugh, or cry, though his first instinct was to laugh: o Baddeley, the fool, the butter-blind noddy!  How gladly should he permit Mrs. Baddeley to seduce him at the first opportunity, without any resistance—! Why, he should be exceedingly pleased to hold Mrs. Baddeley in his arms without Baddeley’s insistence— yet thinking on it, the amusement quickly left him, for he could not help but think on the depravity and wickedness of the man, intent on making a common strumpet of his wife: it was unthinkable to him how one could love his wife so little as to press her into so debasing, so degrading a position as that of a common whore.

Mrs. Baddeley was no whore, she was a lady of an unsullied character and exemplary conduct: all Baddeley was not. To think, he thought that forcing his wife, against her will, into the bed of another man, to make her the victim of passions she was unwilling to receive, and put her into the unnecessary danger of being with another man’s child was inconceivable to him.

Of course, it smarted him somewhat, as it would have smarted any man, that she found the thought of lying with him so shocking and horrid, but her good character and exemplary conduct did her credit. He had no right to demand her affection, and was grateful for this rare, and close friendship she had offered him, so deep she would share even those most troubling things with him.

That was the difference: he loved Mary Baddeley for herself, for all she was; Baddeley in turn regarded her a ready tool at his disposal, to be employed to his benefit, for, no doubt, he thought that providing his general with an amusing plaything, he would be suitably rewarded with a promotion: little did the fool know that he, despite loving her ardently, hotly, would never touch Mary Baddeley without knowing that that was her express wish. He could not even offer her his hand, d—mn it, without feeling like a scrub and a lecher; there was little chance he could perform even if he were to find her lying supine on his bed fully unclothed wearing nought but stockings and lace-trimmed garters— too great was his love for her, his reverence for her dear person, that he would rather avert the sight and turn his eyes away, for he undoubtedly could never have the right to see a celestial being so.

“My dear Mrs. Baddeley,” he at last brought himself to speak, “you must not fret: your honour is in no danger from me.” Awkward it was to even have to phrase such a thing, to say to a lady that he would not bed her, which implied that he had thought about it— a most vexing and embarrassing situation indeed. “I know that,” she replied, and looked at him with an expression of deepest sincerity, “it is not you that I am affrighted of—” her hand trembled, and her entire body shivered as if she had been out in a December storm. “It is Baddeley. He has grown ever more insistent that I must give myself to you, and his impatience concerns me greatly—” There was no doubt to be had that Baddeley frightened his wife so for knowing that he was capable of far worse things than mere impatience, and his heart sank. He should have the man lashed to death, and would love to administer the lashes himself, hear Baddeley groan as his skin was torn, as bone slowly presented itself below raw, abused flesh; he would cherish every second of his suffering, and make him die in the knowledge that it was his wrongs done to Mrs. Baddeley that had brought about his horrid end: Baddeley should never rest in peace, should suffer, suffer, suffer!

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

TOURNAMENT MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Chimes of Midnight

Synopsis

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring...

But something must be stirring. Something hidden in the shadows. Something which kills the servants of an old Edwardian mansion in the most brutal and macabre manner possible. Exactly on the chiming of the hour, every hour, as the grandfather clock ticks on towards midnight.

Trapped and afraid, the Doctor and Charley are forced to play detective to murders with no motive, where the victims don't stay dead. Time is running out.

And time itself might well be the killer...

Propaganda

"Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without one of Mrs. Baddeley's plum puddings." And Christmastime wouldn't be Christmastime if I don't re-listen to this audio story at least once each year. (@youremyonlyhope )

It just wouldn't be Christmas without it (anonymous)

Remembrance of the Daleks

Synopsis

London, 1963: The Doctor returns to the place where it all began — alongside his latest companion, Ace, with unfinished business.

The Doctor and Ace arrive at Coal Hill School where Ace's ghetto blaster seem to attract attention from a young girl.

Not for the first time, unusual events are unfolding at Coal Hill School. At 76 Totter's Lane, the Doctor discovers that his oldest foes — the Daleks — are on the trail of stolen Time Lord technology that he left on Earth long ago. The Daleks are planning to perfect their own time-travel capability, in order to unleash themselves across the whole of time and space.

The Doctor, with the help of the local military, must stop his oldest enemies from stealing Gallifreyan secrets, but the lines between allies and enemies are tested to the limit, and the Doctor and Ace must trust no-one in order to survive.

As two opposing Dalek factions meet in an explosive confrontation, the fate of the whole cosmos hangs in the balance...

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

[anghraine]

I love Mrs Reynolds and the proud Pemberley groundsman, but my favorite servant character in Austen is always going to be Mansfield Park's Baddeley:

[I]nstantly rising, she was preparing to obey, when Mrs Norris called out, “Stay, stay, Fanny! what are you about? where are you going? don’t be in such a hurry. Depend upon it, it is not you who are wanted; depend upon it, it is me” (looking at the butler); “but you are so very eager to put yourself forward. What should Sir Thomas want you for? It is me, Baddeley, you mean; I am coming this moment. You mean me, Baddeley, I am sure; Sir Thomas wants me, not Miss Price.” But Baddeley was stout. “No, ma’am, it is Miss Price; I am certain of its being Miss Price.” And there was a half-smile with the words, which meant, “I do not think you would answer the purpose at all.”

[broadcastarchive-umd]

#PBS Set in a large townhouse at 165 Eaton Place in Belgravia in central London, Upstairs, Downstairs depicted the servants below and the family above between the years 1903 and 1930, and showed the slow decline of the British aristocracy. Upstairs, Downstairs was aired as part of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre.

The cast included: (top row) Rachel Gurney and David Langton as Lady Marjorie Bellamy and Richard Bellamy; Simon Williams as James Bellamy; (middle row) Gordon Jackson as Hudson, the butler; Angela Baddeley as Mrs. Bridges, the cook; (bottom row) Pauline Collins, under-house parlor maid; and Jean Marsh as Rose, the head house parlor maid.

[jokerlennon]

vassyflorence -> edwardgrove

christmas wouldn't be christmas without one of mrs baddeley's plum puddings :) go here btw

[justforbooks]

The actor Ian Lavender, who has died aged 77, played the awkward, impulsive Private Frank Pike in the long-running BBC comedy Dad’s Army, and was the last surviving member of the cast who portrayed Captain Mainwaring’s Home Guard platoon.

Most of the part-time soldiers depicted in the series, which ran from 1968 to 1977, were exempted from call-up to the army during the second world war because of advanced age. Pike, their junior in most cases by several decades, had been excused because of his weak chest, and always wore the scarf insisted upon by his widowed mum, Mavis.

In spite of their foibles and foolishness, Mainwaring’s pomposity and the frequent slapstick sequences, the heroes of Dad’s Army were courageous men prepared to give their lives to protect their country, and it was this innate nobility that lifted the series, written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry, to greatness. At its peak it had more than 18 million weekly viewers, and is still regularly rerun.

There were many catchphrases – Lance Corporal Jones’s “Don’t panic!”, Private Frazer’s “We’re doomed!” and Sergeant Wilson’s languid “Do you think that’s wise, sir?” – and the best-remembered belongs to the gangster movie-fixated Pike, though he did not utter it himself: Mainwaring’s weary “You stupid boy!”

Pike was also involved in Dad’s Army’s most frequently quoted joke. “What is your name?” snarls the German U-boat commander who has been captured by the platoon. “Don’t tell him, Pike,” shouts Mainwaring. There was often great subtlety in the inter-platoon relationships, best exemplified by that of Pike and Wilson (John Le Mesurier). Wilson, whom Pike calls Uncle Arthur, is Mrs Pike’s lodger, and is forever fussing around the boy, making sure his scarf is on tight and gently steering him away from danger. It was not until the end of the final series that Lavender asked Croft if “Uncle Arthur” was actually Pike’s father. “Of course,” replied Croft.

Born in Birmingham, Ian was the son of Edward, a policeman, and Kathleen (nee Johnson), a housewife; his mother often took him to see pantomimes, variety shows and Saturday morning cinema, which gave him his first ambitions to become an actor. After performing in many school drama productions at Bournville boys’ technical school he was accepted, with the help of a grant from the city of Birmingham, by the Bristol Old Vic acting school. Clearly far from being a stupid boy, he passed 12 O-levels and four A-levels. “The only reason I don’t have a degree is because I went to drama school,” he said years later.

He made his first television appearance soon after he graduated from Bristol in 1968, playing an aspiring writer whose family want him to get a proper job, in Ted Allan’s play for the Half Hour Story series, Flowers at My Feet, with Angela Baddeley and Jane Hylton.

In the same year, he was cast as Pike, joining the seasoned veterans of comedy and the classics Le Mesurier, Arthur Lowe (Mainwaring), Clive Dunn (Jones), John Laurie (Frazer), James Beck (Private Walker), Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey) and Bill Pertwee as Air Raid Warden Hodges. Janet Davies played Mrs Pike.

While Dad’s Army catapulted Lavender to national fame at the age of 22, the role of Pike haunted him for the rest of his long career. Not that he had any complaints.

Asked in 2014 if he got fed up with a lifetime of having “stupid boy” called out to him in the street, he replied: “I’m very proud of Dad’s Army. If you asked me ‘Would you like to be in a sitcom that was watched by 18 million people, was on screen for 10 years, and will create lots of work for you and provide not just for you but for your children for the next 40-odd years?’ – which is what happened – I’d be a fool to say ‘Bugger off.’ I’d be a fool to have regrets.”

After Dad’s Army, Lavender made further television appearances, including Mr Big (1977), with Peter Jones and Prunella Scales, and in 1983 he revived Pike for the BBC radio sitcom It Sticks Out Half a Mile, a sequel to Dad’s Army, but it was not a success and lasted only one series. In contrast, the original series, with most of the regular cast, had been rerecorded for radio from 1974 to 1976 and proved very popular.

He was also in the BBC TV series Come Back Mrs Noah (1977-78), co-written by Croft; and played Ron in a new version of The Glums (1979) for London Weekend Television, adapted from Frank Muir and Denis Norden’s original radio scripts of the 1950s. There were more smallish television parts in the 80s, such as two episodes of Yes, Minister, and bits in Keeping Up Appearances, Goodnight Sweetheart, Rising Damp and Casualty. He starred in the unsuccessful BBC series The Hello Goodbye Man in 1984 and provided the lead voice in the children’s cartoon series PC Pinkerton in 1988.

He was also in various quiz shows, including Cluedo (1990). On Celebrity Mastermind, broadcast on BBC1 on New Year’s Day 2009, when the presenter John Humphrys asked him to state his name, a fellow contestant, Rick Wakeman, shouted: “Don’t tell him, Pike!”

In addition to co-starring in the first film version of Dad’s Army (1971), he appeared in various low-level British sex farces of the 1970s, including Confessions of a Pop Performer (1975), Carry on Behind (1975), Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976) and Adventures of a Private Eye (1976). He also starred in the thriller 31 North 62 East (2009). “I was close to getting two very big movies in the 70s,” he said without rancour in 2014, “but in the end they said: ‘We can’t get past Private Pike.’”

Lavender’s second best-known role was his delicate and sympathetic portrayal of Derek Harkinson, Pauline Fowler’s gay friend, in the BBC soap EastEnders from 2001 to 2005, and again in 2016-17.

In addition to various live Dad’s Army productions, his stage work included the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Merchant of Venice, directed by Peter Hall and with Dustin Hoffman as Shylock in 1989, touring as the Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show in 2005, Monsignor Howard in the London Palladium production of the musical Sister Act in 2009, The Shawshank Redemption at the Edinburgh fringe in 2013, and his own one-man show of reminiscences, Don’t Tell Him, Pike.

Lavender had a great admiration for Buster Keaton, and was an expert on the silent comedian’s career. In 2011 he introduced Keaton’s Sherlock Jr (1924) at the Slapstick silent comedy festival in Bristol, and commented that finding Keaton’s grave in the Fountain Lawns cemetery in Hollywood had been one of his life’s special moments.

In 2016 a new cinema version of Dad’s Army was released, with Toby Jones as Mainwaring and Bill Nighy as Wilson. Private Pike was played by Blake Harrison, and Lavender was promoted to play Brigadier Pritchard. In a touching in-joke, his younger face was also seen on an advertisement poster in a street scene.

Lavender is survived by his second wife, Miki Hardy, whom he married in 1993; by his sons, Sam and Daniel, from his first marriage, to the actor Suzanne Kershiss, which ended in divorce; and by two granddaughters.

🔔 Arthur Ian Lavender, actor, born 16 February 1946; died 2 February 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?