Dad's Army - Bolt Action Workbench
Lance-Corporal Jack Jones was the oldest member of the platoon (born 1870), but was played by Clive Dunn, who was in his forties when he took the role. Jones was an old campaigner who had joined the British Army as a boy soldier and served under Kitchener of Khartoum in the Sudan between 1896 and 1898, the Boer War, and the First World War. By 1940 he worked as the town butcher, which enabled him to occasionally supplement his superiors' meat ration. Jones was leader of the platoon's first section.
Private James Frazer was a dour Scottish coffin maker and a retired Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy who fought at the Battle of Jutland (although as a cook). Frazer was blunt, tight with money, and had a gloomy outlook on life; he would proclaim "We're doomed!" during bleak moments faced by the platoon.
Private Frank Pike was a cosseted mother's boy and often the target of Mainwaring's derision ("You stupid boy"), was a junior bank clerk.
Here is Captain George Mainwaring. He was the pompous - if essentially brave and unerringly patriotic - local bank manager. Mainwaring appointed himself leader of his town's contingent of Local Defence Volunteers.
Sergeant Arthur Wilson was a diffident, upper-class bank clerk and Mainwaring's inferior in the bank and on parade. Nevertheless, his suave, understated social superiority, public school education and handsome looks led to a certain amount of jealousy on Mainwaring's part, which Wilson was never particularly bothered by. He would also subtly question Mainwaring's judgement by asking "do you think that's wise, Sir?" after Mainwaring had given an instruction.
