Clive Dunn has died

[alan45]

The BBC report the death of Clive Dunn aged 92 years

[alan45]

Clive Dunn, whose Dad's Army catchphrase "Don't panic!" was one of the most memorable in television history, has died at the age of 92 after a short illness.

Dunn was a natural comic actor, loved for his role as the bumbling butcher Lance Corporal Jack Jones in the huge TV hit comedy series Dad's Army.

Asked once what made Dad's Army so popular, he said: "Well, it was very well written wasn't it. You know, the story of these little old chaps deciding what they'll do if Hitler makes it over to Britain. We love people in authority making idiots of themselves. I'm so lucky because people would come up to me and say thank you for all those years of enjoyment."

Dunn was also an unlikely pop star, having a Number One hit with a song called Grandad - written by bass player Herbie Flowers after the actor challenged him to write a song for him. The single, a success on Top Of The Pops, topped the chart for three weeks in 1971 and was followed by an album called Permission to Sing Sir!

Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn was born on January 9 1920 in London's Covent Garden area. He attended Sevenoaks boarding school for boys - which he hated - and later studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.

In theatrical terms, Dunn was old before his time. Even at the age of 19 he played a doddering old man in JM Barrie's whimsical play Mary Rose for a weekly repertory company in Abergavenny. He played small film roles from the 1930s onwards, appearing alongside Will Hay in Boys Will Be Boys (1935) and Good Morning Boys (1937).

Dunn worked for many years in music halls and theatres. In 1956 and 1957, he appeared in both series of The Tony Hancock Show and the army reunion party episode of Hancock's Half Hour in 1960. He won the role of Jones in Dad's Army in 1968. Dad's Army was one of the BBC's most popular comedy series, running for 80 episodes between 1968 to 1977, and attracting audiences of 18 million people.

He had served with the 4th Queen's Own Hussars during the Second World War, spending four years in prisoner-of-war and labour camps in Austria after being captured by the Germans in Greece. In his memoirs, Permission to Speak - another Jonesy catchphrase - Dunn admitted he had embraced fascism briefly at his public school. "It seemed patriotic. I didn't know anything about then. Then when I realised they were beating up Jews I got out immediately," he wrote. Dunn later became a lifelong socialist. In fact, he had occasional off-air clashes with the late Arthur Lowe, who played the pompous Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army. Lowe was an active Conservative and when Dunn was awarded an OBE, Lowe said he would accept only a higher honour from the Queen.


Dunn will be fondly remembered, not least for his bombastic war stories as Corporal Jones when reminiscing about fighting in the Sudan. "They don't like it up 'em," was another of his famous war catchphrases. In 1959, he married the actress Priscilla (Cilla) Pughe Morgan and they had two daughters, Polly and Jessica.

He spent his final 30 or so years in Portugal where he occupied himself as an artist, painting portraits, landscapes and seascapes until his sight failed.

[Siobhan]

I thought he was dead years ago.. RIP Clive

[alan45]

I thought he was dead years ago.. RIP Clive

Yes its like a lot of these folk who disappear from the public eye. We tend to assume they have passed away.

Wonder if John Noakes is still alive

[Siobhan]

Apparently he is.

[parkerman]

Yes, very sad news. He was a great actor and part of possibly the greatest sitcom ever on tele - certainly the most enduring.

I knew he was still alive because he was relatively young when he was in Dad's Army although he played a much older person whereas actors like John Laurie and Arnold Ridley played people more or less their own age and died years ago. The only regular member of the platoon alive now is Ian Lavender, though Bill Pertwee (the ARP Warden) and Frank Williams (the vicar) are both still with us.

Did I ever tell you about the time Bill Pertwee rang me up....?

[Perdita]

Y
Did I ever tell you about the time Bill Pertwee rang me up....?
No, tell us more :)

[Perdita]

Y
Did I ever tell you about the time Bill Pertwee rang me up....?
No, tell us more :)

[parkerman]

Sorry, I don't want to divert attention away from Clive Dunn but as I can never resist a bit of name-dropping.....

So there I was at home one Sunday morning doing nothing in particular when the phone rang. I answered and the voice at the other end of the phone said, "Hello, this is Bill Pertwee". I thought to myself does he mean the REAL Bill Pertwee. He went on to say that he was writing a book about seaside entertainment and he had been told that I could tell him all about the history of Clacton entertainments. So we chatted a bit and I told him what I could. Some time later a copy of "Beside the Seaside: A Celebration of 100 Years of Seaside Entertainment" arrived through the post signed by the author. Which was very nice of him. But I have to say it's not the sort of thing you expect every time you pick up the phone, to find a leading member of the cast of Dad's Army on the other end!

[parkerman]

It's such a good story, I'll tell you twice:

Sorry, I don't want to divert attention away from Clive Dunn but as I can never resist a bit of name-dropping.....

So there I was at home one Sunday morning doing nothing in particular when the phone rang. I answered and the voice at the other end of the phone said, "Hello, this is Bill Pertwee". I thought to myself does he mean the REAL Bill Pertwee. He went on to say that he was writing a book about seaside entertainment and he had been told that I could tell him all about the history of Clacton entertainments. So we chatted a bit and I told him what I could. Some time later a copy of "Beside the Seaside: A Celebration of 100 Years of Seaside Entertainment" arrived through the post signed by the author. Which was very nice of him. But I have to say it's not the sort of thing you expect every time you pick up the phone, to find a leading member of the cast of Dad's Army on the other end!

[alan45]

You are so modest mate. :)

Any other names you care to drop.

[parkerman]

How long have you got?

[alan45]

How long have you got?I only wish I knew