Goodbye Private Pike! Last remaining Dad’s Army star Ian Lavender is laid to rest in Suffolk funeral as Alfie Boe performs and Tim Healy and Rick Wakeman pay their respects

Dad’s Army star Ian Lavender was remembered by celebs and villagers alike at his funeral at St Mary’s Church in Woolpit, Suffolk on Thursday. 

The actor, best known as the young Private Pike, was the last remaining main cast member from the wartime-set BBC show and died on Friday, February 2 aged 77, with his wife and sons at his side.

The service included an emotional rendition of Bring Him Home by Alfie Boe and Rick Wakeman as well as touching tributes to his role in Dad’s Army. 

Draped on top of his coffin was an army beret worn by his character and a scarf in the colours of his favourite football team, Aston Villa. 

Stars including Tim Healy, of Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Benidorm fame, were also in attendance.

Led by Reverend Ruth Farrell, the congregation heard tributes from his film director son Sam Lavender and musician Rick.

On departure to the churchyard, the Dad’s Army theme tune was played on the organ, to remember his time in the comedy. 

The Birmingham-born actor was well-known in the village of Woolpit, with many residents attending to pay their respects.

Alfie and Ian performed together at the Royal British Legion concert produced by Live Nation and the BBC back in 2015. 

Lavender revealed he would take his cast-members’ secrets to the grave just months before his death. 

He told of how the show’s iconic cast were so close they shared secrets with each other that they ‘never told their wives’. 

The actor admitted that he once promised co-star John Laurie (who played Private James Frazer) that he would never divulge the secrets they shared.

Lavender told the We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast: ‘I talked with John [Laurie]  for so many hours. He said, ‘There are things I’ve told you I’ve never told my wife, or my daughter. You must promise me you must never tell anybody yourself’.

He went on to gush about his fellow co-stars and recalled filming as ‘great fun’ 10-weeks every year with ‘wonderful people who became great friends’.

Lavender also revealed that the cast were shocked with the show’s success after the first series originally failed to find an audience. 

The post announcing his death read: ‘We are deeply saddened to hear the passing of the wonderful, Ian Lavender.

‘In what truly marks the end of an era, Ian was the last surviving member of the Dad’s Army main cast.’

Lavender, who was born in Birmingham in 1946, was twice married. His first wife was actress Suzanne Kerchiss in a union that lasted from 1967 to 1976, and the pair had two sons Dan and Sam.

From then on, he lived happily with American-born Miki Hardy. The couple married after 16 years together in 1993, following Lavender’s diagnosis with bladder cancer, which was successfully treated. He also survived a heart attack.

Outside of acting, he was a keen supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and chose a claret and blue scarf as part of Pike’s wardrobe.

Lavender had only recently graduated from drama school and had just one previous TV appearance to his name when he was cast in Dad’s Army, in stark contrast to the rest of the cast – who were comic veterans.

He was earning £9 a week during a six-month stint at Canterbury Rep when someone came up to him and said he looked stupid enough to do Pike.

‘I was a complete beginner and I suddenly joined what was probably Britain’s most experienced team of character actors,’ he said.

‘I was in a state of shock finding myself suddenly among so many great actors. When the moment came for me to speak, that funny voice of Pike just came out in a moment of panic.

‘Since then at the start of every new series it has been one hell of a job trying to conjure it up again.

‘But 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.”

The acting gig was only expected to last for eight weeks – but the show’s phenomenal success meant it endured for the best part of a decade. 

Attracting audiences of 18 million, it ran from 1968 to 1977 and saw Lavender become a household name.

As Pike, Lavender was a comedic stooge in the series, frequently berated as a ‘stupid boy’ by the troupe’s Captain Mainwairing, played by Arthur Lowe, although the other members of the reserve army behaved more warmly to him.

Lavender was key to one of Dad’s Army’s funniest moments where he had performed a song that called Hitler a ‘twerp’ in front of German forces.

The Nazi captain says his name will also go on a list of people he will take revenge on. Asked what it is, Captain Mainwaring urges ‘Don’t tell him, Pike’, accidentally revealing his name.

His bungling soldier routine in the Home Guard comedy brought him fan mail from all over Britain – especially from women who wanted to mother him.

‘I get letters from schoolgirls and middle-aged ladies who want to mother me. I miss out on ladies my own age,’ he joked once.

Lavender’s closest friend and mentor amongst the cast was Scottish actor John Laurie, who starred as the gruff undertaker Frazer.

Offscreen, the pair would often chat and tell each other jokes, a skill Lavender learnt from Laurie.

‘If I could choose one member of the cast to survive it would be John,’ Lavender told the Telegraph in 2018.

‘I loved him, actually. He was naughty, he was impish and he suffered no fools.’

In retrospect, Lavender suggested the part of Pike had put limits on his career, once telling The Independent: ‘I’ve certainly been typecast, but nobody expects you to come up with that character.

‘People don’t want Frank Pike, but they do expect you to be funny.’

After years of service in the show’s fiction seat of Wilmington on Sea, guest-starred in many television series and also took to the stage. He treaded the boards with Dustin Hoffman in The Merchant of Venice and also appeared in Sister Act: The Musical.

Outside of Dads Army, his biggest impact on the silver screen was as Derek Harkinson in EastEnders from 2001 to 2005, and again from 2016 to 2017. Initially the boyfriend of Christian (John Partridge), Derek became firm friends with the show’s matriarch Pauline Fowler (Wendy Craig). 

He starred in 240 episodes of the BBC One soap in total.

Lavender was the last surviving member of the Dad’s Army cast. Clive Dunn, who played Lance Corporal Jones, died in 2012, while Bill Pertwee (air raid warden Hodges) died in 2013.

Arthur Lowe died from a heart attack in 1982 and John Le Mesurier, the long-suffering Sergeant Wilson, died the following year.

Lavender made a cameo appearance as Brigadier Pritchard in the 2016 Dad’s Army film, which starred Toby Jones and Bill Nighy.

In the film, The Inbetweeners star Blake Harrison played Private Pike.

As Dad’s Army’s last surviving cast member Ian Lavender passes away, what happened to stars of the beloved BBC sitcom? 

Arthur Lowe: Captain George Mainwaring

Arthur Lowe had a career spanning 37 years and was one of the most recognisable faces on British TV.

Although he was known as Captain Mainwaring, Lowe only began acting professionally in 1945, after the end of WWII where he had been one of the first to be called up in 1939. 

After the end of the war, the actor took part in productions with local troupes before finding fame as the Home Guard platoon leader.

When not acting the pompous and bumbling Captain, Lowe was in productions with Sir Laurence Olivier at the National theatre and worked on shows including the ITV comedy Doctor at Large and an adaptation of David Copperfield in 1974.

The actor suffered from narcolepsy which often meant he fell asleep on set and even in the middle of sentences.

He died at the age of 66 in Birmingham in 1982. 

John Le Mesurier: Sergeant Arthur Wilson

John Le Mesurier appeared in more than 120 films across his career which was slow to start after his flat and the theatre he was working in in Brixton, South London were bombed during the Blitz. 

After serving with the Royal Tank Regiment where he was posted to India, he struggled to find work, often accepting smaller supporting roles. 

He took small roles in films including the 1956 Second World War film, Private’s Progress and the 1969 classic The Italian Job with Michael Caine and was a self confessed ‘jobbing actor’ 

He also appeared in a Coronation Street spin-off series, Pardon the Expression, opposite his Dad’s Army co-star Arthur Lowe.   

He was married three times, most notably to Carry On actress Hattie Jacques but after their relationship broke down his health took a turn and he died in 1983.

James Beck: Private Walker

Beck who was known as the cheeky cockney spiv was rarely out of work, with roles in Coronation Street and A Family At War.

Despite the success of the BBC sitcom, the actor from North London yearned for greater challenges.

Just as the recording of the sixth series of Dad’s Army was wrapping up, Beck suddenly became ill and was rushed to hospital.

Beck, a heavy drinker, died three weeks later due to a combination of heart failure, renal failure and pancreatitis, aged 44.

Arnold Ridley: Private Godfrey

Arnold Ridley who played the elderly bumbling Private Godfrey was much less bumbling in real life. 

A brave soldier who survived the Somme, he was blighted by his wounds which included an almost useless left hand, shrapnel in his legs and he was prone to blackouts after receiving a German rifle butt to the head.

He was honourably discharged from the army due to his wounds and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his service.

Despite have served in WWI, Ridley volunteered for WWII in 1939 and after serving joined the Home Guard, much like his Dad’s Army character.

In between serving as a soldier, Ridley toured with theatre groups and adapted novels into plays such as Agatha Christie’s novel Peril at End House which debuted on the West End play in 1940

His acting credits also include Doughy Hood, the village baker, in the radio soap opera The Archers.

His great- niece is Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley. 

John Laurie: Private Frazer 

Laurie was a thespian through and through, starting out his career in Shakespeare, he went on to work with Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean and Laurence Olivier.

The Dumfries native starred in classic such as The 39 Steps, Hobson’s Choice and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

The dad’s Army favourite worked all the way up to his death and starred in The Prisoner of Zelda just one year before he died. 

His niece is Star Wars actress Daisy.

He died aged 83 in 1980. 

Ian lavender: Private Pike 

Ian Lavender was the youngest of the cast, getting the part of Private pike at the age of 22. 

The job was only supposed to last for a week but almost 10 years later, he was still playing the part of the lovable Pike. 

While he later revealed that the part of the ‘idiot boy’ cost him other big film roles, he also said he had no regrets about taking the part.

As well as staring alongside comedic greats, he starred alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Dustin Hoffman in The Merchant of Venice.

The actor also took on more tv work including Eastenders as well as theatre – one of his later roles was in Sister Act: The Musical.

He died aged 77.

Clive Dunn: Lance Corporal Jones  

Despite only being 48 when he took on the role of Lance Corporal Jones, he made a name for himself playing the doddery Jones, a type he would lean into throughout his career.

Starting off in touring theatre companies a made his first television appearance in Surprise Attack before taking on a starring role in The Tony Hancock Show.

After playing the old Jones in Dad’s Army, Dunn continued to play grumpy older characters, taking on Charlie Quick, in the slapstick children’s TV series Grandad, from 1979 to 1984.

Despite a a glittering career on tv, Dunn retired to the Algarve where he died in 2012, leaving behind two daughters and a his wife Priscilla, also an actress.