Pte. Frank Pike

The youngest member of Walmington-on-Sea's Home Guard platoon, Frank Pike is a gawky bank clerk still treated like a schoolboy by everyone, especially his overbearing mother and his uncle-figure Sergeant Wilson. He wears a long scarf, whines when scolded, and clearly sees himself as far more dashing and capable than he actually is.

Ian Lavender plays him with a wonderful lack of self-awareness — Pike thinks he's the platoon's coming man while everyone else can see he's a soft, sheltered boy playing soldiers. The comedy lives in that gap, and in Mainwaring's exasperated 'stupid boy,' which never once shakes Pike's cheerful confidence.