Ian Lavender has revealed Sergeant Wilson was Private Pike’s dad in ‘Dad’s Army’.
The 72-year-old actor approached writer David Croft on the final day of filming to see whether his alter-ego Pike was in fact the son of Wilson (John Le Mesurier), who Pike referred to as "Uncle Arthur" and was often implied to have enjoyed a relationship with Pike’s mother Mavis Pike (Janet Davies).
Ian said: "At the end of the last episode I said to David Croft, ‘I just have to ask you one thing, is Uncle Arthur my father?’
"And he looked at me and said, ‘Of course he is!’ "
Ian played Pike for the show’s full nine-year run, and while he is proud to have appeared on the programme, the role left him "typecast".
He said: "It stopped me getting a type of work. I was typecast. I wasn’t character-cast.
"I was expected to be funny; I wasn’t expected to be Pike."
Despite this, Ian is pleased to have starred in the sitcom, which told the story of members of the British Home Guard – made up of volunteers who were ineligible for military service due to age or other reasons – during World War II.
He added to Radio Times magazine: "I have never understood why actors say, ‘It’s not the only thing I’ve done.’ "
In 2014, Ian revealed playing Pike had cost him two "very big movie" roles.
He said: "I was close to getting two very big movies in the 70s, but in the end, they said, ‘We can’t get past Private Pike.’
"Pike is why I was in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ in rep at Worcester, rather than in the West End."
Ian Lavender reveals identity of Pike’s dad
