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Ian Lavender, the last remaining cast member of beloved BBC sitcom Dad’s Army, has died. He was 77.

An X statement from the official Dad’s Army Radio Show account announced that Lavender, who played Private Frank Pike in the sitcom that ran for a decade, ending in 1977, had died on Friday.

“We are deeply saddened to hear the passing of the wonderful Ian Lavender,” said the statement. “In what truly marks the end of an era, Ian was the last surviving member of the Dad’s Army main cast. His wonderful performance as Private Frank Pike will live on for decades to come.”

The statement added that Lavender, who appeared in the 2016 Dad’s Army movie and whose other work included EastEnders, Parsley Sidings and Rising Damp, “leaves behind a legacy of laughter enjoyed by millions.” It said it would dedicate this year’s Dad’s Army tour to Lavender’s memory.

Tl;Dr:

Paul McCartney revealed an important actor who appeared in Help! inspired The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” Paul knew her well before writing The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” She compared the Fab Four to Greek demigods like Orpheus.

The Beatles‘ “Eleanor Rigby” was partly inspired by a star who appeared in the movie Help! In addition, Paul McCartney said she might have dated John Lennon. On the other hand, the star prefers to keep her personal life private.

A star of ‘Help!’ inspired the title of The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’

During a 2021 interview with The New Yorker, Paul discussed the writing of The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” He started taking piano lessons and played an early draft of the song for his teacher. At that time, the tune had the title “Ola Na Tungee.” The teacher wasn’t that impressed with the song, preferring to hear Paul play piano scales.

“When I...

Michael Caine has lashed out at the claim one of his films might inspire possible terrorists.

The actor questioned the 1964 film Zulu’s recent labelling as a “key text” for “white nationalists and supremacists”.

Zulu depicts the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, which occurred during the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.

According to William Shawcross’ research into the counter-terrorisim programme Prevent, the film could provide inspiration for members of the far-right.

Alongside Zulu, war film The Dam Busters was also named by Shawcross as well as political sitcoms Yes Minister and The Thick of It. The complete works of William Shakespeare were flagged, too.

Caine, who turns 90 on Tuesday (14 March), condemned Zulu’s placement to The Spectator, calling it the “biggest load of bulls***”.

The actor said in the new interview he has no career regrets, stating: “There are no films I wish I hadn’t made. I got paid for all of them.

Nigel Hawthorne was a revered actor of stage and screen, whose dignified presence elevated any project. Before his passing in 2001, he appeared in numerous Royal Shakespeare Company productions, and became a household name in the UK for his roles in popular BBC series "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister." The winner of six BAFTA awards, Hawthorne crafted a career as a respected character actor, performing on Broadway and appearing in acclaimed projects from Steven Spielberg's "Amistad" to the Ian McKellan-led "Richard III." He also did "Demolition Man."

A product of Sylvester Stallone's team-up with action producer extraordinaire, Joel Silver, "Demolition Man" is exactly the kind of over-the-top '90s blockbuster you'd expect to come out of that pairing. It's about John Spartan (Stallone), an LAPD cop who gets cryogenically frozen, only to be thawed out in 2032 to help track down his arch nemesis, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). Phoenix...

BBC Studios has expanded its drama deal with Chinese online video giant Youku, part of the Alibaba group.

The deal — announced at the BBC Studios Showcase 2020 event in Liverpool — involves the extended licensing of the entire four seasons of Sherlock, and the agreement for over 80 hours of BBC Studios drama programming.

The deal includes Good Omens, Sanditon, the latest series of Doctor Who and Luther series 1-3. Additionally, Youku will be the only Chinese video platform to air the entire catalog of the Doctor Who series. And the deal features the HD version of classic comedies Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, which ...

Jamie Andrew Sep 29, 2017

Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner was imaginative, unfathomable, and years ahead of its time...

It’s fifty years this month since The Prisoner premiered on British screens, bringing with it blazers, badges and mind-bending bad guys. The show ran for a mere two years, two truncated seasons and seventeen episodes, but its surreal imagery, iconic catchphrases, cerebral plots and absolutely bonkers ending have earned it a perennial place in our cultural consciousness.

See related Star Trek: Discovery episode 2 review - Battle At The Binary Star Star Trek: Discovery episode 1 review - The Vulcan Hello Star Trek Discovery: take our special quiz here!

It's truly an odd-beast, quintessentially sixties in some respects, timeless in others. It's hard to describe or define it as any one thing: it's a spy show that isn't a spy show; it's an action show with bigger...

Juliette Harrisson Jun 8, 2017

As the nation goes to the polls, we revisit two political comedy classics, now available on Netflix UK...

Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister was a BBC sitcom that ran for five series and one special between 1980 and 1988. It starred Paul Eddington as the Right Honourable James Hacker MP (later Prime Minister), Nigel Hawthorne as Sir Humphrey Appleby, Permanent Secretary to the Minister for Administrative Affairs (later Cabinet Secretary) and Derek Fowlds as Bernard Woolley, Principal Private Secretary to the Minister for Administrative Affairs (later Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister). It was written by Sir Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, and was a favourite show of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

See related Doctor Who series 10: Empress Of Mars review

Technically, it was two shows: the original Yes Minister and a sequel series called Yes, Prime Minister. However, while there are some obvious differences between the...

Stars: Jill Haworth, Bryant Haliday, Dennis Price, George Coulouris, Anna Palk, William Lucas, Anthony Valentine, Jack Watson, Derek Fowlds, Derek Fowlds, Gary Hamilton, Candace Glendenning, Dennis Price, Robin Askwith, Seretta Wilson | Written by Jim O’Connolly, George Baxt | Directed by Jim O’Connolly

Set in deserted lighthouse on fog-shrouded Snape Island, the terror of the Tower of Evil begins when a nude, crazed woman slaughters a sailor who visits the island. When she is taken back to civilization, she is found to possess an ancient relic; and so the authorities mount an expedition to solve a mysterious series of psycho-sexual murders…

I distinctly remember the very first time I saw Tower of Evil, it was on British TV – around the same time as the classic BBC 2 Horror double bills, so around 1993-95 – and, as someone who equated British horror with the likes of Amicus and Hammer, seeing the gloriously...

As Britain digests the results of its General Election, a look back at some of the most memorable prime ministers from TV and the movies reveals a bunch only marginally more disconcerting than some of the real-life options.

Operating on a scale from complete idiocy through to full-blown murderous villainy, were they actually on the ballot paper, you'd probably do well to think twice before putting an X in their box. But you can be sure of one terrifying thought - someone out there would.

So who would you vote for, given the choice between the real prime minister and 8 of TV and film's most memorable premiers? Find out more about our fictional candidates below...

1. Baldrick in Blackadder: Back and Forth

Baldrick became an MP in a rotten borough during the opening episode of Blackadder the Third, mainly thanks to the help of a campaign partner who's especially keen to...

As Britain digests the results of its General Election, a look back at some of the most memorable prime ministers from TV and the movies reveals a bunch only marginally more disconcerting than some of the real-life options.

Operating on a scale from complete idiocy through to full-blown murderous villainy, were they actually on the ballot paper, you'd probably do well to think twice before putting an X in their box. But you can be sure of one terrifying thought - someone out there would.

So who would you vote for, given the choice between the real prime minister and 8 of TV and film's most memorable premiers? Find out more about our fictional candidates below...

1. Baldrick in Blackadder: Back and Forth

Baldrick became an MP in a rotten borough during the opening episode of Blackadder the Third, mainly thanks to the help of a campaign partner who's especially keen to...

Rex Robinson, known to TV audiences for his appearances in Doctor Who during the 1970s, has died aged 89.

The Derby-born star featured in three serials between 1972 and 1976.

Watch a clip of Rex Robinson in 1976 Doctor Who serial, 'The Hand of Fear' below:

15 greatest ever Doctor Who monsters ranked

Steven Moffat is "changing the rhythm" of Doctor Who for series 9

Robinson played Dr. Tyler in 'The Three Doctors' and Gebek in 'The Monster of Peladon' - both oppposite Jon Pertwee.

He later starred alongside Tom Baker in 'The Hand of Fear' - and all three of his Doctor Who appearances were under the director Lennie Mayne.

Robinson's last credit was BBC Two's 1989 mini-series Shadow of the Noose and he also appeared in episodes of The Onedin Line, Only Fools and Horses and Yes Minister.

Roles in films including A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace...

To celebrate the return of W1A, we salute the top 10 comedy characters who talk absolute mother-thumping rubbish…

Yesnobrilliantverygoodverystrong. As satirical BBC mockumentary W1A returns tonight for a triumphant second series, we celebrate TV comedy’s rich lineage of jargon fans.

Drawn from across the political spectrum and from TV’s most biting depictions of the worlds of business, government, technology and the media, these guys are master obfuscators. They're neologism-coiners and proponents of the kind of abuses to the English language that, in a just world, would see them locked up and force fed copies of The Elements Of Style.

From The Thick Of It to Peep Show, Yes Minister, The Office, Nathan Barley, The Day Today, and Drop The Dead Donkey, across the Pond to 30 Rock and Silicon Valley, we present TV comedy's top ten full-of-it jargon-meisters.

Stewart Pearson - The Thick Of It

Who is he?...

Bill Nighy and Toby Jones are set to lead the cast of a movie adaptation of the classic 1970s BBC sitcom "Dad's Army".

Set in a fictional south-coast English town in 1940, the original comedy ran for nine series and followed the farcical exploits of a Home Guard platoon, a group of local volunteers ruled ineligible for military service due to advanced age or extenuating circumstances.

This platoon would be on the front line in the event of an invasion across the English Channel, but the series mostly got mileage out of its cast of eccentric characters.

In the film version, Jones will play the pompous and diminutive Captain Mainwaring, Nighy is set as the dry Sergeant Wilson. "Johnny English Reborn" director Oliver Parker and scribe Hamish McColl will serve in the same capacities on this film, while Damian Jones ("The Iron Lady") will produce.

The original series placed fourth in...

BBC Two is 50 - the British Broadcasting Corporation's second eldest child hits the half-century mark today - Sunday, April 20.

Picking out the greatest shows from five decades of broadcasting seems like a near-impossible task, but never say that Digital Spy is easily cowed. These are - in our humble opinion - the channel's finest ever offerings.

BBC Two is 50: The Hour, Bottom and more shows to bring back

The rules are as follows: shows like Red Dwarf that originated on BBC Two are eligible, but shows better associated with another channel are not - say Top of the Pops, which aired on BBC One for the majority of its run but shifted to the sister channel for its final episodes.

Oh, and we're talking only original commissions - so no Us imports either. But even that barely narrows it down, so if you think there are any glaring omissions,...

Feature Simon Brew 28 Jun 2013 - 07:11

Ever watched a big movie, and stopped with a jolt when a star of a British sitcom pops up? Us too...

This feature is all the fault of the late Richard Marner. As the incompetent Colonel in 'Allo 'Allo, he built a performance that was indelible in our eyes. Thus, when he turned up in a big Hollywood thriller as the President of Russia, we unsuccessfully stifled a guffaw. A big guffaw.

And it got us thinking: what other times has a British sitcom star appeared out of the blue in a big movie, causing a sedentary double take from the comfort of our local Odeon? Glad you asked.

Two things. Firstly, this isn't designed to be a complete list, and also, we've covered films made after the actor or actress confirmed rose to prominence in a sitcom. Oh, and another thing: none of...

Last night the Writers Guild of America unveiled a list of what they are calling the 101 "Best Written TV Series of All Time."

The choices are mostly excellent, but like with any list - the ordering is highly debatable. "The Sopranos" and "Seinfeld" took the top two spots whilst current acclaimed shows like "Mad Men," "The Wire," "The Simpsons," "Breaking Bad" mixed with old classics like "The Twilight Zone," "Mas*H," "Cheers" and "Hill Street Blues".

Of course, everyone has their own take. I think some shows should be higher than they are such as "Deadwood," "The X-Files," "Game of Thrones" and "I Claudius". There's also some glaring omissions - the UK "The Office" makes it, but the far superior writing in the likes of Brit comedies like "Black Adder," "Yes Minister" and "The Thick of It" does not?

Here's the complete list, what do you think?

The Sopranos

Seinfeld...

Cologne, Germany– A political satire on German TV about a plagiarist politician itself copied lines of dialog from other sources, including the BBC’s Yes Minister. The series, Der Minister, which premiered this week to strong ratings on commercial network Sat.1, is a thinly veiled parody of the rise and fall of German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. Guttenberg was Germany’s most popular politician and tipped as a top candidate to become Chancellor before he was forced to resign after admitting he copied large portions of his university doctorate. But as an article in German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeinen

read more...

Upstairs Downstairs

Grey Feeney

“Yes Minister” Ended 1988 – Revived 2013

The knives were out for BBC executives when it emerged that they had passed up the opportunity to resurrect the much loved political satire Yes Minister – no less than 25 years after it was last seen on the small screen. Satellite TV channel UK Gold quickly swooped in to pick up the new version of the show which is largely based upon the long running stage version of the saga. Despite the fanfare, it quickly became apparent that Britain has moved on since the Jim Hacker era. TV cameras weren’t even allowed in parliament when the original version of the show was aired so people were genuinely intrigued by the comic insight into life in Downing Street. A generation later and Rupert Murdoch, Edwina Currie and Alistair Campbell have ensured that we all know about anything and everything that goes on behind closed doors at Whitehall.

Channing Tatum has the pecs appeal in the Us answer to The Full Monty – but Steven Soderbergh's tale of an angsty stripper just isn't that angsty

It used to be said that the difference between British defeatism and self-deprecation and American optimism and self-belief could be seen in the TV shows Yes Minister and The West Wing. The Brits are fundamentally absurd and the Americans are basically serious: we laugh at ourselves and they laugh with themselves – when they do laugh. It's the same thing with Britain's The Full Monty and America's Magic Mike, the new film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Reid Carolin, set in Tampa Bay, Florida. It stars Channing Tatum as the eponymous "Magic" Mike, a seasoned, super-handsome male stripper who acquires a young protege, played by Alex Pettyfer.

In The Full Monty, a bunch of unemployed guys turn to stripping out of pure desperation,...

Hugh Bonneville fans in the States won’t have to wait until the return of Downton Abbey to see the Notting Hill star on U.S. screens as he is set to appear in BBC America’s Olympic themed dramedy 2012. The actor plays one the suits behind the London Olympics. His team have to find a way to organize one of the world’s biggest sporting events without exceeding a strict $9 billion budget. Sounds simple enough but disputes about traffic lights, cultural sensitivities and some good old fashioned cronyism threaten to plunge the games into chaos. (Continued below)

Hugh Bonneville 2012. Copyright BBC America

The show is in its second season in the UK where it has received critical acclaim. The first three 40 minute episodes air back-to-back on Thursday 28 June beginning at 9pm. The following three episodes will air beginning at the less than family friendly time of midnight on Saturday 30 June.

Yes Prime Minister.

Marc Dubonnet

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When you consider the fact that the BBC is a publicly funded organization it is perhaps not surprising that politicians have been a regular feature of both satires and drama shows in the UK. Some depictions of these political figures have been sympathetic but many have been less than flattering. For better or worse, the following individuals are 10 of the Best British TV politicians.

1. James Hacker (Paul Eddington) in Yes Minister. Jim Hacker must rank as one of Britian’s best loved and weakest prime ministers. All too often his decisions were made for him by the sinister Sir Humphrey Appleby. Fans didn’t mind much since the original show spawned a sequel, a radio version and most recently a stage play.

Charles Dickens won't officially turn 200 until February 7, but the Dickens 2012 extravaganza — festivals, theater, exhibitions, readings and so on — is well underway. And today, the BFI series Dickens on Screen opens at BFI Southbank in London for a run that'll last through February.

"No other novelist has been adapted for the screen so often or to such popular acclaim. Around 400 films and TV series have been made so far," writes Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in the Guardian. "In a famous essay published in 1944, the Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein argued that 'only very thoughtless and presumptuous people' believed in 'some incredible virgin birth' of cinema, and that the film pioneer Dw Griffith found many of his storytelling tricks, including close-ups, dissolves and cutting between parallel narratives, in novels such as Oliver Twist. Griffith admitted as much himself. One of his first films was a 14-minute version of Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth (1909) that...

Big one today. Let's begin with Movieline's St VanAirsdale introducing his interview with Wim Wenders: "Until the End of the World was conceived over most of the 80s, filmed on four continents (including video smuggled out of China), and foresaw a future abetted by such diversions as mobile viewing devices, proto-gps and a highly sought-after contraption that records images for the blind. Starring William Hurt, Sam Neill, Solveig Dommartin, Jeanne Moreau and Max von Sydow among an international ensemble of actors, the film also skyrocketed to a $23 million budget and found its distributors — including Warner Bros in the United States — requiring cuts that reduced it to barely a quarter of Wenders's original vision. Later locked in at just under five hours, it's the type of material that today would be a shoo-in for a cable miniseries that could probably win Emmys for everyone involved. Twenty years on, however, it's relatively lost to the mainstream,...

By Sean O’Connell

hollywoodnews.com: British press who got their first look at “The Iron Lady” yesterday are praising Meryl Streep’s performance as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher while gently condemning the movie, as a whole.

Writing for The Guardian, chief critic Xan Brooks says Streep “is the one great weapon of this often silly and suspect picture. Her performance is astonishing and all but flawless; a masterpiece of mimicry which re-imagines Thatcher in all her half-forgotten glory. Streep has the basilisk stare; the tilted, faintly predatory posture. Her delivery, too, is eerily good – a show of demure solicitude, invariably overtaken by steely, wild-eyed stridency.”

No surprise. Sight unseen, Streep was determined to be the cream of this film’s crop, if only because you largely can say that about Every Streep film.

Most of us paying attention to Phyllida Lloyd’s pending biopic wondered if it had the...

Phyllida Lloyd's film gives us Thatcher without Thatcherism, writes Xan Brooks but Meryl Streep is astonishing

Was it a dream or is it a nightmare? In the early years of the 21st century a frail old woman totters around her London home, assailed by memories that rise up unbidden. They tell her that her husband still lives, and that she remains the prime minister, the cherished daughter of a nation of shopkeepers, called upon to save Britain from ruin. For the old woman, these ghosts provide reassurance, a sunny remembrance of days gone by. Others, by contrast, may be hard pressed to keep the horrors at bay.

While one doubts whether Baroness Thatcher would wholeheartedly approve of any large screen biopic, it seems likely that she'd have a certain, sneaking affection for The Iron Lady, which prints the legend and keeps the dissent on spartan rations. Yes, the film...

When I started this list I didn’t realize just how complicated choosing who I should put on the list would be. How does one sit back and decide who is bisexual, gay or straight? I tried to stay away from actors who although rumoured to be gay, have never been linked to any relationship with another man.

Tom Cruise quickly comes to mind. The truth is, most actors are rumoured to be gay – George Clooney, John Travolta, Elijah Wood etc.

Some actors who appeared on my list were indeed at one point married, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t gay. In doing my research and speaking to many people who have worked in and around the film business, I chose only those who were proven to have had actual relationships with the same sex at one point of their life. Yes it is true that some of...

Peepli LiveDirector: Anusha RizviActors: Raghuvir Yadav, Omkar ManikpuriRating: ****It appears a scene straight out of an Indian version of Yes Minister. The agricultural minister (Naseeruddin Shah) in the room is one of those suave, telegenic politician faces we’re used to watching endlessly gab on late night news debates. His young colleague, a bureaucrat, is quick to figure the embarrassing enormity of a small situation at hand: it’s the story of one farmer attempting suicide that every news channel has played up across networks.The minister, forced to intervene, asks for that farmer to be passed on an Indira Awas, or a ...

The spectre of global warming has inspired many members of today's middle classes to join the queue for an allotment. Back in 1975, though, the only catalyst the country needed for more ecological living was The Good Life. Sure, there were plenty of fine comic moments from fellow DS Icons Penelope Keith, Richard Briers and Paul Yes Minister Eddington, but the real star of the foursome was Felicity Kendal. In four short series, Felicity won us over with her winning smile, girl-next-door charm and ever-present desire to get stuck in to some self-sufficiency. The 1981 'Rear Of The Year' winner was born in Solihull but educated (more)...

Sir Ludovic Kennedy has passed away at the age of 89. The former journalist died at a nursing home in Salisbury, Wiltshire after contracting pneumonia, the BBC reports. Kennedy presented Panorama and Did You See...? during his TV career and appeared as himself in several episodes of sitcom Yes Minister. The campaigner also investigated miscarriages of justice and his book 10 Rillington Place argued that the executed Timothy (more)...

Jon Ronson’s investigation into the surreal and secret endeavour by the U.S. Army to use paranormal and New Age theories in the war on terror is hilarious and terrifying in equal measure; it brings together the seemingly polar opposites of war and peace and shows us that the middle ground is littered with madness and dead goats.

The research undertaken by Ronson, as part of his Channel 4 documentary series ambiguously titled Crazy Rulers of the World, uncovers the strange history of the American military’s interest and investment in the practical application of a psychic soldier; the potential of an Army corp deep undercover in the Twilight Zone. The script, adapted by Peter Straughan, had been riding the Hollywood circles for a few years until it fell into the hands of Grant Heslov and George Clooney who saw immense potential in lifting the veil on a story that...