Dad's Army legend's real military experience - and dad's cruel three-word statement

Dad's Army creator Jimmy Perry once revealed how his real-life experience in the military shaped one of Britain's most beloved sitcoms, and how his ambition to enter showbusiness was once dismissed by his own father with just three words.

Perry, who co-created Dad's Army with David Croft, based the character of Private Pike on his younger self, having joined the Watford Home Guard at the age of 16.

Speaking in 2014, he said: "You stupid boy" - the now-famous line often said to Pike - was what his own father told him when he announced his dream of becoming an actor or comedian.

Born in 1923, Perry was later conscripted into the Royal Artillery and served in India and Burma during the Second World War. He went on to attend RADA after the war, studying alongside Joan Collins and Robert Shaw.

His wartime experiences, along with his later job as a Butlin's Redcoat and his grandfather's stories as a butler, informed much of his later work. Perry and Croft wrote several long-running BBC sitcoms based on his life, including It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi! and You Rang, M'Lord?

"I never sit down with a blank sheet of paper unless I've got plenty in my head," Perry said. "And I always steer away from people who think it would be a good thing to be a comedy writer because of the money."

Perry recalled being influenced early on by George Bernard Shaw, who told him after watching a rehearsal: "You've got to understand one rule of comedy - you must have reality, otherwise it's rubbish."

His love of performance began in his teens, doing stand-up comedy and watching variety shows with his father. "I was 14 when I was doing stand-up myself. I used to say, 'Don't applaud, just throw petrol coupons.' My billing was: 'Jimmy Perry: not very funny but a lot of charm'."

Perry said the character of Pike was "based on myself", and that much of Dad's Army's success came from drawing on real people and experiences. "People used to fight to get on Dad's Army. It was a great compliment to David and myself," he said. "There's never a week goes by that an amateur production of Dad's Army isn't done - all over the country."

Although Dad's Army remains his most famous work, Perry considered It Ain't Half Hot Mum - which ran from 1974 to 1981 - to be the funniest. He remained disappointed by the BBC's reluctance to repeat the series due to changing social attitudes.

"You might as well be in Stalin's Russia. You don't want to upset anyone," he said, rejecting criticism over the casting of English actor Michael Bates as Indian character Rangi Ram. Bates had been born in India and spoke fluent Urdu.

Perry and Croft's writing partnership lasted more than two decades and earned them OBEs in 1978. Perry said their success came from mutual respect and a simple rule: "If I wanted something he didn't like, I wouldn't push it. And if he wanted something I didn't like, he didn't push it."

David Croft died in 2011. Jimmy Perry passed away in 2016 at the age of 93.