Private Pike Private Pike Private Frank Pike is a fictional Home Guard private and junior bank clerk; he was appointed as the platoon's information officer by Captain Mainwaring in The Man and the Hour. He is frequently referred to by Captain Mainwaring as "stupid boy". In the BBC television sitcom "Dad's Army" he was portrayed by Ian Lavender. Pike was born in 1922, and is the youngest of the Walmington-on-Sea platoon. Aged 17 when the series begins, he is not old enough to join the army, although presumably he has reached, or is nearing, his 18th birthday when he is about to
Private Pike with his Home Guard uniform, which supposedly prevents him from getting croup, even though only infants and (apparently) chickens are supposed to get it ("Menace from the Deep"). Despite all this an army doctor certifies him healthy when he receives his call-up papers, though having a rare blood type excludes him from military service. Pike is a fan of the cinema and narrates the plots of films that relate to the platoon, even if the relationship is vague. When the film example does mirror reality, he picks scenarios which end in death. Pike makes pointless comments while trying to help: