Private Walker Private Walker Private Joe Walker is a fictional black market spiv (or Wholesales Supplier, as he politely puts it) and Home Guard platoon member, portrayed by actor James Beck in the BBC television sitcom "Dad's Army". Beck died suddenly in 1973. The character of Walker was possibly one of the most prominent and popular in the show. Following his character's departure (Walker was last mentioned in the episode "The Recruit", although he does not appear in this episode) the series attempted to replace him with a war reporter called Private Cheeseman (played by Talfryn Thomas), who had made a previous
Dad's Army sent the script to Michael Mills, the BBC's Head of Comedy and the series was commissioned. In his book "Dad's Army", Graham McCann explains that the show owes much to Michael Mills. It was he who renamed the show "Dad's Army". He did not like Brightsea-on-Sea, so the location was changed to Walmington-on-Sea. He was happy with the names for the characters Mainwaring, Godfrey and Pike, but not with other names, and he made suggestions: Private Jim Duck became Frazer, Joe Fish became Joe Walker and Jim Jones became Jack Jones. He also suggested adding a Scot. Jimmy Perry had