Clive Dunn
Encyclopedia
Clive Robert Benjamin Dunn OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (born 9 January 1920) is a retired English actor, comedian and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, best known for his role as Lance-Corporal Jack Jones
Lance-Corporal Jack Jones
Lance Corporal Jack Jones is a fictional Home Guard platoon lance-corporal, veteran of the British Empire and butcher portrayed by Clive Dunn in the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army...

 in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 sitcom
British sitcom
A British sitcom tends, as it does in most other countries, to be based on a family, workplace or other institution, where the same group of contrasting characters is brought together in each episode. Unlike American sitcoms, where twenty or more episodes in a season is the norm, British sitcoms...

 Dad's Army
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...

.

Early life

Born in Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

, Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...

, Dunn is the cousin of actress Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin was an English actress with a career in showbusiness that spanned over eighty years.She was born in Covent Garden, west London, a cousin of the actor Clive Dunn. She was best known for playing the character of Ethel Skinner in the long running BBC One, soap opera, EastEnders...

. As a child, he almost died while having a supernumerary nipple
Supernumerary nipple
A supernumerary nipple is an additional nipple occurring in mammals, including humans...

 removed.

Education

Dunn was educated at Sevenoaks School
Sevenoaks School
Sevenoaks School is an English coeducational independent school located in the town of Sevenoaks, Kent. It is the oldest lay school in the United Kingdom, dating back to 1432. Almost 1,000 day pupils and boarders attend, ranging in age from 11 to 18 years. There are approximately equal numbers of...

, an independent
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...

 boarding school for boys (now coeducational), in the town of Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...

 in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 in south east England. After leaving school, Dunn studied at the independent Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, in London.

Life and career

Dunn played small film roles from the 1930s onwards, appearing alongside Will Hay
Will Hay
William Thomson "Will" Hay was an English comedian, actor, film director and amateur astronomer.-Early life:He was born in Stockton-on-Tees, in north east England, to William R...

 in the films Boys Will Be Boys (1935) and Good Morning, Boys
Good Morning, Boys
Good Morning, Boys is a 1937 British comedy film featuring Will Hay, Martita Hunt, Lilli Palmer and Peter Gawthorne.-Plot outline:Will Hay plays the roguish headmaster, Dr Twist, of a dubious boarding school for boys. Twist bets on the horses with his pupils and teaches them little...

(1937). After a break for service in the army with the 4th Queen's Own Hussars
4th Queen's Own Hussars
The 4th Queen's Own Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated into The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars in 1958....

, during the Second World War, during the course of which he spent four years in prisoner-of-war and labour camps in Austria, he worked for many years in music halls and theatres. In 1956 and 1957, Dunn appeared in both series of The Tony Hancock Show
The Tony Hancock Show
The Tony Hancock Show was a black-and-white British sketch show starring Tony Hancock that was broadcast for two series from 1956 to 1957. It was written by Eric Sykes, Larry Stephens and Ray Galton and Alan Simpson...

and the army reunion party episode of Hancock's Half Hour
Hancock's Half Hour
Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy, series of the 1950s and 60s written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sid James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr...

in 1960. In the 1960s he made many appearances with Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...

, Michael Bentine
Michael Bentine
Michael Bentine CBE was a British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goons. A Peruvian Briton by heritage as a result of his father's nationality, In 1971 Bentine received the Order of Merit of Peru because of his fund-raising work for the 1970 Great Peruvian...

, Dora Bryan
Dora Bryan
Dora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...

 and Dick Emery
Dick Emery
Richard Gilbert "Dick" Emery was an English comedian and actor. Beginning on radio in the 1950s, an eponymous television series ran from 1963 to 1981. He was the brother of Ann Emery.-Life and career:...

, among others, before winning the role of Jones in Dad's Army in 1968.

From an early time his trademark character was that of a doddering old man. This first made an impression in the show Bootsie and Snudge
Bootsie and Snudge
Bootsie and Snudge was a British television situation comedy series written, in the early days, by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, later writers were John Antrobus, Jack Rosenthal, ventriloquist Ray Alan and Harry Driver. The show featured Clive Dunn, more famous as Corporal Jones in Dad's Army, as...

, a spinoff from The Army Game
The Army Game
The Army Game is a British sitcom that aired on ITV from 1957 to 1961. Made in black-and-white, it is about National Service conscription to the post-war British Army. It was created by Sid Colin...

. Dunn played the old dogsbody
Dogsbody
A dogsbody, or less commonly dog robber in the Royal Navy, is a junior officer, or more generally someone who does drudge work. A rough American equivalent would be a "gofer" or a "grunt", a "lackey", or "toady".-History:...

 at a slightly seedy gentlemen's club where the characters Pvt. "Bootsie" Bisley (Alfie Bass
Alfie Bass
Alfred Bass was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; their parents had fled persecution in Russia...

) and Sgt. Claude Snudge (Bill Fraser
Bill Fraser
-External links:* *...

) found work after leaving the Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

.

In 1967 he made a guest appearance in an episode of The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...

, playing the proprietor of a toy shop in "Something Nasty in the Nursery". He was also one of the alien voices in the Cadbury's Smash advertisements in the 1970s, alongside Dad's Army co-star Bill Pertwee
Bill Pertwee
William Desmond Anthony Pertwee MBE is a British comedy actor. He is best known for playing the part of antagonist ARP Warden Hodges in the popular sitcom Dad's Army.-Early and personal life:...

.

Dunn was one of the younger members of the Dad's Army cast when, at 48, he took on the role of the elderly butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

 whose military service in earlier wars made him the most experienced member of the Walmington-on-Sea
Walmington-on-Sea
Walmington-on-Sea is a fictional seaside resort where the BBC Television sitcom, BBC radio series and film Dad's Army was based.Located on the channel coast of England in the county of Kent, the national "front line" following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk during...

 Home Guard
British Home Guard
The Home Guard was a defence organisation of the British Army during the Second World War...

, as well as being one of the most decrepit. Previous actors considered for the role were Jack Haig and David Jason
David Jason
Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...

.

Dunn's staunch Socialist beliefs often caused him to fall out with Arthur Lowe
Arthur Lowe
Arthur Lowe was a BAFTA Award winning English actor. He was best known for playing Captain George Mainwaring in the popular British sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 until 1977.-Early life:...

, who played Captain Mainwaring and who was an active Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

. When the series ended and Dunn finally accepted an OBE, after many offers, it was reported that Lowe would only accept a higher-rated honour from the Queen.

After Dad's Army ended, Dunn capitalised on his skill in playing elderly character roles by playing the lead in the slapstick children's TV series Grandad, from 1979 to 1984 (he played the caretaker at a village hall). He had previously had a number one hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...

 with the song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 "Grandad
Grandad (song)
"Grandad" is a popular song by Clive Dunn.While starring in the long-running BBC situation comedy Dad's Army, Dunn met bassist Herbie Flowers at a party and on learning he was a songwriter challenged him to write a song for him...

" on his 51st birthday in January 1971, accompanied by a children's choir. The song was written by bassist Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers is an English musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba. He is noted as a member of Blue Mink, T...

. He performed the song four times on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

. The B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

  of "Grandad", "I Play The Spoons", also received considerable airplay. After the cancellation of Grandad in 1984, he effectively disappeared from the screen, retiring to Portugal.

Following the success of the "Grandad" record, Dunn released several other singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

.
  • "My Lady (Nana)" / "Tissue Paper & Comb", Columbia, 1971
  • "Wonderful Lilly" / "Pretty Little Song", Columbia, 1972
  • "Let's Take A Walk" / "Tell Us", Columbia, 1972
  • "Our Song" / "She's Gone", EMI, 1973
  • "Grandad" / "My Lady (Nana)" (reissue), EMI, 1973
  • "My Old Man" / "My Own Special Girl", EMI, 1974
  • "Holding On" / "My Beautiful England", Reprise, 1976
  • "Goodnight Ruby" / "Thank You and Goodnight", Decca, 1977
  • "Thinking of You This Christmas" / "'Arry 'Arry 'Arry", Sky Records, 1978
  • "There Ain't Much Change From A Pound These Days" / "After All These Years" (with John Le Mesurier
    John Le Mesurier
    John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.-Career:...

    ), KA Records, 1982.
  • "Grandad" (reissue) / "There's No-One Quite Like Grandma", EMI, 1988.

Personal life

He married actress Priscilla Pughe-Morgan (born 14 January 1934) in June 1959 and they have two daughters, Polly and Jessica. Both Clive's parents were actors. Dunn and his family all now live in Portugal.

A 2006 article described Dunn as having eye trouble and sometimes being unable to see, but otherwise he appears to be in good health. In August 2008, he recorded a message for the programme Jonathan Ross Salutes Dad's Army, which was shown to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Dad's Army.

He is, along with Ian Lavender
Ian Lavender
Arthur Ian Lavender , better known as Ian Lavender, is an English stage, film and television actor, best known for his role as Private Frank Pike in the BBC comedy series Dad's Army.-Early life and career:...

, Bill Pertwee
Bill Pertwee
William Desmond Anthony Pertwee MBE is a British comedy actor. He is best known for playing the part of antagonist ARP Warden Hodges in the popular sitcom Dad's Army.-Early and personal life:...

, Frank Williams
Frank Williams (actor)
Frank Williams is an English actor.Williams was educated at Ardingly College. He starred in The Army Game and as the Vicar in Dad's Army. In 1970, he starred in the short-lived sitcom As Good Cooks Go...

, and Pamela Cundell
Pamela Cundell
Pamela I. Cundell is a British character actress. Her best known role was Mrs Fox in the long-running TV comedy Dad's Army....

 one of the few surviving members of the Dad's Army cast.

Dunn's cousin Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin
Gretchen Franklin was an English actress with a career in showbusiness that spanned over eighty years.She was born in Covent Garden, west London, a cousin of the actor Clive Dunn. She was best known for playing the character of Ethel Skinner in the long running BBC One, soap opera, EastEnders...

 was also a noted television actress, best remembered for her time as Ethel Skinner
Ethel Skinner
Ethel May Skinner is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Gretchen Franklin. Ethel Skinner also features in a 1988 EastEnders special, entitled Civvy Street, set on Albert Square during the Second World War, where the character is played by Alison...

 on the BBC soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

. Dunn was amongst relatives to inherit a share in Franklin's estate following her 2005 death.

Films

  • Boys Will Be Boys (1935)
  • Good Morning, Boys
    Good Morning, Boys
    Good Morning, Boys is a 1937 British comedy film featuring Will Hay, Martita Hunt, Lilli Palmer and Peter Gawthorne.-Plot outline:Will Hay plays the roguish headmaster, Dr Twist, of a dubious boarding school for boys. Twist bets on the horses with his pupils and teaches them little...

    (1937)
  • A Yank at Oxford
    A Yank at Oxford
    A Yank at Oxford is a 1938 British film, directed by Jack Conway from a screenplay by John Monk Saunders and Leon Gordon. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios...

    (1938)
  • Boys in Brown
    Boys in Brown
    Boys in Brown is a 1949 British drama film directed by Montgomery Tully. Depicting life in a borstal for young offenders, it starred Jack Warner, Richard Attenborough, Dirk Bogarde and Jimmy Hanley.-Cast:* Jack Warner as Governor...

    (1949)
  • The Treasure of San Teresa
    The Treasure of San Teresa
    The Treasure of San Teresa is a 1959 British-West German thriller film directed by Alvin Rakoff and starring Eddie Constantine, Dawn Addams and Marius Goring. It was based on a play by Jeffrey Dell...

    (1959)
  • What a Whopper
    What a Whopper
    What a Whopper is a 1961 British comedy film, written by Terry Nation.It treats the subject of the Loch Ness Monster in a rather tongue in cheek fashion...

    (1961)
  • The Fast Lady
    The Fast Lady
    The Fast Lady is a 1962 British comedy film, directed by Ken Annakin. The screenplay was written by Henry Blyth and Jack Davies, based on a story by Keble Howard.It marked the film debut of Julie Christie.-Plot:...

    (1962)
  • She'll Have to Go
    She'll Have to Go
    She'll Have to Go is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Robert Asher and starring Bob Monkhouse.-Cast:* Bob Monkhouse - Francis Oberon* Alfred Marks - Douglas Oberon...

    (1963)
  • The Mouse on the Moon
    The Mouse on the Moon
    The Mouse on the Moon is a 1963 British comedy film, an adaptation of the novel The Mouse on the Moon by Irish author Leonard Wibberley. It was directed by Richard Lester and served as the sequel to The Mouse That Roared. In it, the people of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, a microstate, attempt space...

    (1963)
  • You Must Be Joking (1965)
  • The Mini-Affair
    The Mini-Affair
    The Mini-Affair is a 1967 British romantic comedy film directed by Robert Amram and starring Georgie Fame, Rosemary Nicols and John Clive. A leading Pop star is kidnapped in swinging London.-Cast:* Georgie Fame - Georgie Hart* Rosemary Nicols - Charlotte...

    (1967)
  • Just Like a Woman
    Just Like a Woman (1967 film)
    Just Like a Woman is a 1967 British comedy film written and directed by Robert Fuest and starring Wendy Craig, Francis Matthews, Dennis Price and Clive Dunn...

    (1967)
  • Crooks and Coronets
    Crooks and Coronets
    Crooks and Coronets is a 1969 British crime comedy film and/or heist movie written and directed by Jim O'Connolly. It starred Telly Savalas, Edith Evans, Warren Oates, Cesar Romero and Harry H...

    (1969)
  • The Magic Christian
    The Magic Christian (film)
    The Magic Christian is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr, with noteworthy appearances by John Cleese, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Richard Attenborough and Roman Polanski. It was loosely adapted from the 1959 comic novel of the same...

    (1969)
  • Dad's Army
    Dad's Army (film)
    Dad's Army is a 1971 feature film based on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. Directed by Norman Cohen, it was filmed between series three and four and was based upon material from the early episodes of the television series...

    (1971)
  • The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu
    The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu
    ‎The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu is a 1980 comedy film, notable as the final film of Peter Sellers, David Tomlinson and John Le Mesurier. Pre-production began with Richard Quine as director. By the time the film entered production, Piers Haggard had replaced him. Peter Sellers handled the...

    (1980)

Television roles

Year Title Role
1960–63 Bootsie and Snudge
Bootsie and Snudge
Bootsie and Snudge was a British television situation comedy series written, in the early days, by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, later writers were John Antrobus, Jack Rosenthal, ventriloquist Ray Alan and Harry Driver. The show featured Clive Dunn, more famous as Corporal Jones in Dad's Army, as...

Henry Johnson
1968–77 Dad's Army
Dad's Army
Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...

Lance-Corporal Jack Jones
Lance-Corporal Jack Jones
Lance Corporal Jack Jones is a fictional Home Guard platoon lance-corporal, veteran of the British Empire and butcher portrayed by Clive Dunn in the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army...

1970–71 Here Come the Double Deckers!
Here Come the Double Deckers
Here Come the Double Deckers was a 17-part British children's TV series from 1970-71 revolving around the adventures of seven children whose den was an old red double-decker London bus in an unused works yard.-The show:...

Hodge
1974–75 My Old Man Sam Cobbett
1979–84 Grandad Charlie Quick

External links

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