Few comedy writers can claim to have extracted so much mirth from the slightly foxed fabric of British life as David Croft, who (with his writing partner Jimmy Perry) created It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi! and, above all, Dad's Army. Though the latter initially fell foul of BBC One's controller Paul Fox, who protested that "you cannot take the mickey out of Britain's finest hour", its ineffably absurd and eccentric portrait of the Home Guard in wartime Walmington-on-Sea proved irresistible to millions of viewers. The show originally ran from 1968-1977, but Captain Mainwaring, Private Pike, Sergeant Wilson et al have subsequently ascended into an ever-present, multi-channelled TV nirvana.
Croft was working for the BBC as a producer when Perry, then an actor, brought him an unsolicited script about the Home Guard, called The Fighting Tigers. "I was very impressed," Croft recalled. "The setting - the trials and tribulations of the Home Guard during the war - was unlike anything that had been written before and I took it straight to the BBC." It doubtless helped that both Croft and Perry had been in the Royal Artillery during World War Two, Croft as a major and Perry as a sergeant (Dad's Army on parade, pictured below).
Personal experience also helped to fuel their other long-running hits. Perry had been a Butlins Redcoat while Croft had produced shows at Sir Billy Butlin's mythical holiday camps, all of which provided fodder for Hi-de-Hi! For It Ain't Half Hot Mum, the duo were able to draw on Perry's experiences with a regimental concert party in India.
All of this would have already added up to a remarkable career, but Croft scored additional huge successes in partnership with Jeremy Lloyd. Are You Being Served? rolled out the imperishable cast of the crumbling Grace Brothers retail emporium, while 'Allo 'Allo (pictured below) achieved implausible levels of success by parodying terrible British war movies of a certain vintage. The Queen Mother, it was rumoured, rarely missed an episode. In the mid Nineties, Croft paired up with erstwhile railwayman Richard Spendlove to create the slightly less genre-defining Oh, Dr Beeching!
Croft was born David John Sharland in Poole, Dorset in 1922, the son of actor Reginald Sharland and theatrical performer Anne Croft. His father moved to California not long after his son was born, and David was planning to join him in the States when war broke out in Europe. After serving with the Essex Regiment in India and Singapore, Croft worked his way into showbiz back in Blighty, working for Associated Rediffusion and Tyne Tees Television before moving to the BBC. He produced The Benny Hill Show, Hugh and I and Beggar My Neighbour, and when he cast Jimmy Perry in the latter, the wheels of comic destiny were set in motion. Croft and Perry were awarded OBEs in 1978 for services to television, and in 1981 Croft won BAFTA's Desmond Davis Award for outstanding contributions to the industry.
"David taught me about television comedy," said Ian Lavender, alias Private Pike from Dad's Army. "He was a lovely, gentle, quiet man, who used few words but they were well chosen."
Comedy writer and performer Mark Gatiss paid tribute via Twitter: "Flags at half mast in Walmington-on-Sea tonight. Farewell to the great David Croft."
David John Croft, 7 September 1922 - 27 September 2011
Watch a clip from Dad's Army
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