53 Facts About Arthur Lowe

Arthur Lowe's acting career spanned 37 years, including starring roles in numerous theatre and television productions.

Arthur Lowe played Captain Mainwaring in the British sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 until 1977, was nominated for seven BAFTAs and became one of the most recognised faces on UK television.

Arthur Lowe worked in theatre, film and television throughout the 1950s but it was not until he landed the part of Leonard Swindley in the television soap Coronation Street in 1960 that he came to national attention.

Arthur Lowe played the character until 1966, while continuing theatre and other acting work.

In 1916, Big Arthur Lowe took up a job as clerk at London Road Station, Manchester, shortly before being called up for war service.

The family rented a house in Hemmons Road, in the Manchester suburb of Levenshulme, where Little Arthur Lowe attended Chapel Street School.

Arthur Lowe described his job of progress chaser as "a sort of time and motion man chivvying the fellows along and seeing that they produced a certain amount of work each day".

Arthur Lowe had to check that the parts for building the planes were where they needed to be on the production line.

In February 1939 Arthur Lowe joined the Territorial Army, which meant several months later he was among the first men called up to serve in the Second World War.

Arthur Lowe served with the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry.

Arthur Lowe was medically regraded due to his poor eyesight and after training in wireless and as a radar technician transferred to the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

Arthur Lowe was a good horseman and learned to speak Arabic.

Arthur Lowe soon found outlets for developing his talents in entertainment.

Arthur Lowe was known among the troopers for his impressions of officers and crooners, and when radio equipment was stolen, he read the BBC News over his camp's Tannoy system.

Arthur Lowe took his first appearance on stage in The Monkey's Paw on 8 February 1943 and continued both to organise and act in plays, as well as a Christmas revue.

Arthur Lowe's efforts led to a posting with the No 2 Field Entertainment Unit, promoted to the rank of sergeant major.

Arthur Lowe assisted Martin Benson in establishing the Mercury Theatre in Alexandria, including in production and management, but not as an actor.

In 1945, Arthur Lowe's father was organising special railway trips and excursions, including private trains for circuses and theatre companies.

Arthur Lowe arranged an audition for Lowe with Eric Norman for the Frank H Fortescue Famous Players repertory company.

Arthur Lowe was immediately offered a trial in the comedy play Bedtime Story, in which he took the part of Dickson.

Arthur Lowe became known for his character roles, which in 1952 included a breakthrough part as Senator Brockbank in the musical Call Me Madam at the London Coliseum.

Arthur Lowe made his first television appearance in 1951, in an episode of the BBC series I Made News.

Arthur Lowe played the role of the gunsmith in Leave It to Todhunter, appeared in the comedy series Time Out for Peggy, and played a fussy, nervous character in an episode of Dial 999.

Arthur Lowe negotiated a contract through which he only had to work six months of the year, three months on and three months off.

Arthur Lowe's most acclaimed stage roles during this period included pompous north-country alderman Michael Oglethorpe in Henry Livings's Stop It, Whoever You Are at the Arts Theatre, and Sir Davey Dunce in The Soldier's Fortune at the Royal Court Theatre.

Arthur Lowe did not relish work on Coronation Street and was happy to give it up, but viewer responses to his character led to him reprising Swindley for starring roles in the spin-off series Pardon the Expression and its sequel Turn Out the Lights.

In 1968, Arthur Lowe was cast in his best remembered role, as Home Guard platoon leader Captain Mainwaring in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army.

David Croft said Arthur Lowe had to be treated with kid gloves.

Arthur Lowe had firm ideas on what he was willing to do and never took his script home, which resulted in uncertainty over his lines.

Arthur Lowe could be pompous and over time his part was written so there was a blurring of the line between actor and character.

Arthur Lowe held conservative political views and disapproved of the left-wing politics of his co-star Clive Dunn.

Arthur Lowe played Mainwaring in a radio version of Dad's Army, a stage play and a feature-length film released in 1971.

Arthur Lowe played Mainwaring's drunken brother Barry Mainwaring, in the series' 1975 Christmas episode "My Brother and I".

Arthur Lowe returned to the company in 1974 to play Stephano in Peter Hall's production of The Tempest, starring Sir John Gielgud.

Arthur Lowe had prominent parts in several films directed by Lindsay Anderson, including if.

Arthur Lowe played a drunken butler in The Ruling Class with Peter O'Toole, and theatre critic Horace Sprout in the horror film Theatre of Blood, in which the character is murdered by a deranged actor played by Vincent Price.

On television, Arthur Lowe appeared twice as a guest performer on The Morecambe and Wise Show, alongside Richard Briers in a series of Ben Travers farces for the BBC, as the pompous Dr Maxwell in the ITV comedy Doctor at Large and as Redvers Bodkin, a snooty, old-fashioned butler, in the short-lived sitcom The Last of the Baskets.

Between 1971 and 1973 Arthur Lowe joined Dad's Army colleague Ian Lavender, on the BBC radio comedy Parsley Sidings and he played Mr Micawber in a BBC television serial of David Copperfield.

Arthur Lowe employed a multitude of voices on the BBC animated television series Mr Men, in which he was the narrator.

In 1972, Arthur Lowe recorded the novelty songs "How I Won The War" and "My Little Girl, My Little Boy".

Arthur Lowe bought Amazon as a houseboat in 1968, but realised her potential and took her back to sea in 1971; this vessel is still operating in the Mediterranean.

Arthur Lowe seldom made public political statements, but his face appeared on posters and other advertising in support of the "Voting Yes" campaign for the 1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum.

Arthur Lowe appeared at a Conservative Party fundraising bazaar in Edward Heath's constituency.

Stephen Arthur Lowe said that although he was often mistaken for drunk, he very rarely was.

When Dad's Army ended in 1977, Arthur Lowe remained in demand, taking starring roles in television comedies such as Bless Me, Father, as the mischievous Catholic priest Father Charles Clement Duddleswell and in Potter as the busybody Redvers Potter.

Around this time Arthur Lowe was making many television commercials, with no fewer than nineteen in 1981 alone.

Arthur Lowe seldom took on a stage play unless it included a role for Joan and this saw some opportunities fall through.

Ian Lavender thought Arthur Lowe's narcolepsy led him to pull back from his range and choose safer roles.

In 1981 Arthur Lowe reprised his role as Captain Mainwaring for the pilot episode of It Sticks Out Half a Mile, a radio sequel to Dad's Army.

On 14 April 1982, Arthur Lowe gave a live televised interview on Pebble Mill at One.

Arthur Lowe was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Sutton Coldfield Crematorium, following a small funeral of which few people were notified and fewer than a dozen attended.

In 2000, The Unforgettable Arthur Lowe was part of The Unforgettable series of TV biographies of comedy performers.

In December 2007 plans were announced for a statue of Arthur Lowe to be erected in Thetford, Norfolk, where the outside scenes for Dad's Army were filmed.