Clive Dunn is an English actor who was born in 1920. During World War 2 he served in the 4th Hussars and was captured by the Nasties in Greece, eventually spending four years as a POW in a brutal labour camp. After the war he gravitated towards acting, appearing in a number of stage productions and television shows. In 1968 he was cast as the blustery Corporal Jones in the hit series Dad's Army - although his character was supposed to be in his 70s, Dunn himself was only 48, making him one of the youngest members of the ensemble. Consequently, he has outlived most of the rest of the cast. This role made his name, indeed stereotyped him as an addled old-timer; although superficially comic, Corporal Jones is a disturbing figure on closer inspection. A life in the military had give him a fixation for bayonets and his job as a butcher was surely no coincidence.

Three years later, in 1971, Dunn had a novelty number 1 hit single with the sentimental 'Grandad'. He also released an album entitled 'Permission to Sing, Sir!', which included the classics 'I Play the Spoons', the original b-side of 'Grandad', and 'I Clean My Rifle', a masterpiece of paranoid despair along similar lines to some of Roger Waters' work on Pink Floyd's 'The Final Cut'. In 1975 Dunn was awarded an OBE.

Dad's Army finished in 1977, at which point Dunn embarked on a children's television series called 'Grandad', based on his hit single. This was quite popular and lasted until 1984, at which point Dunn retired to Portugal, where one of his daughters runs a restaurant. He is still there. Resting. Waiting. Like King Arthur. Keeping watch until England is once again menaced by evil.

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