Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Ian Lavender is a household name, there isn’t surely a person alive in the country who hasn’t seen his performance as the young scarf wearing Home Guard soldier in Dad’s Army and at some point not identified with affable, cheeky and sentimental Private Frank Pike.

Don’t Tell Him Pike: Part Two. More Tales From The Not So Stupid Boy is one of those moments during the Edinburgh Festival in which time slips by with the glorious realisation that you have spent an hour with a genuinely much loved British actor and yet whose charm and easy going style as he holds conversation with Steven McNicoll is to be admired and seen as thoughtful and homely.

Dad’s Army is one of the most often repeated programmes on British television and the reason for this is arguably down to it having a team of comedy writers who truly understood their subject matter and the fine cast that they built up over the course of ten impressive series. That cast included Birmingham born Ian Lavender and as the sun started its descent over Scotland’s capital and chased the clouds on towards Glasgow and out into the wilds of the Atlantic Ocean, Mr. Lavender took the audience on a trip for the second time through his career, including some very fond memories of Dad’s Army and a few tales that many would never have known, including who was originally considered for the part of Captain Mainwaring and to whom turned it down.

Ian Lavender’s appeal as an actor certainly comes from his affable and common touch nature, the sheer delight on his face as smiles with genuine care for his audience is one that gladdens the heart after rushing round the streets of Edinburgh in search of the next comedic or theatrical fix. It is the chance to take stock and listen to the life story of a man whose show acting career stretches over fifty years and yet somehow still seems to be someone to whom the world just adores, to whom many would take home and give house room to his Aston Villa scarf given half the chance.

Don’t Tell Him Pike: Part Two. More Tales From The Not So Stupid Boy is a beautiful way to spend an early evening at the Edinburgh Fringe, an hour of integrity and charm, sometimes a pleasure comes along in which you just have to take, whether you expected it or not.

Ian D. Hall