Main

• John Le Mesurier as Arthur Wilson, a former Sergeant in the Home Guard, who is now the manager of the Frambourne-on-Sea branch of Swallow's Bank.^[1][7] Possessing a calm and relaxed attitude to life,^[8] Wilson reluctantly acts as Pike and Hodges's financial advisor upon their purchase of Frambourne Pier.^[5]
• Ian Lavender as Frank Pike, a former Home Guard Private who now works in ironmongery at Woolworths.^[1] A young, naïve man, and also a dreamer,^[8] he enters a partnership with Hodges to renovate Frambourne Pier.^[7] Pike's age is incorrect in this series. When Dad's Army began, it was set in 1940, and Pike was stated as being seventeen.^[8] However, eight years later in It Sticks Out Half a Mile, set in 1948, Pike is stated as being twenty-two, when he should actually be twenty-five.^[5]
• Bill Pertwee as Bert Hodges, a former Chief ARP Warden, who enters a partnership with Pike to renovate Frambourne Pier.^[7][1] An uncouth and brash man, he was previously Pike and Wilson's rival during the war years,^[1][8] however, Hodges decides to work together with Pike and Wilson to renovate the pier. In a 1998 interview with Dave Homewood, the founder of the New Zealand branch of the Dad's Army Appreciation Society, Bill Pertwee admitted that the character of Hodges was "very different" in this series, and agreed that he had become a "bit less rough".^[9] Hodges's first name in Dad's Army is William, but in It Sticks Out Half a Mile, his first name has changed to Bert.^[10]
• Vivienne Martin as Miss Perkins, the chief cashier at Swallow's Bank. Known for her irritating laugh, she is in love with her manager, Wilson.^[7]

Recurring

• Glynn Edwards as Fred Guthrie, the chief attendant at Frambourne Pier. He complains of various ailments, including a perforated eardrum.^[10]
• Michael Knowles as Ernest Woolcot, a talkative know-all with a deep knowledge of piers.^[11]
• Hilda Braid as Mrs Briggs, a kindly widower.^[11]
• Janet Davies as Mavis Pike, Pike's mother and Wilson's secret lover.^[5][8]

Original pilot (1981)

Series 1 (1983-84)

Development

When Dad's Army ended after nine series in 1977, there were discussions about either continuing the series on the ITV network or for a sequel series to be produced which would follow the Walmington-on-Sea platoon as members of the town council in post-war Walmington. However, Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles instead submitted the idea for It Sticks Out Half a Mile to the BBC's radio department. The idea was well-received, and a pilot episode was commissioned.^[18]

The pilot episode, titled "Loyal Support", starred Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier, reprising their roles of Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson respectively. The episode followed Mainwaring, who, returning from Switzerland with his wife, arrives in Frambourne-on-Sea and approaches Swallow's Bank for a loan to purchase the town's decrepit pier. He is shocked to discover that the bank manager is his former Home Guard Sergeant Arthur Wilson. Wilson, reluctantly, agrees to give Mainwaring his loan, and together they meet the local town council to purchase Frambourne Pier.^[18][19]

Lowe and Le Mesurier enjoyed working with each other on the pilot and agreed to return to their roles once further episodes had been written.^[3][20] If the ratings were strong, the possibilities of adapting the series for television were discussed.^[21] Snoad and Knowles were writing the rest of the scripts for a full series when, on 15 April 1982, Arthur Lowe died. The series was shelved, the existing pilot episode was left unbroadcast,^[18][21][22] and the tape was wiped, but co-writer Snoad retained a copy which he later returned to the BBC.^[10] A short excerpt of this pilot was played on a documentary entitled The Archive Hour: Radio's Lost Property on 1 November 2003,^[23] with the complete programme being heard on a BBC 7 compilation entitled Some of Our Archives Were Missing on 29 May 2004.^[10][24]

The series was believed to be finished before it had begun, until Lowe's wife, actress Joan Lowe, assured Snoad and Knowles that the series should continue,^[2] since her husband had believed that it "had so much potential".^[18] Snoad and Knowles thus convinced the BBC that the idea could still be viable, so a second pilot, titled "The Business Proposition", was recorded on 11 September 1982,^[25] with Ian Lavender, Bill Pertwee and Vivienne Martin joining the cast. This being a success, twelve more episodes were commissioned as part of a thirteen-part series.^[18][22][26]

Writing

As part of their contracts with the BBC, Snoad and Knowles were obligated to write fifteen scripts for the series, even though two episodes were ultimately never recorded.^[27] The writing process began when Snoad and Knowles met to discuss the storylines for each episode. They would then separate, write an episode each, and meet again to discuss the episodes they had written.^[19] In consequence, the only episodes written by the two writers together were the original pilot, "Loyal Support", and the second pilot, "The Business Proposition".^[19] According to Michael Knowles, he was more adept at writing dialogue and Snoad was better at writing plots and storylines.^[12]

Aftermath

In a 1998 interview, Bill Pertwee, when prompted, believed that, had John Le Mesurier not died, the BBC "probably would have done another series".^[9] This was supported by Lavender, who, in 1999, revealed that there were again discussions about adapting the series for television after the first series had aired.^[9] However, it was not until 2014 that news of a second series having been commissioned was confirmed. Producer Martin Fisher, speaking in a separate interview recorded before 2014, recalled that the first series "went out and [was] quite popular" with the public. Fisher was editing the final episode when he received the news that Le Mesurier had died, which "spelt the end of a second series, which had already been commissioned".^[12]

The series was notable in that it featured some of Le Mesurier's final performances,^{[1][10][22][28]} being the final radio series he recorded before his death on 15 November 1983,^[29] two days after the first episode, "The Business Proposition", was broadcast.^[30] Pertwee later recalled, in May 2000, that the series "was like one last get-together, one last party with great friends".^[28]

Broadcast and archival status

The first nine episodes of the series were broadcast from 13 November 1983 to 15 January 1984 on Sunday afternoons at 1:30 pm. Each episode was repeated the following Friday at 10:00 pm, from 18 November 1983 to 20 January 1984. Later in the year, following a repeat airing of the first five episodes beginning 17 July 1984, the final four episodes of the series were broadcast from 21 August to 9 October 1984 at 10:30 pm.^[17]

Following its original airing and a repeat airing, the series was repeated for a second time on BBC Radio 2, but a mix-up between different departments of the BBC resulted in most of the broadcast tapes being wiped.^[10] Since the series was believed to be of no interest to an overseas audience, none of the episodes were preserved by the BBC Transcription Services.^[31] Off-air recordings of the series were unearthed during the BBC's Treasure Hunt campaign, which were later broadcast by the digital radio archive channel BBC 7.^[30] Up until 2000, the only episodes held in the BBC archives were "The Business Proposition", "The Bank Loan" and "Pike in Love", in addition to the original pilot, "Loyal Support", which had been returned by co-writer Harold Snoad prior to the BBC Treasure Hunt campaign.^[32][33]

Media releases

The original pilot and the first three episodes of the series were released in September 2010, on a compact disc titled Classic BBC Radio Comedy: It Sticks Out Half a Mile. A second CD, containing the next four episodes and titled It Sticks Out Half a Mile: Continued, was released in February 2012. Both were also released as audiobooks. The whole series, including the original pilot, was subsequently released as a CD and audiobook in October 2019.^[34]

The original pilot was released on the Dad's Army: The Complete Radio Series: Series 3 compact disc in May 2015. The pilot was also released on the collector's edition of series three, released in March 2004.^[35]