Mavis Pike

Template:Dad's Army character Mrs Mavis Pike is the fictional mother of Private Frank Pike, as portrayed by Janet Davies in the BBC television situation comedy Dad's Army. In the 1971 film version of Dad's Army the character was played by Liz Fraser.

Personality

Mavis is fiercely overprotective of her son, and often treats him like a child - making him wear a scarf on parade in all weathers, and often interrupting parades with complaints about Frank's health and welfare -- much to Captain George Mainwaring's irritation.

In addition to being Pike's mother, it is also implied that Mavis is Sergeant Arthur Wilson's lover. He occasionally claims that "She's a widow and she has my ration book and I go round to her house sometimes for meals... and that sort of thing." The writers, Jimmy Perry and David Croft, admitted in interviews many years after the end of the show that they always intended Wilson to have been Frank's father. Mavis is a widow and Frank is seventeen, which would imply that any affair between Wilson and Mrs. Pike was a long-standing one. She is also occasionally linked with ARP Warden Bert Hodges, the local warden and greengrocer, which is a cause of tension between the two men. The implication is, however, that any relationship between her and Hodges is much more casual than that with Wilson.

Although fussy, she is essentially kind-hearted, and even takes in an evacuee from London (also called Arthur) in the episode "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret".

Pearl Hackney portrayed Mrs. Pike in the radio adaptations of Dad's Army, however Janet Davies reprised the role in two episodes of the radio spin-off It Sticks Out Half a Mile.

References