Captain Mainwaring
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| Captain Mainwaring | |
|---|---|
| Dad's Army character | |
 | |
| First appearance | The Man and the Hour |
| Last appearance | Never Too Old |
| Portrayed by | Arthur Lowe (1968–1977) Toby Jones (2016 movie) Kevin McNally (2019) |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | George Mainwaring |
| Occupation | Bank Manager |
| Family | Edmund Mainwaring (father) Barry Mainwaring (brother) |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Mainwaring |
| Affiliated with | Home Guard (captain) |
Captain George Mainwaring (/ˈmænərɪŋ/) is a fictional Home Guard captain, first portrayed by Arthur Lowe in the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. In the 2016 movie he is played by
He is considered a classic British comic character owing to the continuing currency of Dad's Army via regular repeats and Lowe's portrayal. Many of his quotes, such as, "You stupid boy!", are engrained in
Personality
Mainwaring was born in 1885 to Edmund Mainwaring and is a pompous, blustering figure with an overdeveloped sense of his importance, fuelled by his social status in Walmington-on-Sea as the bank manager and his status as captain and commander of the local Home Guard volunteer unit.
Mainwaring believes in following rules and orders, sometimes to a ludicrous degree, and is class-conscious and a snob. Being educated at the local Grammar School – as a scholarship student – he considers himself middle class and looks down on anyone he considers beneath him, which may be because he struggled to rise above his working class background. He claims to be the son of a successful tailor in Eastbourne, but Lance Corporal Jones reveals that Mainwaring's father was actually a poor draper who sold badly-made workmen's trousers and Barry Mainwaring confirms this. "If I had a title I'd be on the board of directors at the bank!" he shouts at Sergeant Wilson when the latter gains a title in the episode "The Honourable Man". Despite his arrogance being encouraged by his status as the bank manager (having started as a clerk and working his way up to assistant chief clerk, chief clerk and eventually manager), Mainwaring reveals in the same episode that he considers it a mere "tinpot branch" and his career is at a seemingly permanent standstill, as revealed in "A. Wilson (Manager)?": whenever he applies for promotions he is always turned down due to his unimpressive background. Mainwaring's pomposity and snobbery work against him, as he is frequently dependent on those in the Home Guard that he considers beneath him, such as Sergeant Wilson, his chief clerk at the bank with whom he shares an antagonistic friendship, and Private Walker, a black marketeer who interrupts Mainwaring's lectures with a quip or a sly revelation that Mainwaring is benefiting from underhand deals. Mainwaring is particularly jealous of Wilson, who is more relaxed and charming and possesses combat experience that Mainwaring does not, and takes every opportunity to remind his sergeant who is the senior.[4]
As a bank manager, he is efficient, if ruthless and stingy; as a military commander he can at first glance be seen as barely competent, such as being confused by the 24-hour clock, and his plans often result in chaos. Mainwaring nonetheless managed to pull a group of local shopkeepers "up by their bootstraps" to become some kind of fighting unit.
Mainwaring has no combat experience, which causes tension with the other members of the Home Guard, particularly Wilson, who was a decorated
Despite his shortcomings as a leader, Mainwaring considers himself an excellent military tactician. His height and background are frequently mocked as indicating a
Mainwaring's
Mainwaring's character flaws, however, are presented in a comical rather than a spiteful manner and there is often a sympathetic subtext to his own personal neuroses; it is apparent several times that he devotes his energies to his Home Guard unit for a sense of comradeship and purpose lacking in other parts of his life, such as his career and marriage. On one occasion when his men spurned a
Mainwaring has several redeeming qualities, including a deep concern for the welfare of the men under his command. His bravery and courage cannot be denied: he is willing to endanger himself for his country and platoon and to take the risks that he orders his men to undertake. In one episode, "
He also places the safety of his country above his own interests. In "
He hates conscientious objectors; he sees them as abnormal as they do not want to fight for their country, as shown when he discovers Private Godfrey was a "conchie". However, when he learns Godfrey served at the Battle of the Somme and risked his own life (and received injuries) crawling into No Man's Land to save several men, earning him the Military Medal, he changes his opinion of Godfrey. Mainwaring says he cannot understand why Godfrey does not wear the medal.
Mainwaring is also capable of acting decisively and independently, although not always with the best of results. In "A Man of Action", Walmington is cut off when a bomb damages the railway and waterworks. Mainwaring imposes martial law and takes power from the mayor. Under his law people need permits to take a bath and looters will be shot. He changes position when this power is taken from him by an official from GHQ, describing such an act and the imposition of martial law as "monstrous".[9]
Mainwaring often claims to know something, only to be proven wrong almost immediately. The men under him, however, are mostly devoted to him. At heart, he is a kind-hearted man with a deep-rooted sense of duty.
Mainwaring has nearly had two affairs. One is in "
Dad's Army ends with the
In a radio sequel to
A series of
Relationship with Sergeant Wilson
Mainwaring's class pretensions stand in contrast to his Sergeant, who is genuinely upper middle class.[4] Mainwaring is often bitter about Wilson's wealthy upbringing; being raised by a nanny, a father who held a career in "the City", and having attended public school, believing it made him "wet", while his own grammar school background is a positive attribute (Mainwaring went to Eastbourne Grammar School and Wilson went to Meadow Bridge public school). Mainwaring is an inverted snob who believes that it is the class system that prevents his promotion to the higher echelons of the bank. By contrast, Wilson seems to have no social ambitions at all, is down to earth and easy going and seems amused by Mainwaring's hostility. Ironically, when Mainwaring tries to ingratiate himself with local potentates and dignitaries, they often turn out to be far more interested in talking to Wilson – much to Mainwaring's chagrin. This feeds Mainwaring's sense of social inferiority. This comes to a head when in "The Honourable Man" Wilson inherits a courtesy title and becomes The Honourable Arthur Wilson. Whilst Wilson resented this, Mainwaring became infuriated and did everything in his power to demonstrate that he outranks Wilson, even going to the lengths of telling Wilson when he was allowed to smoke.
While believing Wilson to be involved in some kind of orchestrated social conspiracy against him, it transpires that Mainwaring's inverted snobbery goes as far as doing all he can to hold Wilson back from promotion by writing negative reports on him to Head Office – as discovered in "
Mainwaring is generally ill at ease in social situations that require him to communicate with people on an equal social level and this is probably the main reason for his lack of promotion. Mainwaring is
On occasion Mainwaring has even described some of Wilson's ideas as "
Despite their various issues with each other, Mainwaring and Wilson do have moments during the series where they reach a sort of understanding, if not actual friendship. In the episode "
Catchphrases
- "You stupid boy!" – his most famous line, to Pike, on average a couple of times an episode.
- "Is that you, Jones?" – usually uttered when Jones has donned some outlandish disguise.
- "I think you're entering the realms of fantasy there, Jones" – often his response to some of Jones' more fanciful plans or ideas.
- "Just testing you Wilson" – often said when Wilson points out an obvious flaw in one of Mainwaring's plans or he corrects one of his factual errors.
- "Ah, just waiting to see who'd be the first one to spot that" – whenever a member of the platoon makes a good suggestion that he has missed, or spots an obvious flaw in one of his plans.
- "Oh, there's no time for that sort of thing" or "There's not time for all this red tape" – usually to Wilson if his deputy is pointing out that permission ought to be obtained first.
- "Hello ... Elizabeth?" – when answering telephone calls from his wife Elizabeth, in an almost sheepish and low voice.
- "Don't be absurd" / "How dare you!" – usually in response to a statement that contradicts Mainwaring's delicate British sensibilities.
- "Come away, Wilson" – always in response to one of Hodges' tantrums.
- "Let's not have any of that sort of talk here" – whenever a member of the platoon makes a comment even slightly criticising the British or a positive comment about the Germans.
- "Good, good- What?!" – When told some bad or distressing news which he, at first, does not recognise or comprehend at once.
- "This is war, you know!" / "Don't you know there's a war on?" – spoken to anyone who trivialises an aspect about the war.
- "That's a typical shabby Nazi trick!" – whenever he hears of something that the Nazis are formatting against him and his men.
- "Oh no, my men wouldn't do a thing like that." – his pro forma denial of any accusation against his men.
- "We're not savages, we're British!" – Mainwaring uses this remark when a member of the Platoon attempts some sort of vandalism or damage to achieve a goal. An example is in "Menace from the Deep" where the Platoon are trapped on a pier overnight with no food. Mainwaring makes the Platoon win the chocolate from a machine fairly when breaking the glass would allow them easy and convenient access to the only nutrition available to them.[14]
- "Stop talking in the ranks!" – said when Mainwaring wants silence.
- "Walker, Walker, I won't tell you again." – used when Walker gets out of hand.
Tributes
The British sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart paid tribute to Dad's Army in episode one of its second series in 1995, "Don't Get Around Much Any More". Here, lead character Gary Sparrow – a time-traveller from the 1990s – goes into a bank in 1941 and meets a bank manager named Mainwaring and his chief clerk named Wilson, both of whom are in the Home Guard. When he hears the names Mainwaring and Wilson, Gary begins singing the Dad's Army theme song.
In June 2010, a statue of Captain Mainwaring by sculptor
Other portrayals
In 1995, the series 2 episode of Goodnight Sweetheart entitled Don't Get Around Much Anymore had a meta reference to the character, whereby the series protagonist, Gary Sparrow, travels back in time to visit a wartime bank and finds that its manager is in fact the "real" Mr Mainwaring (portrayed by Alec Linstead) who, accompanied by his chief clerk Mr Wilson, serves in the Home Guard.
In the 2015 Docudrama We're Doomed!, the fictional role of Captain Mainwaring and his actor Arthur Lowe are portrayed by comedian John Sessions.
Harry Enfield portrayed Captain Mainwaring in the 2022 special The Love Box in Your Living Room.
Notes
- ISBN 0-7528-4637-X
- ^ "100 Greatest TV Characters". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
- ITN Source. Archived from the originalon 21 February 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
- ^ a b c Dad's Army, BBC, archived from the original on 6 January 2010, retrieved 17 January 2010
- ^ a b c Webber, Perry, Croft p. 132
- ^ Webber, Perry, Croft p. 198
- ^ Webber, Perry, Croft p. 182
- ^ Webber, Perry, Croft p. 48
- ^ Webber, Perry, Croft p. 136
- ^ Webber, Perry, Croft p. 134
- YouTube
- YouTube
- ^ Webber, Perry, Croft pp. 131–132
- ^ Webber, Perry, Croft p. 140
- ^ "Statue of Captain Mainwaring Unveiled". Topnews.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 June 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
- ^ "Dad's Army captain statue unveiled in Thetford". BBC News. 20 June 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
References
- Croft, David; Perry, Jimmy; Webber, Richard (2000). The Complete A-Z of Dad's Army. Orion. pp. 75–76. ISBN 0-7528-4637-X.