Private James Frazer

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Private James Frazer
Dad's Army character
First appearance	The Man and the Hour
Last appearance	Never Too Old
Portrayed by	TV Series: John Laurie Stage Show: Hamish Roughead
Information
Occupation	Series One and Two: Shop keeper (Philately) Series 3 onwards: Undertaker
Affiliated with	Home Guard

Private James Frazer is a fictional Home Guard platoon member and undertaker portrayed by John Laurie on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. He is noted for the phrase "we're doomed!" and "Rubbish!"^[1]

Personality

Private Frazer is a dour, trouble-stirring, exaggerating, wild-eyed Scottish undertaker^[2] (formerly the keeper of a philatelist's shop with a hobby of making coffins). He hails from the "wild and lonely"^[3] Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides,^[4] an apparently desolate and bleak^[5] place that appears to have informed most of his pessimistic, dark tendencies^{[citation needed]}. In several episodes he tells stories of exploring the south seas, one story he tells during "Uninvited Guests" was when he and a friend of his called Jethro were sailing the south seas "nigh on 50 years" (making the story set in the early 1890s), Jethro heard of a deserted temple on an island near Samoa, which contained an idol with a giant ruby "the size of a Duck's egg", Jethro and Frazer encountered a witch doctor, who put a curse on Jethro for stealing the Ruby, shouting "DEATH! THE RUBY WILL BRING YE DEATH! DE-E-ATH". When Pike asks if the curse came true, Frazer stated it did, when Jethro died the previous year at the age of 86.

He was a Chief Petty Officer in the Navy during the First World War and was a Cook during the Battle of Jutland.^[4] He also mentions that he was a member of the crew of a minesweeper ship and was responsible for shooting mines with a rifle from the ship and is shown to be a crack shot due to that (although he has to wave the gun up and down, because as he says "It's the only way I can shoot sir, this is the motion of the sea"). He retired to Walmington-on-Sea after the First World War.

Frazer makes no secret of his desires for increased rank and power within the platoon. To that end, Frazer is frequently negative and hyper-critical of his superior officers and their decisions, and clearly considers Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson and Lance Corporal Jones barely fit for command. When given even a little bit of power, however (or even just the taste of it), it frequently goes straight to his head; notably, in the episode "If the Cap Fits...", Frazer is temporarily given command of the platoon for a few days as an exercise in the difficulties of leadership,^[2] which, far from educating him in the pressures that Mainwaring faced, merely result in him acting even more exceedingly arrogant and tyrannical than before. In When Did You Last See Your Money?, a panic-stricken Jones was going to pieces over a missing £500, and Fraser was delighted, reminding people that he was next in line for Jones' position. In Something Nasty in the Vault, after Jones assumes control of the platoon following Mainwaring and Wilson's incapacitation, Frazer declares that he is second in command; something which goes undisputed by the rest of the platoon. Furthermore, in the recently discovered episode A Stripe for Frazer, Frazer is promoted to Lance-Corporal.^[6]

To reach his ends, Frazer is somewhat two-faced; he has a Machiavellian tendency to doubt people and their situations, and is usually responsible for gossiping and sowing the seeds of unease or insubordination amongst the other members of the platoon. His is usually the loudest voice of condemnation or criticism in any given situation - however, if and when his current target triumphs or is validated, he will instantly alter his position with a hasty "I never doubted you for a second", to ensure that he's never on the losing side. A prime example of this is his attitude in the episode "Branded", where his is the loudest voice of condemnation regarding Private Godfrey's conscientious objection and apparent 'cowardice' during the First World War, only for Frazer to immediately change his position when it transpires that Godfrey is nevertheless a decorated war hero. Another, less prominent, example is in "Sgt - Save My Boy!"; Frazer criticises Godfrey for fleeing "at the first sign of trouble", only to dub him "a man of steel... just like I've always said" when he sees Godfrey bypass the mine-infested beach on his own.

A notoriously miserable and miserly soul, Frazer is known for his bleak, pessimistic outlook on life. In any situation where circumstances seem bleak for the platoon, he will never fail to find more reasons to feel doom. He will often find the time in the various predicaments that the platoon face to observe that their potential fate is "a terrible way to die", to note that "we're doomed" when peril is awaiting them or to regale the platoon with an anecdote of a much similar experience he is aware of that ended rather bleakly for all concerned. He also has quite a line in dark, atmospheric and rather long-winded tales which start promisingly with the lure of supernatural horrors and terrors, only to ultimately prove disappointing and end rather mundanely, such as the tales of 'The Auld Empty Barn' (there was nothing in it) and his friend Jethro, who apparently fell victim to a curse that ensured certain death; Jethro indeed did die at the age of 86.

It was revealed in the episode "Operation Kilt" that he sports a tattoo on his arm which he claims "cost a fortune" and states "Scotland forever". It's also revealed in "When Did You Last See Your Money?" that he knows hypnosis, as he says "While I was sailing the China seas, I studied the art of hypnosis"^[4] and successfully hypnotises Lance-Corporal Jones. His main rivalries are with the other ageing members in the platoon, notably Corporal Jones, who fights back, and Private Godfrey, who doesn't. He possesses a curious fascination with women who have large, thick thighs.^[2]

Frazer does show a more generous side to his character when he saves Private Godfrey's cottage from being demolished to make way for a runway. When all hope seems lost, Frazer saves the day by threatening to reveal a senior politician's past indiscretions, although in typical Frazer style he doesn't let on that he was the hero of the hour.

It is also reported that Frazer is President of the local Caledonian Society (he is the only one in it after he threw the other member out for not paying the increased fee).

Medals

Although Private Frazer rarely wore his ribbons, he was awarded the usual trilogy of First World War campaign medals (commonly known as "Pip, Squeak and Wilfred"), as a Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy during the First World War, in addition to his Polar Medal for the Nimrod Expedition.

Notes

↑ Webber, Richard; Perry, Jimmy; Croft, David (2000). The Complete A-Z of Dad's Army. London: Orion Books. pp. 288, p.75. ISBN 0-7528-4637-X
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Webber, Perry, Croft, p.75
↑ This phrase is also used when he proudly displays his Polar Medal during the episode Battle of the Giants!
↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Webber, Perry, Croft, p.228
↑ He suggests this himself in the episode "No Spring for Frazer" Series Three, first broadcast 4 December 1969
↑ Webber, Perry, Croft, p.205

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.

Dad's Army

Characters

Television
episodes

Series 1	"The Man and the Hour" "Command Decision" "The Enemy Within the Gates" "The Showing Up of Corporal Jones" "Shooting Pains"

Series 2	"Operation Kilt" "The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage" "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Walker" "Sgt. Wilson's Little Secret" "A Stripe for Frazer" "Under Fire"

Series 3	"The Armoured Might of Lance Corporal Jones" "Battle School" "The Lion Has Phones" "The Bullet is Not for Firing" "Something Nasty in the Vault" "Room at the Bottom" "Big Guns" "The Day the Balloon Went Up" "War Dance" "Menace from the Deep" "Branded" "Man Hunt" "No Spring for Frazer" "Sons of the Sea"

Series 4	"The Big Parade" "Don't Forget the Diver" "Boots, Boots, Boots" "Sgt – Save My Boy!" "Don't Fence Me In" "Absent Friends" "Put That Light Out!" "The Two and a Half Feathers" "Mum's Army" "The Test" "A. Wilson (Manager)?" "Uninvited Guests" "Fallen Idol"

Series 5	"Asleep in the Deep" "Keep Young and Beautiful" "A Soldier's Farewell" "Getting the Bird" "The Desperate Drive of Corporal Jones" "If the Cap Fits..." "The King was in his Counting House" "All is Safely Gathered In" "When Did You Last See Your Money?" "Brain Versus Brawn" "A Brush with the Law" "Round and Round Went the Great Big Wheel" "Time on My Hands"

Series 6	"The Deadly Attachment" "My British Buddy" "The Royal Train" "We Know Our Onions" "The Honourable Man" "Things that Go Bump in the Night" "The Recruit"

Series 7	"Everybody's Trucking" "A Man of Action" "Gorilla Warfare" "The Godiva Affair" "The Captain's Car" "Turkey Dinner"

Series 8	"Ring Dem Bells" "When You've Got to Go" "Is There Honey Still for Tea?" "Come In, Your Time Is Up" "High Finance" "The Face on the Poster"

Series 9	"Wake Up Walmington" "The Making of Private Pike" "Knights of Madness" "The Miser's Hoard" "Number Engaged" "Never Too Old"

Specials	"Untitled Sketch" "Broadcast to the Empire" "Battle of the Giants!" "My Brother and I" "The Love of Three Oranges"

Spin-offs

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