Have you noticed how often Frazer crops up in these clips? Until I sat down to collate the 50 moments I had not realised just how much John Laurie’s eye-rolling, doom-laden performance contributes to the show.
Here he is again in the episode A Wilson (manager), in which Sergeant Wilson’s promotion leaves a vacancy that, due to a mix-up, results in everyone except Pike being given three stripes. Naturally they all rise to the challenge, and none more so than Frazer who wastes no time in honing his parade-ground technique.
I love this scene for so many things: Frazer’s gradual build of rage at his invisible troops, the Verger’s reaction when he observes the performance and, mostly, because it introduced me to the invaluable Scots phrase ‘peely-wally’!