Private James Frazer
| Private Frazer | |
|---|---|
| Dad's Army character | |
 |
|
| First appearance | The Man and the Hour |
| Last appearance | Never Too Old |
| Portrayed by |
John Laurie (TV series) Hamish Roughead (stage show) Bill Paterson (2016 film) |
| Information | |
| Occupation |
Shop keeper (Philately; Series 1 & 2 only) Undertaker (Series 3 onwards) |
| Relatives | Blodwen (niece) |
| 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 his catchphrases "we're doomed!" and "Rubbish!"
Frazer was born in 1872 and is a dour, trouble-stirring, exaggerating, wild-eyed Scottish undertaker (formerly the keeper of a philatelist's shop with a hobby of making coffins). He hails from the "wild and lonely"Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, an apparently desolate and bleak place that appears to have informed most of his pessimistic, dark tendencies. 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 Royal Navy during the First World War and was a Cook on board HMS Defiant during the Battle of Jutland. He also mentions that he was a member of the crew of a minesweeper 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, 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 Frazer 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 missing episode A Stripe for Frazer, Frazer is promoted to Lance-Corporal.
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