It Sticks Out Half a Mile

''It Sticks Out Half a Mile'' is a BBC Radio sitcom created by Harold Snoad and Michael Knowles as a sequel to the television World War II sitcom ''Dad's Army'', for which Snoad and Knowles had written radio adaptations.

Main cast

* John Le Mesurier - Arthur Wilson
* Ian Lavender - Frank Pike
* Bill Pertwee - Bert Hodges
* Vivienne Martin - Miss Perkins
* Michael Knowles - Ernest Woolcott
* Arthur Lowe - George Mainwaring (Pilot Episode Only)

The pilot

The original pilot episode, set in 1948, involved former bank manager and Home Guard Captain Mainwaring ( Arthur Lowe) deciding to renovate a decrepit seaside pier in the fictional town of Frambourne-on-Sea, only to find when applying for a bank loan that the manager of the local branch is his former chief cashier and Home Guard Sergeant Arthur Wilson (John Le Mesurier).

The pier was allegedly built by Eugenius Birch.

The pilot, recorded in July 1981, was not used and Lowe died in April 1982, ending production; however, Lowe's widow had enjoyed the show and persuaded the writers to start again with a new cast. The original pilot was eventually broadcast on BBC 7, and later BBC 7's successor, BBC Radio 4 Extra.

The series would never have been made had Arthur Lowe lived. The BBC rejected the 1981 pilot, on the grounds that his illness had affected his voice. Although the slur in his speech was actually due to illness, the BBC worried that it made him sound as if he was drunk, and ruled his performance as unacceptable for transmission.

The series

Still set in 1948, the modified version involves Bert Hodges (Bill Pertwee), former ARP warden and nemesis of Mainwaring's Home Guard unit, approaching former Home Guard Private Frank Pike (Ian Lavender), now 22 years old, with a proposal to renovate the near derelict pier, costing £5,000, at Frambourne. In order to finance this plan Pike has to approach bank manager Arthur Wilson (Le Mesurier), who just happens to be his "uncle" (publicly a friend of his mother's, but strongly hinted to the audience to be Pike's father), for a loan. Wilson is blackmailed by Pike (who is no longer the young innocent of ''Dad's Army'') over past indiscretions with a woman named Smith and Wilson suspects the only reason Hodges approached Pike was to get to the bank's money through him. Nevertheless, Pike and Wilson put aside their wartime quarrel with Hodges – more or less – and the renovation begins. As well as Pike, Wilson and Hodges, other characters that appear commonly are Miss Perkins, a bank clerk who giggles a lot, and is implied to be in love with Wilson, and Guthrie, the attendant in charge with supervising the pier who has a perforated eardrum.

Broadcast

Due to the death of Arthur Lowe, the original pilot was not broadcast and the tape wiped, but co-writer Snoad retained a copy which he later returned to the BBC. A short excerpt was played on a documentary entitled ''Radio's Lost Property'' on 1 November 2003, with the complete programme heard on a BBC 7 compilation entitled ''Some of Our Archives were Missing'' on 29 May 2004. It was broadcast for a second time on 17 June 2008, as the first episode in a rerun of the entire series.

The series proper was first broadcast on BBC Radio 2, at 1.30pm on 13 November 1983Radio Times
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