Best known for starring in Dad's Army, where his Sergeant Wilson was the languid, rakish, distracted foil to Arthur Lowe's pompous, chippy Captain Mainwaring, John Le Mesurier is one of our most loved character actors. 'Do you think that's wise, sir?' and 'Would you mind awfully?' are just two of Sgt Wilson's expressions that sum up his unorthodox, unruffled approach to service life.  His real life, however, was far more complicated and eventful: three disrupted marriages, serious illnesses and a career that brought him setbacks as well as successes, the man his friends knew as 'Le Mez' was an intriguing mixture of diffidence, decency, pathos and playfulness, and this major biography captures him sharply but sensitively as it chronicles the course of his life.

Featuring insights from many of his old colleagues, friends and family, as well as plenty of previously unpublished details from the archives, this fascinating book will be of interest not only to fans of Dads Army, but also to anyone curious about one of classic British film and television's most amiable and admirable individuals.

CONTENTS

The biography takes the reader from John's early years in Bedford and Bury St Edmunds, through his days at public school at Sherborne in Dorset, and on to his career as a so-called 'jobbing actor' - first in repertory theatre, later in British cinema and finally as a fixture on television.

(For more information and multimedia links, please go to the book's main site: http://www.lemez.moonfruit.com/)

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(National Press: promotional material will be available from the Aurum Press Office - publicity@aurumpress.co.uk - from September 2010 onwards.)

(Local Press: Template articles on John Le Mesurier's links with Bedford, Bury St Edmunds and East Anglia will be available from the Aurum Press Office towards the end of September.)