Dad's Army

Perry was only 16 when he joined the 10th Hertfordshire Battalion.

He partly resembled the character of Private Pike, as his mother did not like him being out at night and continually feared he might catch a cold.

Perry wrote the first script and sent it to David Croft while working as a minor actor in the Croft-produced sitcom Hugh and I, originally intending the role of the spiv, later called Walker, to be his own.

When an episode was screened to members of the public to gauge audience reaction prior to broadcast of the first series, the majority of the audience thought it was very poor.

He only saw it several months later, after the series had been broadcast and received a positive response.

Perry persuaded one of his childhood idols, wartime entertainer Bud Flanagan, to sing the theme for 100 guineas ().