Clive Dunn's stage career began in 1935 and was interrupted by wartime service, which included over four years as a prisoner of war — an experience he later said helped him understand elderly characters, having watched older prisoners cope with hardship. He made a speciality of playing much older men, most famously as the excitable Lance Corporal Jones in Dad's Army (1968–1977), despite being one of the show's youngest cast members at just 48. In 1971, at the height of the show's popularity, his novelty song “Grandad” reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, and he went on to star in his own children's television series, Grandad, in the early 1980s.