FROM Dad’s Army to EastEnders, now Ian Lavender has revealed he would love to land a part in another iconic TV series — Coronation Street.

But first the 67-year-old, who played Private Pike for the full run of the army sitcom then Derek Harkinson in the BBC soap, is leading an all-star cast in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic comic opera The Mikado.

He will take to the stage in the lead role at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, on Sunday.

Ian said: “I’ve compered concerts there, it’s just an amazing privilege to walk out in the Bridgewater Hall, in front of a full orchestra.

“It’s something I love doing.

“It’s quite amazing, I don’t remember that lesson at drama school.

“These are still the perks of being in Dad’s Army.

“Years ago I started hosting children’s concerts as the kids knew Private Pike. I was doing The Snowman with Aled (Jones) when he was a boy.”

The Mikado, with its opportunity for topical jokes, is a hilarious story poking delicious fun at the politicians and politics of the day with songs such as The Sun, Whose Rays Are All Ablaze, A Wand’ring Minstrel, I, I’ve Got A Little List and Three Little Maids From School Are We.

Ian said: “The Mikado was the first I ever saw. My mum was a supporter of a local operatic society and they did their concert in our school hall. I think I was six or seven at the time.

“What I was really looking forward to was going back to the school hall when the other kids didn’t.

“I fell in love with Gilbert & Sullivan.”

But despite being a fan, this is the first time he will have appeared in one of their operas and he admits the prospect is “terrifying”.

Ian joined the cast of Dad’s Army in 1968, at the age of 22, becoming a household name with his character frequently referred to by Captain Mainwaring as “stupid boy”.

Now the last surviving cast member to have played one of the seven main characters within the platoon, Ian said: “Imagine the stories they told me. It was absolutely great to have these people as my friends, as well as work colleagues.

“People do go, it’s sad that they’re not with us, but they would be extremely old now. However, it was a privilege to work with them.”

In 2001, he joined EastEnders where he was already friends with many of the cast members, including Wendy Richard, who played Pauline Fowler, and June Brown, who plays Dot Cotton.

Ian, who was in the soap between 2001 and 2005, said: “It was such a factory, and that’s not being nasty.

“Anything like that which has to get four episodes on a screen, it has to be.

“You’d go home, learn your lines, there was not a lot of socialising. The younger ones might but not the older ones.”

However, he said: “I would love to go into Corrie. But that would be frightening because I would be going into a group of people I don’t know. I know them from the screen, but I don’t know them.”

Mulling over his extensive career, Ian said he particularly enjoyed the years spent treading the boards in shows, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1998, Into The Woods in 2006 and, more recently, as Monsignor Howard in the West End production of Sister Act The Musical.

Speaking of Sister Act, he said: “It was great fun to be in, especially somebody my age.

“It was absolutely lovely working with all those young people.

“I’m not going poor, old, decrepit me, but I was 60 and they were 23 to 30. They are going to have more energy than me, but it was great to work them.

“They were coming to me for stories, not advice.”

n The Mikado is on at The Bridgewater Hall at 3pm on Sunday, with the cast including Simon Butteriss, Oliver White, Bruce Graham, Mark Evans, Ellie Laughharne, Abigail Iveson, Anna Lowe and West End actress Claire Moore.