Characters whose first names change throughout the series

[aparky85]

There are a number of characters who have different first names depending on the episode you see. I don't think I can remember them all without sticking all the DVDs on, but I'll list the ones I can remember, and invite others to chip in with ones I've missed.

Mrs Fox - Marcia/Mildred
Mr Blewitt - Sidney/Norman
Mr Yeatman - Maurice/Henry
Mrs Yeatman - Beryl/Tracy/Anthea

[Dave Homewood]

Mrs Fox - Marcia/Mildred/Muriel

Warden Hodges - Bill/Willie in Dad's Army, but Bert in ISOHAM. Maybe his full name was Wilbert.

[Alan Hayes]

Dec 8, 2020 14:32:52 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

Mrs Fox - Marcia/Mildred/Muriel

Warden Hodges - Bill/Willie in Dad's Army, but Bert in ISOHAM. Maybe his full name was Wilbert.

Another piece of evidence for ISOHAM being set in an alternative universe!

[Anglo]

Good idea, A Parky.

Considering the great attention to historical settings and language, these continuity errors are a surprise. Wouldn't you think the actress would have piped up and said "Hang on, I was called Tracy last time."

At a slight tangent, I notice the surname Samways. It first appears in Command Decision and then Pike's girlfriend in Mum's Army, the hilarious whisperer, is Ivy Samways. Makes me wonder whether some of these names are kind of tributes to someone behind the scenes (like Meddings Uranium Plant was in Thunderbirds,)

[Dave Homewood]

Don't forget that the episodes were often made years apart where these first names were used, and in between the writers and the actors have all done a lot of other things. They did not have the benefit of watching the older episodes on video, DVD and TV ad infinitum either. So the small errors are in my opinion very understandable.

As for surnames, Jimmy Perry used to like to take note of names he saw on shops or vans or other places that took his fancy and would often use them. Sponge was a name on a furniture van, for example. Samways was possibly a name that had caught his eye somewhere too. And of course it is natural in a small town that there would be several people with the same surname, family connections.

Jimmy also was fascinated by names that were spelled differently from how they were pronounced, and that is how Mainwaring came about as the captain's name, because it was bound to cause some comedic value, and always did when Captain Square turned up. I am sure he will have written the passage about Cholmondeley in India for the same reason.