 Although an ensemble piece, the series focuses particularly upon Mainwaring, who has invested all his efforts into the platoon as a way of escaping from an unhappy marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of a bishop, and a stalled career at the bank.Arthur Wilson, played by John Le Mesurier, was a diffident, upper-class bank clerk and Mainwaring's inferior in the bank and on parade.Nevertheless, his suave, understated social superiority, public school education and handsome looks led to a certain amount of jealousy on Mainwaring's part, but Wilson was never particularly bothered by this.