game", to quote Mainwaring in "All is Safely Gathered In". Notably, in "The Deadly Attachment", Pike is put on an ominous 'list' by a German U-Boat captain due to Mainwaring's incompetence at preventing the German from learning Pike's name ("Don't tell him, Pike!"), spelling his doom should the Germans win the war; however, as Pike had sung a childish song about Adolf Hitler in front of this officer, it is his own fault in refusing to take the situation seriously. He would rather play at being a Chicago gangster with the platoon's grenades or Tommy gun. He exasperates Mainwaring but he is humoured by other members, particularly Lance Corporal Jones, Private Godfrey and Private Walker. Pike is one of the most timid members of the group, but was the first in the series to fire on a suspected enemy, in "The Enemy Within the Gates", even though it turned out to be a swan. Pike appears sickly and unhealthy, though most of his "illnesses" stem from his mother's protectiveness. She usually makes him wears a claret and blue scarf with his Home Guard uniform, which supposedly prevents him from getting croup, even though only infants and (apparently) chickens are supposed to get it ("Menace from the Deep"). Despite all this, in the episode "When You've Got to Go", he is certified fit for military service and is set to enter the RAF (to his mother's horror). However, after donating blood during a blood drive, it is discovered that Pike has an extremely rare blood type and he ends up being excluded from active service (though in typical Pike fashion, he doesn't reveal this to the rest of the platoon until after they've given him a going-away party). Pike is a fan of the cinema and narrates the plots of films that relate to the platoon, even if the relationship is vague. When the film example does mirror reality, he picks scenarios that end in death. Pike makes pointless comments while trying to help: this is illustrated in "Absent Friends". Jones, Mainwaring, Pike and Wilson are searching for an escaped convict, with the help of the police. Jones: "Perhaps they're hidin' behind the bushes, sir. They do a lot of hidin' behind bushes, do policemen. Especially when they're knockin' people off." Mainwaring: "I don't think that's very likely, Jones." Pike: "In that film, 'Public Enemy Number One', they hid behind cars.