The actor Frank Williams, who has died aged 90, was best known as the Rev Timothy Farthing in Dad’s Army, one of the BBC’s most popular TV series. Although this mild-mannered vicar was a bit of a joke and a ditherer, Williams himself was a deeply religious man, an Anglican churchgoer.
Indeed, in his later years he served three terms (1985-2000) as a representative of the diocese of London in the General Synod, where he expressed opposition to the ordination of women – he left the vote, which went against him in 1992, in tears – but never left the church, and often spoke up for better treatment of gay people.
