Hi-De-Hi!
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Hi-De-Hi! was the name of a popular situation comedy which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1988 and was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
It was set in a holiday camp during the 1950s and 1960s and featured the staff employed to entertain the campers. The fictional chain of Maplin's camps was loosely based on the real holiday camp empire of Billy Butlin with his Redcoats replaced with Yellowcoats.
In common with a number of other British sitcoms such as Dad's Army and Goodnight Sweetheart the sitcom was a nostalgia vehicle although no less successful because of this.
Most episodes involved portly comic Ted Bovis (Paul Shane) and his dimwitted sidekick Spike (Jeffery Holland) attempting to scam the well-meaning camp manager Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell) and the sharp tongued Chief Yellowcoat Gladys Pugh (Ruth Madoc). Other characters included wannabe yellowcoat cleaning lady Peggy (Su Pollard), a pair of snobbish ballroom dancers and the leggy Yellowcoat girls.
The cast changed over the years, most significantly with Simon Cadell leaving and being replaced by David Griffin, playing Squadron Leader Clive Dempster DFC. Leslie Dwyer's Punch and Judy man Mr Partridge, who was in his seventies when the series started in 1980 retired in 1984 and was replaced by veteran comic actor Kenneth Connor as Uncle Sammy.
Several principal members of the cast were reunited in another period piece by the same writers called You Rang M'Lord? in the early 1990s, and again in Oh, Dr Beeching by David Croft and Rob Spendlove.
External links
- British Sitcom Guide (http://www.sitcom.co.uk/hi_de_hi/)
- Phill.co.uk Comedy Guide (http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/hidehi/)
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