Hi-de-hi (Hi De Hi)

Member Name: polydeuces

Product:	Hi De Hi
Date:	11/08/08 (75 review reads)
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Running throughout the 1980s Hi-De-Hi was one of a number of the David Croft and Jimmy Perry comedy sitcoms which had huge success. Others included Dads Army, It Aint Half Hot Mum and You Rang M'Lord. Hi-De-Hi was set in a holiday camp in the 1950s. Although called Maplins and set in the fictional town of Crimpton-on-Sea this was hardly a disguise for its take on the Butlins holiday camps.
The programme revolved around a limited number of main characters which like all Perry/Croft creations were larger than life, usually aspiring but never reaching new heights and often on the make with little scams and schemes. The casting as ever was superb and the programme made a number of people into household names. Of these Paul Shane who played camp host Ted Bovis is the first that springs to mind. As a former miner and comedian on the Northern club circuit Hi-De-hi was his big break. Bovis was full of schemes and was bluff and risque with the holidaymakers much to the alarm of impressionable new comic Spike Dixon played with considerable charm by Jeffrey Holland.

The early series featured Simon Cadell as Jeffrey Fairbrother who was an over educated but very nice Entertainments Officer. Fairbrother was seen as being completely out of place by the others but somehow the camp ran well and the holidaymakers were happy even if not in the cultured way Fairbrother really wanted. The later series featured David Griffin as Squadron Leader Clive Dempster who was a little more slimey and less successful as the Entertainments Officer. Both were pursued by man hungry Gladys Pugh played by Ruth Madoc. Gladys Pugh was a Welsh sports coordinator who also made the camp announcements complete with 3 note xylophone intro.
Completing the main charcters was Sue Pollard who played madcap chalet maid Peggy Ollerenshaw. Peggys main aim in life was to become a yellow coat and work in the entertainment area. She was constantly thwarted, until the very last episode, by Gladys Pugh and by the never seen boss Miss Cathcart.
Peggys attempts at acceptance grew more desperate and more funny as the series went on.

Others in the cast included Felix Bowness as a crooked ex-jockey and Leslie Dwyer as a childrens entertainer who hated children. Anyone who has been to a holiday camp can understand where this character came from. There was also Yvonne and Barry Stewart-Hargreaves who were ballroom dancers and an assortment of people enlisted as yellow coats.
The programme was a little farcical and often relied on a repetition of situations and gags. Usually this involved Spike being thrown into the swimming pool, some vulgar jokes from Ted Bovis at the regular beauty contests and camp goings on in the Hawaiian Ballroom. It was all good clean fun and reflected the low brow working class happenings at such camps. What made Hi-De-Hi successful as usual was Perry and Crofts way of creating loveable characters, giving them a funny situation and just letting the comedy flow through.

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