Hi-De-Hi

Morning Campers!

Hi-de-Hi! aired for nine series from 1980 to 1988. Written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who had previously written Dad's Army and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The title was the phrase used to greet the campers at events.

The inspiration for the series was drawn from the real-life experiences of writers Perry and Croft. After being demobbed from the Army, Perry had spent his holidays as a Redcoat at Butlins. During its nine-year run, the series gained large audience figures and won a BAFTA as Best Comedy Series in 1984.

Set in Maplins, a holiday camp in the fictional seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea, Essex, which is loosely based on Butlins, the real-life holiday camp empire of Billy Butlin, with his Redcoats replaced with Yellowcoats.

In 1959, a Cambridge University archaeology professor, Jeffrey Fairbrother, tires of his life in academia and applies to become the entertainment manager of the holiday camp, a position that he duly achieves. This annoys the portly camp entertainer, Ted Bovis, who wants the job. In the pilot episode, Fairbrother discovers he is not really suited to his new job, but after an elderly couple, who have not had a happy life, approach him at the end to thank him for a lovely time, he decides to stay on. Joe Maplin himself is never seen.

Most episodes involve Ted Bovis and his dimwitted but kind-hearted sidekick Spike Dixon attempting to scam the well-meaning Fairbrother, who also has to avoid the romantic approaches of sharp-tongued senior Yellowcoat and sports organiser, Gladys Pugh, as he is currently divorcing his wife.

Fairbrother left Maplin's after the 1959 season and is replaced by Clive Dempster, to whom Gladys turns her attentions for the 1960 season (from series 6). They eventually marry.

Other characters include: Peggy Ollerenshaw, the chalet maid and wannabe Yellowcoat; Barry and Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves, a pair of snobbish dance instructors; jockey Fred Quilly; various leggy Yellowcoat girls; and alcoholic, child-hating Punch and Judy man, Mr Partridge, who was played by Leslie Dwyer.