Hi-De-Hi!
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 chiefly starred 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. Veteran comic actor Kenneth Connor joined the show later as a children's entertainer. The cast was reunited in another period piece by the same writers called You Rang M'Lord in the early 1990s.
External links British Sitcom Guide Phill.co.uk Comedy Guide
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