Barry Howard obituary | Culture | The Guardian Barry Howard obituary Actor best known for his deadpan role in the holiday camp comedy Hi-de-Hi! Barry Howard and Diane Holland during rehearsals for a performance at the fictional Maplins holiday camp. Photograph: Daily Mail/Rex/Shutterstock Anthony Hayward Friday 29 April 2016 11.45 EDT Last modified on Thursday 11 August 2016 05.36 EDT Share on Messenger Close The actor Barry Howard, who has died of cancer aged 78, was best known to TV viewers for his role in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi! as Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, who, with his wife, Yvonne, teaches ballroom dancing at Maplins holiday camp. Set at the turn of the 1950s, Hi-de-Hi! was created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft , based on their experience of staging summer shows at Butlin’s. Howard had started his own career at Butlin’s after learning ballroom dancing at school.

Whereas once Barry and Yvonne (played by Diane Holland ) had swept across the country’s top dance floors, they were now reduced to imparting their skills to holidaymakers in the fictional Essex seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea – and even taking part in what they saw as demeaning shows alongside the yellowcoats hired by the entertainments manager, Jeffrey Fairbrother ( Simon Cadell ). Having spaghetti stuffed down his trousers and dressing up as Percy the pixie were an embarrassing come-down for Barry Stuart-Hargreaves. The dance instructors’ frustrations were compounded by strains in their own relationship, not helped by Yvonne’s previous infidelities. Howard played every situation deadpan, often with a sideways glance and flare of the nostrils, whether making caustic comments about Yvonne or the guests. After the 1980 pilot and seven series (1981-86), Howard was written out and Barry was replaced as Yvonne’s dancing partner by Julian Dalrymple-Sykes ( Ben Aris ), one of her former lovers.

“I used to drink more than was good for me in those days and got into trouble for shoving one of the yellowcoat girls into the pool,” Howard said. “I enjoyed any type of drink and made front-page news. I wasn’t well enough to continue for the last two series.” However, the actor did return to his role for a 2010 stage tour of Hi-de-Hi!, one of only two original cast members to do so. Nikki Kelly , who had appeared as the yellowcoat Sylvia Garnsey in the series, took the role of Yvonne. Howard and the TV cast had originally appeared in the stage show Hi-de-Hi – The Holiday Musical, which was performed at the Victoria Palace theatre, London (1983-84), sandwiched between summer seasons in Bournemouth and Blackpool. Howard was born in Nottingham to Gladys (nee Booth) and Frederick, a butcher, and did national service in the Royal Air Force after leaving grammar school. Wanting to train as an actor but unable to get a grant, he worked backstage at the Alexandra theatre, Birmingham, for almost two years to fund himself through Birmingham Theatre School.

He then performed at Butlin’s Ayr holiday camp, followed by theatre summer seasons at other seaside resorts. After Howard and John Inman appeared together in a 1964-65 tour of the musical Salad Days, they formed a partnership as a long-running Ugly Sisters act in pantomimes and ran up their own costumes – dresses of lime green and purple, puce and crimson, lemon and black, embroidered and trimmed with lace, feathers, net, fur or sequins. The double act continued until Inman found fame as Mr Humphries in the TV sitcom Are You Being Served?, but Howard continued to play pantomime dames. After his West End debut in 1964 as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night during a Shakespeare season at the Comedy theatre, he took the roles of Mr Sowerberry in the first national tour of Oliver!

(1964-65) and Herr Schultz in Cabaret at Bristol Old Vic (1977-8), appeared in the Churchill musical Winnie at the Victoria Palace (1988), was the narrator of The Rocky Horror Show on tour (1991-92) and, between 2003 and 2013, was Jacob Marley opposite Tommy Steele’s Ebenezer in Scrooge: The Musical on tour and at the London Palladium. His television appearances were few before he became a star through Hi-de-Hi!, but Howard subsequently had a cameo role as Count Zarkhov in a 1990 episode of the Perry-Croft “upstairs, downstairs” comedy You Rang, M’Lord? and played the footman Danny Jackson for the entire run of the royal household sitcom The House of Windsor (1994). Later, he was seen in the 2009 Doctor Who story The End of Time as Oliver Barnes, one of the Silver Cloak group of pensioners – also including June Whitfield – searching for David Tennant’s abducted Time Lord.

• Barry Frederick Howard, actor, born 9 July 1937; died 28 April 2016 Barry Howard, 78, British sitcom actor (:Hi-de-Hi!") - Google Groups Barry Howard, 78, British sitcom actor (:Hi-de-Hi!") Showing 1-1 of 1 messages Actor best known for his deadpan role in the holiday camp comedy Hi-de-Hi! Anthony Hayward Friday 29 April 2016 11.45 EDT The actor Barry Howard, who has died of cancer aged 78, was best known to TV viewers for his role in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi! as Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, who, with his wife, Yvonne, teaches ballroom dancing at Maplins holiday camp. Set at the turn of the 1950s, Hi-de-Hi! was created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, based on their experience of staging summer shows at Butlin's. Howard had started his own career at Butlin's after learning ballroom dancing at school.

Whereas once Barry and Yvonne (played by Diane Holland) had swept across the country's top dance floors, they were now reduced to imparting their skills to holidaymakers in the fictional Essex seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea - and even taking part in what they saw as demeaning shows alongside the yellowcoats hired by the entertainments manager, Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell). Having spaghetti stuffed down his trousers and dressing up as Percy the pixie were an embarrassing come-down for Barry Stuart-Hargreaves. The dance instructors' frustrations were compounded by strains in their own relationship, not helped by Yvonne's previous infidelities. Howard played every situation deadpan, often with a sideways glance and flare of the nostrils, whether making caustic comments about Yvonne or the guests. After the 1980 pilot and seven series (1981-86), Howard was written out and Barry was replaced as Yvonne's dancing partner by Julian Dalrymple-Sykes (Ben Aris), one of her former lovers.

"I used to drink more than was good for me in those days and got into trouble for shoving one of the yellowcoat girls into the pool," Howard said. "I enjoyed any type of drink and made front-page news. I wasn't well enough to continue for the last two series." However, the actor did return to his role for a 2010 stage tour of Hi-de-Hi!, one of only two original cast members to do so. Nikki Kelly, who had appeared as the yellowcoat Sylvia Garnsey in the series, took the role of Yvonne. Howard and the TV cast had originally appeared in the stage show Hi-de-Hi - The Holiday Musical, which was performed at the Victoria Palace theatre, London (1983-84), sandwiched between summer seasons in Bournemouth and Blackpool. Howard was born in Nottingham to Gladys (nee Booth) and Frederick, a butcher, and did national service in the Royal Air Force after leaving grammar school. Wanting to train as an actor but unable to get a grant, he worked backstage at the Alexandra theatre, Birmingham, for almost two years to fund himself through Birmingham Theatre School.

He then performed at Butlin's Ayr holiday camp, followed by theatre summer seasons at other seaside resorts. After Howard and John Inman appeared together in a 1964-65 tour of the musical Salad Days, they formed a partnership as a long-running Ugly Sisters act in pantomimes and ran up their own costumes - dresses of lime green and purple, puce and crimson, lemon and black, embroidered and trimmed with lace, feathers, net, fur or sequins. The double act continued until Inman found fame as Mr Humphries in the TV sitcom Are You Being Served?, but Howard continued to play pantomime dames. After his West End debut in 1964 as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night during a Shakespeare season at the Comedy theatre, he took the roles of Mr Sowerberry in the first national tour of Oliver!

(1964-65) and Herr Schultz in Cabaret at Bristol Old Vic (1977-8), appeared in the Churchill musical Winnie at the Victoria Palace (1988), was the narrator of The Rocky Horror Show on tour (1991-92) and, between 2003 and 2013, was Jacob Marley opposite Tommy Steele's Ebenezer in Scrooge: The Musical on tour and at the London Palladium. His television appearances were few before he became a star through Hi-de-Hi!, but Howard subsequently had a cameo role as Count Zarkhov in a 1990 episode of the Perry-Croft "upstairs, downstairs" comedy You Rang, M'Lord? and played the footman Danny Jackson for the entire run of the royal household sitcom The House of Windsor (1994). Later, he was seen in the 2009 Doctor Who story The End of Time as Oliver Barnes, one of the Silver Cloak group of pensioners - also including June Whitfield - searching for David Tennant's abducted Time Lord.

* Barry Frederick Howard, actor, born 9 July 1937; died 28 April 2016 "Hi-de-Hi!" Reviews & Ratings - IMDb from United Kingdom 18 October 2005 Based to some extent on writers, David Croft and Jimmy Perry's, own experiences as Butlins Holiday Camp entertainers in the UK during the same timescale the programme follows, "Hi-De-Hi!" epitomises the 'slapstick, postcard humour" of post-war Britain. Set in the fictitious seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea, "Hi-De-Hi" chronicles the comedic goings on within the Maplins Holiday Camp - one of many dotted along the British coast owned by the mega-rich, but never seen (on screen) Joe Maplin. Although the actual show began in 1980 with the pilot episode and ran until 1988 when the BBC deemed it too tame for it's cutting edge comedy department, seasons 1-5 focused on 1959 while seasons 6-9 spotlighted 1960 - a time when the old style British Holiday Camp began to fall into decline.

During the first 5 seasons, Jeffrey Fairbrother (played brilliantly by the late, great Simon Cadell) was the camp's entertainment manager; a well meaning, yet slightly pensive ex-university professor breaking free of his upper class background and venturing into the "real" world to head his team of entertainment staff who were in stark contrast to his own laid-back personality. From season 6 onwards, Fairbrother was replaced by Clive Dempster (played by David Griffin when Cadell quit the show at the height of it's popularity), an ex-RAF war hero who, in many ways, was similar to Cadell's character in background, but more a scoundrel than a gentleman.

However, the real stars of "Hi-De-Hi" throughout the nine seasons were Ted Bovis (played superbly by Paul Shane), a stereotypical working class, ale drinking, bawdy comic - someone who could never resist an opportunity to fiddle the campers; Gladys Pugh (played by Ruth Madoc who's currently experiencing a career comeback with appearances in the hit BBC Comedy, "Little Britain"), chief Yellowcoat (what the entertainment staff were called because of their bright yellow jackets) and sports organiser - but more importantly, the one person who saved Jeffrey Fairbrother and Clive Dempster from embarrassment by covering up their inexperience in running a holiday camp; Peggy Ollerenshaw (Su Pollard), the slightly dopey, yet lovable lowly chalet maid with a burning ambition to become a Yellowcoat, and Spike Dixon (Jeffrey Holland), Ted's innocent protégé learning more about 'show business' than he hoped for. As usual with a Croft & Perry production, the assembled cast of characters were a bunch of misfits played superbly by the actors involved. Mr.

Partridge (played by the late Leslie Dwyer, who was in his 70's by the time he left the show), the alcoholic child-hating children's entertainer; Fred Quilly (Felix Bowness), a former champion jockey with a dubious past; Yvonne & Barry Stuart-Hargreaves (Dianne Holland & Barry Howard), the snobbish former ballroom dancing champions who were in the twilight of their careers; and Sylvia and Betty (Nikki Kelly and Rikki Howard), the two main girl Yellowcoats who were always looking for the type of fun Joe Maplin would never allow in one of his camps. "Hi-De-Hi" typified the slapstick era of the late 50s with it's saucy and, to a certain degree, vulgar "tongue-in-cheek" humour (jokes about people sitting on toilets and anecdotes about 'women with big knockers' were the order of the day). But despite it's whiff of "Carry On" funniness, it was always so innocent and became something of recommended family viewing back in the 80's.

Of course, the critics of the show remarked that the show had outstayed it's welcome by a good couple of years, but I disagree. While the early seasons focused mainly on bawdiness and slapstick humour, the latter series of "Hi-De-Hi" saw more thought put into the scripts and the main characters (especially Spike Dixon & Gladys Pugh) were able to grow with more sensitive story lines. That said, there were a few criticisms of the show. Clive Dempster was no Jeffrey Fairbrother, and the former didn't quite have the on-screen chemistry with Gladys as Jeffrey did (I personally think it would've been more believable if Gladys had married Jeff); five seasons dedicated to 1959 and four to 1960 caused more than just a few continuity errors (the disappearance of old faces and introductions of new characters weren't explained properly, especially with the Yellowcoats who came and went with much regularity; and the character of Gladys Pugh, who, in the pilot episode was made out to be a free-loving man-eater that was suddenly transformed into a naive virgin like character!

Also to mention quite pedantically, most of the 1959 holiday season was covered in season one, so to stretch the rest of the year out in five further series was something bordering unbelievable. Still, the show wasn't meant to be meticulously looked upon, and the comedy more than outweighed it's flaws. All in all, "Hi-De-Hi" was probably one of the last comedies from the BBC's golden period, and even if it never managed to rival such British comedic mainstays as "Only Fools & Horses", "Porridge" or even "Last Of The Summer Wine", "Hi De Hi" will be best remembered as a comedy the whole family could enjoy. If you haven't already checked it out for yourself, I implore you to do so. Was the above review useful to you? 10 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Hilarious British sit-com from Melbourne, Australia 19 October 1999 Excellent sitcom from Jimmy Perry and David Croft. A spoof on the post-war UK holiday camps of Billy Butlin (a concept which lives on to this day in Club Med, and equally ghastly).

The characters are performers in, or employees of, the camp. The long-suffering campers return year after year to have tripe dished out to them. Has dated well and worth watching given the chance. Although the humour is broad it is probably not suited to US tastes. Was the above review useful to you? 7 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Gets better each time from United Kingdom 11 September 2001 When this series first started, I freely admit I was not a fan. On first view, it was not up to their shining glory that is Dads Army. On the other hand, nothing is. I first started to 'got it' with the horse on a horse scene. I laughed and laughed. Since then, it has appeared on repeats and channels like UK Gold. The performance of Simon Cadell is outstanding. Every cast member fits their role like a glove. It grows on one and all I can say is, Well Done Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Was the above review useful to you? 6 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Wonderful.

from New Zealand 9 March 2008 I get really fed up with sitcoms; you feel you always know what is coming so it ceases to be funny. On the other hand, Hi De Hi, you rarely know what is coming and it's laugh out loud funny. I have just purchased the second set of the series, (series 3 -4)and I am surprised at just how much I am enjoying it all - again. I have nothing but praise for the writers or the actors (or the many unseen crew members) because the entertainment they provide is well worth the wait. The gems that have come from this series and the respect that the actors achieved through it speak for themselves. Croft and Perry created some pure gold some of which shines through Hi De Hi. Was the above review useful to you? 4 out of 7 people found the following review useful: "That's the first rule of comedy. You've got to have reality!" 21 July 2008 *** This review may contain spoilers *** I missed the early editions of 'Hi-De-Hi!'. I think it must have been the title that put me off.

In those days, the Welsh language editions of 'The Radio Times' only used to print titles of certain shows without imparting information as to what they were actually about. 'Hi-De-Hi!' suggested to me a bad quiz show hosted by Leslie Crowther or some inane U.S. import. I caught up with it eventually, and was surprised to find the names Jimmy Perry and David Croft attached. As was the case with 'Dad's Army' and 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum', Perry based it on personal experience, in this case his time as a Redcoat at a Butlins' holiday camp. Before cheap air travel came along in the '60's, camps such as these sprang up along British coastlines, providing entertainment for working class families and earning millions for their owners. ( As a matter of interest, I worked in one such camp in the '80's as a chef - Barry Island, South Wales - known to all and sundry as 'Shag Land' for reasons I won't go into!

) The premise is this: in 1959, archaeology professor 'Jeffrey Fairbrother' ( Simon Cadell ) becomes bored with stuffy Cambridge and applies for a job as entertainments manager of Maplin's Crimpton-On-Sea camp, a post he is ill equipped to handle. Life is one long round of spaghetti eating contests and people in silly costumes being thrown in swimming pools. His staff includes resident comic 'Ted Bovis' ( Paul Shane ), his out-upon sidekick 'Spike Dixon' ( Jeffrey Holland ), miserable Punch and Judy man 'Mr.Partridge' ( Leslie Dwyer ), snobby ballroom dancers 'Barry' ( Barry Howard ) and 'Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves' ( Diane Holland ), and the unforgettable 'Gladys Pugh' ( Ruth Madoc ), a fiery Welsh woman who lusted after Fairbrother at every opportunity. Bubbly Su Pollard stole the show though as cleaner 'Peggy Ollerenshaw', whose driving ambition was to be a 'Yellowcoat' ( all the important staff members wore them ).

A number of sexy girls occupied these coats too, most notably Nikki Kelly's long-legged 'Sylvia Garnsey' and statuesque Rikki Howard's 'Betty Whistler'. We never saw Joe Maplin. He communicated to his staff in the form of ungrammatical missives, which poor Jeffrey was forced to read aloud. "Hi-De-Hi!" was the campers' greeting, usually met with the equally inane 'Ho-De-Ho!. One fan was the late Sir Fred Pontin. I always found Bovis the most convincing of these as well as the most tragic, like Archie Rice he was the comedian whose big break never came, reduced to cracking corny gags for the amusement of drunken late-night audiences. He took advantage of his position to indulge in a few perks, and in one memorable episode Fairbrother's patience snapped and he sounded him out: "Lies! Lies! Lies! Lies!". A father and son type relationship developed between Ted and Spike over the course of the series. As with every other Perry/Croft production, the cast were excellent, particularly Cadell, Holland and Shane.

Ruth Madoc's prissy 'Gladys' was much imitated in school playgrounds, while Leslie Dwyer's misanthropic 'Mr.Partridge' and Felix Bowness' jockey 'Fred Qulley' also proved popular. The visual gag everyone remembers came in the episode 'Charity Begins At Home' as drunken Mr.Partridge spots a pantomime horse riding a real one along the beach. Looking at the bottle of whiskey in his hand, he decides to stick with it and instead throws away the banana he had been eating! With its frothy blend of '50's nostalgia and saucy postcard gags, 'Hi-De'Hi' was a big hit for B.B.C.-1 in the '80's, resulting in a massive upturn in bookings for Butlins and Pontins. John Le Mesurier made a guest appearance, as did satirist John Fortune. Cadell left after the fifth series to return to the theatre. His replacement was David Griffin's 'Squadron Leader Clive Dempster', a war hero reduced to living off borrowed money and with a liking for fast cars.

Leslie Dwyer's death in 1986 robbed the show of one of its funniest characters. 'Carry On' star Kenneth Connor was brought in to replace him as 'Uncle Sammy'. Barry Howard was dropped, and Ben Aris stepped into his dancing shoes to play posh pig farmer 'Julian Dalrymple-Sykes'. The period setting occasionally caused problems; in one episode, Sylvia and Betty had to dive into the pool to rescue Peggy who for some reason was dressed as a shark. The revealing costumes they wore were wrong for that era. Still they looked great in them so who's complaining? In another, Ted sang the Tom Jones hit 'Delilah' to campers. It was not composed ( by Les Reed and Barry Mason, incidentally ) until 1968. Maplins closed its doors for good in 1988 - the camp decided to go upmarket, and the staff were told by Alec Foster ( Ewan Hooper ) that their services were no longer needed - and the last shot was that of Peggy ( now a Yellowcoat ) all alone, jumping into the air, and shouting the show's title one final time.

I don't rate it as highly as Perry and Croft's other shows, but its popularity is undeniable. It was probably one of the last British sitcoms to generate tremendous public affection, mainly because it featured likable characters in a recognisable setting. Goodnight campers! Hi-de-Hi! Was the above review useful to you? 4 out of 7 people found the following review useful: hi de hi an excellent comedy from United States 13 October 2005 this series is still the most popular comedy series in English television history. it takes place at a holiday camp in england in the 60's. which was only twenty years past when this series was on TV. The late talented simon cadell (1950-96) was particularly good in the lead role and his replacement did pretty well considering who he was replacing. the show is well worth watching and is not only funny, it is nostalgic as well. actually the eighties themselves are now nostalgia! which only adds to the whole feeling of comedic affection that the show was aiming at in portraying a bygone era that of the old holiday camps of the fifties through mid -sixties.

so watch it and enjoy a classic comedy from those wonderful brits. I asked my library system in coloardo springs to order episodes of this and they did and they are checked out a lot. so hi de hi , hi de ho! lets go watch a great TV show!. Was the above review useful to you? I liked this series - silly but good for a laugh - I'd rewrite the ending *** This review may contain spoilers *** I liked this series. I love British humour. This show is completely silly but hilarious. I knew of a number of the main actors from another series called You Rang M'Lord which is funny too but sadly, youtube only has a few episodes there. I watched the entire Hi de Hi series on youtube which was great. I noticed the writing started to get old in the last few seasons with a lot of repetitive themes. It went especially downhill in the last season which is common with TV series. I was so disappointed that they didn't write a better and more creative ending. Instead, they wrapped it up in a rather hum drum and nonsensical manner.

I think a better and more logical happy ending would have been for the rich man who led the camp to somehow have his family take him back into the fold, in spite of his marriage, because they needed him to come and run their farm and amusement park. That way his wife (the Welsh woman who was the best yellow coat around) could have helped run things and the majority of the rest of the staff could have all been given jobs there. This would have been a much better and a very happy and settled ending rather than the half hazard one they wrote. That's my two cents. 20 February 2015 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Hi de Hi sent up a popular British institution from the fifties and sixties, the holiday camp ,a relatively cheap seaside holiday where campers stayed in chalets, ate in canteens and enjoyed entertainment of varying quality. Written by the former Redcoat Jimmy Perry, Hi de Hi sent up these regimented holidays that were popular before foreign holidays and caravan camps became more affordable.

( I stayed in a later version of a holiday camp in 1985, based around a caravan park, and it had distinctly Hi de Hi attractions, beauty contests, kids singing, entertainment provided by an elderly comic whose routine was stuck in the fifties). Also this was the era when Hi de Hi was at the peak of its popularity, when 16 million viewers would tune in to watch the goings on at a fictitious holiday camp in 1959. OK it does look a bit cheap and dated now, mostly being filmed in a studio and the jokes could get a bit repetitive, but on the whole Hi de Hi was good fun, particularly the ones with Simon Cadell as the entertainments manager, Geoffrey Fairbrother, an upper class academic who was seriously out of his depth. In one episode he introduces classical music recitals, which go down like a lead balloon, and is constantly being thwarted by the camp comedian, the devious and scheming, Ted Bovis, played brilliantly by the late Paul Shane.

Also Fairbrother is lusted after by the sex starved chief Yellowcoat, Gladys Pugh, a Welsh woman who speaks with an exaggerated accent and whose attempts to seduce Fairbrother fail with hilarious results. Indeed watching the re runs on BBC Two recently, after years of being absent from the television, made me appreciate the earthy charms of Hi de Hi, a sitcom hated by the trendies at the time, but very popular with millions of viewers who loved the innuendo, memories of holiday camps and simple humour. Also what made it more watchable were the misfits and has beens who worked at the camp such as Barry and Yvonne, the ballroom dancing champions no one had heard of, the disqualified jockey Fred Quilley, Peggy the cleaner who dreams of being a Yellowcoat, and an alcoholic Punch and Judy man who hates children. As ever from Perry and Croft, a strong ensemble sitcom that is still well remembered today and with a cracking rock and roll theme tune. Was the above review useful to you?

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful: true to life from fareham, hampshire, uk 25 February 2011 This series (at least any episode featuring the late, great Simon Cadell ) was brilliant. As a barman in one of "Billy's Brothels" at the end of the 60s, I experienced many of the antics first hand. What a trip down memory lane! Like all of Perry / Croft sitcoms, all the characters are strong and all have a share of the funny lines. Great acting, great comedy and an accurate representation of what post war Britain was all about before the advent of cheap packaged holidays to the Costa Somethings. Along with "It ain't half hot Mum" and "Dad's Army", this is classic comedy. Brilliantly observed and the larger than life episodes (for example the horse on horse incident) hilariously acted and produced. Was the above review useful to you? 4 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Quite awful by the end .......

23 October 2007 *** This review may contain spoilers *** This is a classic example of what happens when a sit com is on TV for far far too long. Everything gets tired and the jokes start getting repeated over and over again. OK, from the start, the first couple of series were quite good. You had an Entertainment Manager (Simon Cadel) being pursued by his deputy played by Ruth Madoc, a cleaning lady wanting to become a yellow coat, an alcoholic child-hating Punch and Judy man, a bent Jockey, and a stand up comedian. As said earlier, it started well but went on way too long. Once Simon Cadel left it went downhill fast, you were getting dire story lines, and a new entertainments manager who Ruth Madoc (again) threw herself at. When a comedy is all filmed in one place there is a limit to the number of jokes that can be cracked. Unfortunately this went on so long every joke was cracked 3 or 4 times over. If this comedy had been stopped after 2 series it would have gone down as an all time classic. As it is, it will be largely remembered for the dreadful last few series. Was the above review useful to you?

Page 1 of 2: '80s Actual: January 2009 They look like proper little skinheads, don't they? An incredibly quirky marketing idea. No breakfasts fit for sparrows here. "You make it neat wheat, mate!" "If you know what's good for you, you do!" Dunk, Crunch, Brains, Brian and Bixie, AKA the Weetabix bovver boys and girl, were determined to stamp out "titchy breakfasts". The brainchild of one Trevor Beattie, they starred in a long series of TV ads from March 1982 until November 1989. The Weetabix had a couple of catchphrases which were pretty popular: Brian's was "OK!", spoken in a parrot-like voice. Dunk contributed "If you know what's good for you!" This sounded menacing, but actually referred to the health-giving properties of the product. Crunch is featured testing his strength at the fairground on this 1983 "Weeta-Card".. . Hi-De-Hi! Hi-de-Hi! - Paul Ableman, BBC Publications, 1983.

Back cover synopsis: Hi-de-hi! readers! Welcome to Maplin’s. For the benefit of newcomers, there’s Jeffrey Fairbrother, the entertainments manager, who used to be a professor at Cambridge. There’s Ted Bovis, your camp host, his assistant, Spike Dixon, and Mr Partridge, the Punch-and-Judy man. There’s Fred Quilly, who looks after the horses, and Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, the stuck-up ballroom dancers. There’s scatterbrained Peggy, the chalet maid, and, of course, there’s Gladys Pugh, the chief yellow coat. Finally, there’s someone you haven’t seen on your screens, Charlie Binns, the senior camper, who knows all the secrets of Maplin’s. He tells you about the night Jeffrey and Gladys were trapped in the Three Bears’ Cottage, about how Ted raised the money for his wife’s alimony, about the Most Popular Girl Yellowcoat Competition and many other things. With this book in your pocket your holiday is bound to be a happy one. And if you read it at home you’ll think that you are on holiday. So hi-de-hi! readers!

Welcome back to Maplin’s! Paul Shane and Su Pollard in rehearsal in 1982. From the experienced pens of Jimmy Perry and David Croft came the pilot episode of holiday camp comedy series Hi-De-Hi! (originally minus the hyphens and exclamation mark), screened on 1 January 1980. We had quite a while to wait for the first series, which began in February 1981. Perry and Croft claimed that: “The best television is all about people just talking.” They obviously knew a thing or two, with tremendous TV comedy successes Dad’s Army and It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum already behind them. Hi-De-Hi! was initially set in 1959, the year in which its creators both did stints in holiday camps themselves - David Croft as a show organiser and Jimmy Perry as a Redcoat. The fictional holiday camp featured in the series was owned by one Joe Maplin. “Hi-de hi!” was the jolly catchphrase of Maplin’s staff - to which the holiday makers were supposed to reply with a rousing “Ho-de-ho!”. Rousing? Ragged was more the reality!

“Hi-de hi!” became a major catchphrase of the 1980s, trilled in coy Gladys Pugh tones up and down the land. Ruth Madoc as the oh-so-Welsh Gladys Pugh, who had a tendency to fall for oh-so-upper-class Englishmen like Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell). Ruth and Simon were later to be found whispering about Wispa chocolate. The original nine central Hi-De-Hi! performers were hand picked by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. “We see the whole thing through,” explained Jimmy Perry. “Unlike most writers of situation comedy, we do both the writing and casting, and David is the producer. The show is written and cast long before production schedules are even thought of. It took us over a year to get the people we wanted for Hi-De-Hi! because it’s no good having the right words come out of the wrong mouths. Our characters are real, they think what they say, and every situation, however trivial, has a reason behind it. There are a lot of main characters in Hi-De-Hi!, but each has his or her moment in at least one episode.

That’s the way we work…" Ruth Madoc was, of course, the glorious Gladys Pugh - she who trembled with passion for Maplin’s entertainment manager Mr Fairbrother. Ruth recalled in 1982: “Jimmy rang up and said, ‘Blod,’ - he calls me Blodwen because I’m Welsh - ‘I’ve got just the part for you’.” Also interviewed in 1982, Paul Shane, Ted Bovis, recalled going to Jimmy Croft’s house to read for the part: “I was frightened to death, but now it’s all happening for me. I’m doing a summer season on the South Pier at Blackpool this year. Who would ever have offered Paul Shane any work there before Hi-De-Hi!? Suddenly I’m a desirable commodity - the show has made household names of people who have been around for years!” Simon Cadell, Jeffrey Fairbrother, was seen by Perry and Croft in Enemy At The Door. “They telephoned me offering the role before I arrived back home after the reading,” said Simon. “The character of Jeff Fairbrother, the academic Camp Manager, is fascinating.

Jeff is gradually learning to manipulate such diverse personalities as Ted and old Partridge, and to ward off the amorous advances of Gladys.” When Jeffrey left Maplin's, his place as entertainments manager, and in Gladys Pugh's affections, was taken by Squadron Leader Clive Dempster, DFC, played by David Griffin. Mr Partridge, Maplin’s Punch and Judy man, was not the ideal children’s entertainer - mainly because he didn’t like children. And he drank. Leslie Dwyer, the actor who played Partridge, was in his seventies when he was cast: “David and Jimmy never forget anybody,” he said in 1982, having first met David Croft over forty years before. “Every artist is compartmentalised in their minds until they dredge us up for the right part.” Diane Holland, Maplin's Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves, as troubled Sarah Maynard in a 1966 episode of ATV soap opera "Crossroads".

Felix Bowness, Fred Quilly the hapless jockey, had worked for around thirty years as a stand-up comic: “I’ve done 3,000 TV warm-up shows,” he said during an interview in the early 1980s. “I’m the chap behind the scenes who gets the audience in a good mood before the REAL show begins. But Jimmy and David saw me, talked to me when I was the warm-up for their shows, knew I’d done a lot of riding in my time, and actually wrote the part of Fred with me in mind. I’m a ‘turn’ not an actor, but they’ve been marvellous to me. Jimmy and David, and all the cast give me acting lessons, laugh at me and encourage me.” Jeffrey Holland, Maplin’s Spike Dixon, was spotted by David and Jimmy when he was appearing in the stage version of Dad’s Army. Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, the snobby ballroom dancing instructors, were brought to life by Barry Howard and Diane Holland. “We are marvellously bitchy and say all the things husbands and wives would often like to say to each other,” said Barry.

Barry and John Inman had appeared together as two pantomime Ugly Sisters for years. John was hand-picked to play Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served? by David Croft, who wrote the series in association with Jeremy Lloyd of Captain Beaky fame. Barry was promised that one day there would be a part for him, and so there was. Diane Holland was once in a dancing troupe called the Page-Hatton Trio. Jimmy Perry first saw her dance as part of that act. Years later, she was brilliant as Yvonne. The Stuart-Hargreaves were great favourites of mine. Nottingham-born Su Pollard was much-loved as chalet maid Peggy Ollerenshaw - who so wanted to be a yellowcoat. Like other members of the cast, Su became an '80s celebrity. One of her non-Maplin's ventures was to sing Starting Together, the theme tune to the 1986 documentary series The Marriage. Sadly, some of those involved with Hi-De-Hi! are no longer with us. The series ended in January 1988, and is, in my opinion, one of the BBC's finest sitcoms.

It's still guaranteed to get me laughing, and I've been thoroughly enjoying the DVD releases. "'Allo Campers - Hi-De-Hi!" All together now: "HO-DE-HO!" It's the mid-1980s, c. 1984, and Su Pollard is starring in a TV advertisement for Typhoo tea. The scenario: Su is on the beach, drinking a cup of Typhoo. "Oooh," says she, blissfully... But who's that singing? Three donkeys, of course. To the tune of "Una Paloma Blanca" (which had also been mangled by the Wurzels into "I Am A Cider Drinker"), the donkeys sing: "'Oo makes a lovely cuppa - no other tea will do. 'Oo makes a lovely cuppa, that's why it's our favourite brew - when we want an 'Oooh' we go for Typhoo." The donkeys were real, with cartoon mouths - a clever special effect in those days. Plenty enough to give you an "Oooh" with your Typhoo! Posted by Martin - an officious little man...

His wife, Ann, introduced him to suave new neighbour Paul Ryman in 1984... Martin's friends and neighbours, Hilda and Howard Hughes (!), often liked to wear matching outfits, and made a wickerwork donkey called "Neddy". Actor Richard Briers had worked with writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey before - most notably on the highly popular BBC TV comedy The Good Life. The premise of The Good Life had been that middle aged, middle class Tom Good, stuck in a boring nine-to-five office job and living in suburbia, was suddenly galvanised by a notion born of the 1960s: he would leave the rat race - give up his wretched job and try self sufficiency! The Good Life was a huge success. In 1984, Richard Briers set to work with John Esmonde and Bob Larbey again - to produce a sitcom I enjoyed even more than The Good Life, and one which turned the premise of that worthy show completely on its head. The leading character of this new show, Martin Bryce, was a pain in the neck. He loved routine; loved to organise; loved detail.

He was in charge of a mass of local committees and clubs and generally got up a lot of people's noses. Courtesy of his unhappy childhood, he was a real control freak. Esmonde and Larbey wanted a funny man for the role, somebody who would prevent the character from being completely hateful, and offered it to Briers. In my view this role was more demanding than that of Tom Good - Martin was far more intricate. Briers managed to make the character extremely funny, but also so irritating at times that many viewers wanted to strangle him - and so vulnerable and boyish-looking in defeat that many of the would-be stranglers then wanted to hug him. Underneath it all, Martin was a thoroughly decent man, willing to sacrifice his own wellbeing for the sake of the happiness of the woman he loved, as one episode proved. A terrific performance - and Richard Briers's favourite sitcom role. Martin's wife, Ann, was played by Penelope Wilton. Ann had been proposed to by Martin whilst she was at a low ebb, her life at a difficult and disorganised juncture. "Let me do the organising," Martin had said. And that was it.

Ann was a faithful wife but she was strongly attracted to suave new neighbour Paul Ryman, who moved into Martin's beloved suburban Close in 1984. Paul, played by Peter Egan, owned a hairdressing salon and was a success. Everything he touched turned to gold. He was attracted to Ann too and initially amused by the humourless and detail-obsessed Martin. But gradually the amusement became mingled with fondness and, having witnessed a couple of Martin's selfless deeds (yes, he was capable of them!), some respect. Also living in The Close were Martin's friends, Howard and Hilda Hughes (Geraldine Newman and Stanley Lebor). Howard and Hilda were twee to the max, with their matching outfits, wickerwork Neddy and addiction to rosehip syrup, but they adored each other. Whilst very happy with her lot in life, and usually hard to ruffle, Hilda was sometimes troubled by strange thoughts: had she attracted a poltergeist? And what was that strange buzzing in her ear? "It's her time of life!" said an auntie of mine, very significantly.

A title for the show had proved elusive, and Ever Decreasing Circles was dreamt up at the last moment, out of desperation. Not everybody enjoyed Every Decreasing Circles, but for those of us who were in tune (and the show was tremendously popular) each episode was a great pleasure. The series was rounded off with a special feature length episode in 1989. Ann became pregnant and the couple were forced to up sticks and leave Martin's adored Close as his employers relocated. Richard Briers' performance as Martin was positively inspired throughout the show's run - indeed, it was this role that convinced me Mr B was a great actor - but the rest of the cast could not be faulted either. From Penelope Wilton as long-suffering-but-never-wimpish Ann, to Peter Egan as suave-but-not-smug Paul, and across the road to Geraldine Newman and Stanley Lebor as the slightly surreal Howard and Hilda, the entire cast was terrific, painting a vivid picture of life in The Close. The place where, according to Martin, "England lives". Poor England!

All together now: "Three hundred and seventy five men went to mow, went to mow a meadow..." Oh, and you'd better put the telephone receiver right. Posted by Neighbours: '80s Tales From Ramsay Street - Part 1 Mrs Mangel (Vivean Gray) as she appeared in a classic "Neighbours" opening sequence - on the look-out for granddaughter Jane (Annie Jones) and any juicy items of gossip! Mrs Mangel enjoyed having Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) as a lodger and was, secretly, jealous of his relationship with "that Ramsay woman". In this scene, Mrs Mangel, in a shameful lapse from her usual lady-like manner, has just whacked Madge (Anne Charleston) with a rolled-up newspaper, been whacked in return, and burst into tears. Onlookers are Madge's son, Henry (Craig McLachlan) and Harold Bishop - both aghast. Mrs M. was finally carried away by brave Englishman John Worthington. He married the old trout and brought her to live in England. Weren't we lucky?! Ramsay Street was never the same.

Taking Nell's place as resident Mangel was her son, Joe (Mark Little). Henry Mitchell/Ramsay was an "ex-crim" (gaol bird) but when he arrived in Ramsay Street we quickly discovered that he was really a good hearted lad, just given to crazy schemes and whacko ideas. Henry was a gardener for a time and sought true love, but the path of romance was strewn with boulders. He had a tough time of it before meeting the right girly - one Bronwyn Davies (Rachel Friend). Danny Ramsay (David Clencie) was in the show from the start and was one of the mighty Ramsays of Ramsay Street. Or WAS he? It was soon revealed that Danny's father was NOT loud-mouthed head-of-household Max Ramsay at all. Max was memorably played by the late Francis Bell. Scott Robinson - skate boarder, trainee journalist, mullet head, boyfriend, and then husband, of Charlene... Hilary Robinson (Anne Scott-Pendlebury) was an interfering cousin of the Ramsay Street Robinsons who sometimes visited and stirred up trouble.

Nosey, prim, proper, and highly correct at all times in manner, Hilary is seen here with Gail Robinson (Fiona Corke). The prime snooper has just stumbled upon the fact that Paul and Gail have separate bedrooms, but the couple manage to put her off the scent about their marriage of convenience. Pretty in candlewick? Charlene (Kylie Minogue), seen here on the morning of her wedding, is all set to be a beautiful bride. When you weren't watching the Ramsay Street goings-on on the telly, you could relive them in book form. These hardback editions of two of the Carl Ruhen novels were published in the UK by the Leisure Circle Ltd in 1988. Zany doctor Clive Gibbons (Geoff Paine) is featured on the cover of "Unsolved Crimes" (left) - remember the golden days of his chicken and gorilla-gram service? With him is studious coffee shop employee Mike Young, played by the English actor Guy Pearce. "Family Matters" shows the Robinson family, with the original Lucy (front), played by Kylie Flinker.

Madge at the Waterhole in 1988 - the olde English milkmaid look. Or something. Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver) was in town (for the first time during the series) to woo his childhood sweetheart Madge and wind-up his old adversary Harold... ... or "Jelly-belly", as Lou liked to call him. But Lou needed to be wary - after some speedy instruction from Tony Romeo (Nick Carrafa), Harold knew karate! Or so he said. A quick tussle, a lucky punch, and wallop - Lou went staggering backwards - straight into the path of Ramsay Street's 1980s horror bag Mrs Mangel, then fell to the ground, out cold. Madge rushed to the rescue whilst Mrs Mangel squawked: "Mr Bishop - a gentleman like you!" Harold briefly basked in his victory... ... but nobody was impressed, quite the reverse. Lassiter's assistant manager Gail Robinson offered Lou a shoulder pad to cry on and was very disappointed with Harold. Never mind - Harold won Madge's hand in the end.

Posted by Fly Fishing By JR Hartley There used to be a pub near where I live called The Old English Gentleman, and that title fitted JR Hartley, star of a 1983 Yellow Pages telly ad, to perfection. We discovered Mr Hartley, played by actor Norman Lumsden, making his way around various second hand bookshops, seeking a copy of an out of print book called Fly Fishing. To no avail. His concerned daughter ("No luck, Dad?") handed him a cup of tea and the Yellow Pages when he returned home, and very soon he'd found a copy of the book. It was then that we discovered he was the author. It was a thoroughly delightful ad and JR Hartley became very popular indeed. In 1991, a book called Fly Fishing was published, bearing his name, and this was followed by a couple of sequels - one on golf, which Mr H took up in 1994. Norman Lumsden had a varied and successful career - he was also an opera singer.

But, from 1983 onwards, it was as JR Hartley that many fans thought of him, and lovers of good telly ads were greatly saddened by his death in 2001. But the legend of JR Hartley lives on, and he remains one of the fondest remembered TV ad characters not only of the 1980s, but of all time! See the ad below. Look-In 1980 Worzel Gummidge - Jon Pertwee, starred on the cover of the Look-In which took us into the 1980s. The Southern TV children's series had begun in 1979, but Worzel had actually been around since the 1930s, when Barbara Euphan Todd's first book about the comical and lovable scarecrow was published. A brief diversion to the Daily Mirror, 5 August 1980. Lorraine wafts in to meet Worzel Deep in the countryside, far away from the Balls Pond Road, a new partnership stirs.

Lorraine Chase, the cute cockney star of those drink commercials, is teaming up with Britain's best-known scarecrow, Worzel Gummidge, alias Jon Pertwee. She is to play Worzel's girlfriend Dolly Clothespeg in a new series of the Southern TV comedy show. And Jon ain't 'arf 'appy. He reckons that Lorraine has truly been wafted in from paradise. Up until a couple of months ago, many of you wouldn't have seen "Tiswas" because it wasn't fully networked... Back to the Look-In which took us into 1980, and Tiswas was becoming more widespread. However, if you look at the ITV programmes this week page further down this post, you will see that a few channels, including Tyne Tees, still seemed to be lacking the show! Ed "Stewpot" Stewart was well-known as a radio DJ and TV personality and his Newsdesk feature ran in Look-In for some years. My main memory of Mr Stewart is of him trilling "Morning!" in a high pitched voice. This was his catchphrase and was very zany indeed.

Gypsy Rose Stewart predicated many things for the 1980s - including the possibility of a robot pop idol, exciting developments if "CBR" ( CB radio ) became legal, televisions that slid down from the ceiling at the touch of a button, and more elaborate toys. Interestingly, he failed to foresee the arrival of the mobile phone and the invention of the World Wide Web ! LOOKING FORWARD TO THE EIGHTIES '80s Actual has inserted a couple of interesting facts along the way! This is my first Newsdesk of 1980 and I wish a happy new year to "Look-in" readers. And not only that, a happy new decade, too. The next ten years look like being the most exciting the world has ever known, so let's take a look at some of the changes we can expect. First the box - or "the slab" as television sets will be called. That familiar cube shape will begin to disappear from our living rooms in the 80s, to be replaced by large, thin screens which will slide from the ceiling at the press of a button.

At the viewer's finger-tips will be a console, splattered with buttons and knobs from which hundreds of programmes from all round the world can be summoned. Programmes will be more lavish and spectacular, too, as more and more countries combine their skills and resources in multi-national co-productions. Sets will combine video-recording units, so you can record as you go, and "freeze frame" or control your own "action replays" [Only 5% of UK households had VCRs in 1980, rising to nearly 20% in 1983]. More sets will also supply a vast selection of up-to-the-minute news, sports results, weather forecasts and so on, in printed form, as is happening already with systems like Oracle [Teletext services were slow to catch on - only 6% of UK homes had Oracle and Ceefax in 1984]. And, by the end of the decade, you could be shopping by TV. You'll get a list of goods and prices at your local super-colossal-supermarket and, with the press of a switch or two, you'll make your selection and arrange delivery to your door.

You won't collect shopping yourself because someone may be using the communal transporter! Individual cars may be on the way out by 1990. So look after your bike, it may have to last a lifetime. POP GOES THE POP STAR Pop will change too. Video discs will become more popular as more people get the machinery to play them, heralding a new era in hi-fi. No sound system will be complete unless you can watch the artists - via the "slab" again - whilst listening to them "multi-phonetically",. And musical instruments will change, too. They may replace the human voice in some cases. Micro-chips are already producing the human voice in toys and computers, so the 1980s may produce the first robot pop idol. Yes, record producers will be able to combine the qualities of the best pop singers in the world into one robot singer. And he, I mean it, will be backed by a group of robots playing advanced synthesisers. I don't really fancy that idea. If singers can be replaced by robots - what about disc jockeys? Radios?

Well, they will become smaller and more powerful, with tiny wrist-watch receivers incorporating tape recorders, and perhaps even transmitters. That is, if CBR - Citizen [sic] Band Radio [Invented by American Al Gross in the 1940s] - becomes legal in Britain, as it is in America. That way you can chat with your friends, whether they are at home, in the car or generally out and about. Sport will change, possibly in an inscrutable way. China has just been admitted to the Olympic Games and the television companies will be concentrating on their activities. Whatever happens, one thing is to be hoped for: that their good sportsmanship will influence others. The Chinese are tremendously well-behaved as a rule, and show good manners and respect for their opponents and spectators. They could be an example to follow. Other pastimes will become more mechanised. We already have gadgets that can beat you at noughts and crosses and chess, and dolls that answer you back when they're told off. Next could be toy soldiers who shoot back at you - what a nightmare if that happened! Whatever occurs, toys will become more elaborate.

Soon you won't play with them, you'll just switch them on and they'll perform for you. Many people think this could be a bad trend, though, because it stops youngsters from using their imaginations. But you will probably have to use your imagination to tell the difference between boys and girls in the 1980s because fashion trends are pointing towards everyone wearing the same gear. Light, comfortable, all-weather clothes are being developed to be worn by both sexes. A pity in a way, because that might mean fewer pretty dresses around to brighten up the scene... unless the boys wear them, which might be a post-Punk craze. What a drag that would be! Well, that's only a tiny selection of things to look forward to - both good and bad - in the 80s. Whatever you think about it, one thing is certain, it won't be dull! BBC radio DJ Pete Murray is the Star Snap. Do you remember Pete Murray's Open House with its "bing-bong" doorbell theme tune? Blow a big bubble - win a music centre! The Look-In contained a free bubble measurer - and also an apology for an increase in the cost of the magazine.

With quality freebies galore, who could grumble? "You put an 'O' after 'W'..." - Worzel's Song charted in March 1980, but sadly only reached No 33. From the Look-In feature, we learned some of the behind the scenes facts about life at Scatterbrook Farm. Filming of the series had been delayed by the 1979 ITV strike, which had led to certain difficulties - not least an increase in the presence of mud! The preferred recording season was summer, but autumn had to suffice and Jon Pertwee said: "There was so little time left we couldn't afford to worry about the weather and the difficulties of shooting out of doors at that time of year." Jeremy Austin, who played John Peters, had become an avid fan of the original Barbara Euphan Todd Worzel Gummidge books. Charlotte Coleman, who played John's sister, Sue, said of the show's leading man: "Jon's not a bit like I expected him to be. I thought he might be like Dr Who , but he was completely different. He wasn't hoitytoity, or anything like that.

I was very shy with him at first, but once I'd got to know him I was all right." Debbie Harry - the divine front woman from Blondie, was the pin-up. Having first hit the UK pop charts with Denis in February 1978, Blondie became one of the top groups of the last couple of years of the 1970s and the first couple of years of the 1980s - the group truly straddled the two decades! From the Look-In feature on the band: Something which seemed to surprise the American audience was that Blondie was the name of the whole group and not the name of Debbie Harry. Stories have come back from America about the band being upset by the confusion, and Clem [Burke] explained what the problem was. "In the beginning there was an identification problem - but I suppose it was our own fault for calling the band Blondie. It's not that we mind if people want to speak to Debbie, but I don't like it when people speak to me but don't really know who they are talking to.

We all want to be recognised for what we are and what we are doing." Must admit, I had trouble associating the Blondie title with the whole band. Language school based sitcom Mind Your Language originally ran from 1977 to 1979 and was one of the picture strips featured in Look-In during its time. Considered racist by some, the show was dropped, but brought back by an independent company called Tri Films in the mid-1980s and produced by Albert Moses, who played one of the foreign students. This final series was not networked. Other featured comic strips in the Look-In which took us into the 1980s included The Benny Hill Page and Sapphire and Steel. What ITV goodies did Look-In recommend? Well, amongst others, were Magpie, Mr and Mrs, Crossroads, Robin's Nest and Emmerdale Farm! Some of the ITV companies listed here wouldn't make it very far into the new decade. See here for more details. Coming next week - The Selector and a Smurfs sticker! On the back cover another coming attraction - colour pin-ups of a certain trio of glamorous crime busters.

The picture reveals that Charlie's Angels had hit the (brief) Shelley Hack era. Posted by Nostalgia: Hi-de-Hi! remembered - Birmingham Mail Nostalgia: Hi-de-Hi! remembered Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email HI-DE-HI! (1980-88) HI-de-Hi, campers! To which everyone should now reply ‘Ho-de-ho!’ Welcome to Maplins holiday camp in the late 1950s, a place full of cheery yellowcoats, ambitious chalet maids and acts with varying degrees of ability to entertain. Take Mr Partridge, the 74-year-old Punch and Judy man, who wasn’t the ideal children’s entertainer because he didn’t like children but did like a drink. At least the holidaymakers enjoyed watching comic Ted Bovis (Paul Shane) and his gormless sidekick Spike Dixon, played by Walsall-born Jeffrey Holland, who was spotted by creators Jimmy Perry and David Croft when he appeared in the stage version of Dad’s Army.

Ruth Madoc was the oh-so-Welsh Gladys Pugh, the chief yellowcoat and sports organiser in charge of making the Tannoy announcements, complete with three-note xylophone chime. She was in love with Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell), the Entertainment Manager who was clearly over-qualified for the job, having been a Professor of Archaelogy at Cambridge University. He was later replaced, at the start of the sixth series, by the equally posh Squadron Leader Clive Dempster (David Griffin). Then there were Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, the snobby ballroom dancing instructors, and disqualified jockey turned riding instructor Fred Quilley. And last, but by no means least, was Peggy Ollerenshaw, played by Nottingham-born Su Pollard, a chalet maid who longed to become a yellowcoat. The camp owner, Joe Maplin, was never seen, although he was intended to be played by Bob Monkhouse until the comedian became unavailable for filming.

After a pilot broadcast on January 1, 1980 – and just called Hi de Hi, with no hyphen or exclamation mark – the sitcom ran for eight series and 58 episodes to high ratings. It was written by Croft and Perry, who’d previously penned Dad’s Army and It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, and who claim that: “The best television is all about people just talking.” Maplins was set in the fictional seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea, Essex and loosely based on Butlin’s. Many of the exterior scenes were filmed at a real Warners holiday camp in Dovercourt near Harwich, Essex, in the early spring before the camp was open to the public. The cast had to make it appear as if they were in warm sunshine, while shivering in skimpy summer clothing. Jeffrey Holland was treated for hypothermia during the first series because he spent so long in the cold swimming pool. In the final episode in 1988, Maplins closed and the staff went their separate ways. Life imitated art when the Warners camp closed, too, and was demolished, making way for a housing estate.

Many of the cast members, including Paul Shane, Jeffrey Holland and Su Pollard, went on to appear in the Perry and Croft creation You Rang, M’Lord? – an Upstairs Downstairs-type comedy – and Oh, Doctor Beeching! which was about a train station. ROZ LAWS

Question: Barry and Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves were resident ballroom dancing instructors in which television sitcom?
Answer: Hi-de-Hi