After Jimmy Perry demobbed from the army, he found work as a Redcoat in a holiday camp. This experience later fed into the creation of his 1980's sitcom 'Hi-De-Hi', which he wrote with his long term writing partner David Croft.
Set in the 1950's, all the action takes place in Maplins Holiday Camp. In the first episode, naive Jeffrey Fairbrother ( Simon Cadell ) takes on the role of manager at the camp. He is constantly pursued by sports organiser Gladys Pugh ( Ruth Madoc ). He also finds himself trying to stop fiddles carried out by camp host Ted Bovis ( Paul Shane ) and Spike Dixon ( Jeffrey Holland ) towards the campers.
One of the other characters was Su Pollard's boisterous Peggy Ollrenshaw, a chalet maid whose grandiose dreams of becoming a yellowcoat cause no end of problems for the other members of staff. David Griffin, the future Emmett from 'Keeping Up Appearances', joined the cast in series six as Clive Dempster, who took over from Jeffrey Fairbrother as manager.
'Hi-De-Hi' had a long run but overall was very much a curate's egg. Both Su Pollard and Ruth Madoc were boring and unfunny as Peggy and Gladys, particularly Pollard who just came across as a half-wit who wasn't the full shilling, though Paul Shane and Jeffrey Holland formed a decent enough double act as Ted and Spike. Simon Cadell was also too spineless to be funny as Fairbrother. David Griffin, who replaced him, was far superior in my view.
The show ended in 1988, when Perry and Croft finally seemed to run out of ideas, though many of the cast later donned servant costumes instead of campsite uniforms for Perry and Croft's 'You Rang M'Lord'.
Set in the 1950's, all the action takes place in Maplins Holiday Camp. In the first episode, naive Jeffrey Fairbrother ( Simon Cadell ) takes on the role of manager at the camp. He is constantly pursued by sports organiser Gladys Pugh ( Ruth Madoc ). He also finds himself trying to stop fiddles carried out by camp host Ted Bovis ( Paul Shane ) and Spike Dixon ( Jeffrey Holland ) towards the campers.
One of the other characters was Su Pollard's boisterous Peggy Ollrenshaw, a chalet maid whose grandiose dreams of becoming a yellowcoat cause no end of problems for the other members of staff. David Griffin, the future Emmett from 'Keeping Up Appearances', joined the cast in series six as Clive Dempster, who took over from Jeffrey Fairbrother as manager.
'Hi-De-Hi' had a long run but overall was very much a curate's egg. Both Su Pollard and Ruth Madoc were boring and unfunny as Peggy and Gladys, particularly Pollard who just came across as a half-wit who wasn't the full shilling, though Paul Shane and Jeffrey Holland formed a decent enough double act as Ted and Spike. Simon Cadell was also too spineless to be funny as Fairbrother. David Griffin, who replaced him, was far superior in my view.
The show ended in 1988, when Perry and Croft finally seemed to run out of ideas, though many of the cast later donned servant costumes instead of campsite uniforms for Perry and Croft's 'You Rang M'Lord'.