Since I seem to have wandered away from the usual subject
matter of this blog which is my own neuroses I may as well review some other
things I have watched recently. I have
just finished watching the box set of the whole of Hi-de-Hi.
It’s just as entertaining and uncool as it always was. I’ve always been a fan of Paul Shane’s portrayal
of Ted Bovis. There’s so many things
about being a comedian that they get right.
Interesting nods towards the then current innovation of “alternative
comedy” too. Much of Spike Dixon’s
dressing up in funny costumes is surreal comedy or attempts at it and this
comes in for continual criticism from Ted who often lectures him on “the first
rule of comedy”. Ted has an infinite
number of first rules of comedy but most of them are “you must have reality,
Spike”.
Quite often Ted makes valid criticisms of Spike’s costumes and quite often not... It’s interesting how many early episodes end
with a short location scene of Ted and Spike outside the camp reflecting
philosophically on elements of the episode.
And it’s a poignant moment later in the run where Spike and Ted are
flying a kite together but Spike has to leave to go on a date with April. “But, Spike, we always fly the kite together! Spike! Spike!”
While Spike is designed to be the Jiminy Cricket to Ted’s
scheming, greedy plotting he’s not without vices himself such as stinginess,
pomposity and tactlessness which gives the two a lot of scope for interesting
interplay. There’s something Laurel and
Hardy about them – indeed a highlight is the episode where Ted gets everyone
arrested by organising a pornographic film screening only to be saved by the
fact that the prudish Spike has substituted the porn film with a reel from a
Laurel and Hardy picture.
Ted, while the more successful comedian than Spike, still
aspires to better things but is constantly thwarted by the lack of
sophistication in his comedy – the highlight of his routine being “famous
people sitting on the toilet”. When
going down badly at a posh dinner Ted tries to save himself by picking on a
Jewish man in the audience only to be told he’s “being anti-Semitic” …”I don’t
even know what the word means?” he protests.
It’s clever how this seemingly old fashioned sitcom mirrors the real politics of comedy at the
time.
Professor Jeffrey Fairbrother is an interesting
character. You have to wonder why his
marriage broke down. I don’t know if he’s
meant to be gay but he’s not really interested in any of the female
characters. Which is difficult what with
Gladys Pugh’s unrequited love sometimes wandering into borderline sexual harassment. It’s amusing how Jeffrey honestly lends some
of the other girls records and books and doesn’t seem to notice how mad this
makes Gladys. I particularly enjoyed his
explanation of Geroge Orwell’s 1984 to Gladys.
To which she tartly responds that it’s no more than an upmarket version
of “Old Moores Almanac”. Jeffrey
attempts to explain how dystopian fiction is different to astrological
prediction but gives up half way admitting “…you may have a point”.
It’s fun too how when Jeffrey leaves Gladys manages
to transfer her affections swiftly to Squadron Leader, the Honourable Clive
Dempster DFC. Clive Dempster grew on me
as a character watching it again. In the
first series he acts all devil-may-care but it’s interesting how his attitudes
quickly change after his family find out that his relationship with Gladys is
serious and cut off his allowance. “I
need this job, Ted!” The Queen gets a
cameo too via archive film…
Su Pollard as Peggy Ollerenshaw … she makes such surreal
things seem believable and believes such surreal nonsense. Possibly her best scenes are where Ted
convinces her of completely unbelievable stories involving international
espionage in order to manipulate her into doing what he wants. Her ambition to be a yellow coat is such a
small one but she has to go through so much to achieve it … including the Harvey
Weinstein like attention of head office hatchet man Alec Forster.
When Peggy does achieve her dream of becoming a yellowcoat
it’s because Clive asks head office who he should appoint and they say “you
decide”. Because of course they don’t
care – the decision has already been made to make everyone redundant. Alec Forster delivers the news in the style
of middle managers everywhere who have been trained by HR “to take the person
out of the decision” and fool themselves that they’re not being cruel. Fortunately he’s a psychopath.
Peggy isn’t the only one either with a #MeToo
storyline. Gladys has to repel the
unwanted and bullying advances of the head office “smiling viper” Harold Fox
played by Gavin Richards before he became Captain Alberto Bertorelli.
Every series has a lifespan and possibly the passing of
Leslie Dwyer (Mr William Partridge) as the children hating Punch and Judy man
marks the beginning of the end. He obviously passed away after the location filming of series 6 because he's in many of the film inserts but missing from the studio stuff leaving Fred Quilley (Felix Bowness) sharing his usual chalet dialog scene with Mr Partridge with a plumber fixing his sink in one episode...
Dwyer
puts in a marvellous performance making Partridge seem at once horrible and
bitter and at the same time strangely philosophical and cultured. I was particularly amused by how often he
blames organised religion for all the evils of the world and yet at the same
time frequently quotes the Bible “It’s a Graven image!” (the statue of Joe
Maplin). But when he can see a way to
make money out of religion it’s a different story … “Sing you sinners!”
The final shot of Peggy Ollerenshaw walking back into the
now empty camp to echo of “Goodnight Campers” then turning round to jump in the
air and shout “Hi de hi!” as she freeze frames was still in my memory as it was
32 years ago.
Oh, well everything has to end sometime....
Even Max von Sydow’s lost his chess game now…
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