Hi-De-Hi

1980s British tv sitcom

Archeology professor becomes an entertainment manager in Maplins holiday camp and soon becomes an icon for expression "fish out of the water".

Archaeology professor Jeffrey Fairbrother of Cambridge University, tired of hos current life, accepts job offer to become an entertainment manager in one of the Maplins holiday camps. On arrival he quickly realizes that he is not only competent to take care of the camp, but also his standoffish nature puts off the vacationers. While his staff does their best to keep everybody happy Fairbrother is from another world and finds it very hard to adapt to his role as part of the entertainment staff.

He took job that camp comedian, Ted Bovis, was hoping to get. As experienced entertainer and very likable among visitors, he would be perfect for the job, but instead he has to help Fairbrother run the camp. But his likeable nature changes completely when he is not on stage - Ted is constantly looking for ways to make some extra money by tricking the vacationers or making shady deals on the side. Gladys Pugh, who is in charge of the entertainment staff, is not liked by rest of the women working in camp, but things get complicated once she falls in love with Fairbrother.

Sitcom set in 1959, when holiday camps were the most popular ways of spending summers for a lot of British families - they could not afford to travel abroad, they would most likely not like the local food or lifestyle. Holiday camps filled with people like them, with staff trying to entertain them all the time, with food they are used to, was the perfect solution and Hi-De-Hi! shows the other side of such resort - how it looked like for the staff.

As usual with Jimmy Perry he drew inspiration for the series from his own life - after the was he used to work in Butlins holiday camp - and together with David Croft they managed to build a group of original characters with interesting chemistry between them. But while Hi-De-Hi was produced in 1980 the premise appealed mostly to older viewers, who were in a past spending their holidays in such places and was expecting a low-brow humour that dominated the 1950s entertainment in seaside resorts.

The sitcom itself had rather limited appeal to wider audiences, especially outside of the United Kingdom. The main plot being entertainment manager completely unsuitable for his job work well in first season, but with time (and cast changes) lost its originality and impact. The same main cast (Paul Shane, Su Pollard, Jeffrey Holland) that later did great in You Rang M’Lord, here seemed underused and with a lot of characters available in the camp not much interesting actually was going on.

However Hi-De-Hi!, just like other Perry and Croft series, found its niche in (at least) United Kingdom, where up to this day there are stage adaptations of the sitcom. Overall it was a nostalgia-powered production that had interesting characters, but episode plots often left a lot to be desired. While other productions of the duo had similar undertones they were usually saved by great scripts and dialogues, while Hi-De-Hi! seemed more like sentimental trip than solid idea for sitcom.

Rating	6.0
Funny	6 / 10
Entertaining	3 / 5
Characters	3 / 5
Nonrepetitive	3 / 5