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.

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.

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.

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.