By way of a tribute to David Croft, here’s a bit of Hi-De-Hi at its best (for it was often thus), in the capable hands of the marvellous (for he was always thus) Simon Cadell:
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While here’s a scene from Are You Being Served that’s as reassuring in its predictability as the latest “sales drive” was in its inevitable, forgotten-about-in-30-minutes failure. “Then I shall have to go over your head!”
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A camp man, A department store with no windows onto the outside world, A pretend holiday camp, a sort of Hi-De-Hi-Fi, Bellows and guffaws of the like no longer heard on mainstream television, David Croft, Frank Thornton, Geoffrey Holland, John Inman, Mollie Sugden, Paul Shane, Ruth Madoc looking flushed, Simon Cadell looking flustered, Su Pollard, The 1950s as people remembered them in the 1980s, Wendy Richard
Adam Maunder
September 28, 2011 at 9:45 pm
A loss to the world of TV production, as much as to the helming of the many shows he wrote. Benny Hill, Beggar My Neighbour & Up Pompeii all benefitted from his shrewd & certain touch, and when John Howard Davies fell ill during a series of Steptoe & Son, he was drafted in very much at the last minute to direct ‘Divided We Stand’, one of the greatest half-hours of television comedy ever. R.I.P, sir: you well & truly earned it.