Synopsis
Many will remember Hi-de-Hi, a BBC TV sitcom shown in the 1980’s. It was set at Maplins, a fictional holiday camp in the seaside town of Crimpton-on-Sea, Essex starting in 1959.
Loosely based on Butlins, Maplins is part of a holiday camp group owned by Joe Maplin, with Yellowcoats replacing Redcoats. Cambridge University Professor of Archaeology, Jeffrey Fairbrother, who had tired of academia, has been appointed the new Entertainments Manager and is constantly trying to avoid the romantic approaches of the chief Yellowcoat and Sports Organiser, Gladys Pugh.
In this stage adaptation of the TV series, we are at the beginning of a new season and Joe Maplin announces that he is setting up a camp in the Bahamas. He needs female Yellowcoats to go and work out there and the annual ‘Miss Yellowcoat’ competition will decide who is to go. Rivalry between the girls is fierce with Sylvia and Gladys joint frontrunners to win the coveted yellow sash. Camp cleaner, Peggy, meanwhile, is thrilled at the prospect of a vacancy for a new Yellowcoat and convinces Jeffrey that she is the ideal candidate for the job. Ted is forced to employ numerous money-making schemes when his ex-wife turns up at the camp with a bailiff in tow and Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves send the rumour mill into overdrive when they overhear Gladys escorting Jeffrey into his chalet late one evening.
Cast
Gladys Pugh / Dawn Masterson
Peggy Ollerenshaw / Helen Wright
Jeffrey Fairbrother / Garaham Virgo
Fred Quilley / Jon Mountfort
Yvonne Stuart-Hargreaves / Amy Lovat
Barry Stuart-Hargreaves / Ian Parker
Ted Bovis / Andy Roberts
Spike Dixon / Craig Smoothy
Mr Partridge / Colin Carroll
Hilary Bovis / Jan Cooper
Bailiff / Eddie Torrance
Mr Pritchard / Chris Martin
Betty / Elizabeth Virgo
Dawn / Bryony Mountfort
Sylvia / Hannah Robertson
Tracy / Amy Kingdon
Gamlingay Players 