Even if I’m a big fan of the show, I recently watched the “dream” episode where the entertainment staff were celebrating April’s birthday at the cinema and Gladys fell asleep and dreamt she was in an old black & white war movie with the rest of the characters. I can’t believe how awful the episode was!
shareOoh don't think I've even seen that one!!!
Thought I knew all the episodes, but not heard of that one - which series is it? Must be the later ones if April is there - can't wait for the DVD as I've only got a few videos of later ones!
The episode was entitled, “Only The Brave” from the 8th series (1986). For April’s birthday, Ted & co. had organised a surprise birthday treat for her by booking a cinema for a private showing of her favourite movie, “Bambi”. But a mix-up with the film reels meant an old ‘black-and-white’ WWII war movie was shown instead (cue loads of tears and a hissy fit from April). Anyhoo, Gladys fell asleep during the showing, and because the movie was about the RAF, she dreamt about Clive, and lo and behold, all the characters from Maplins appeared in her dream too. The role “Ted” played was about the funniest thing in the whole episode, but it didn’t save it from being probably the worst HDH episode of the lot. This came at a time when it was unclear if there would be another series of the show, and the term, “Jumping The Shark” does spring to mind.
Incidentally, barring a normal UKTV Drama cock-up, this episode is scheduled to be shown again on Tuesday September 5th at 5pm with an earlier showing at lunchtime.
EDIT: Once more it seems UKTV Drama are messing about with the order these episodes are being shown because according to the SKY EPG, this episode is being shown on Monday September 4th.
When I saw this subject heading I was absolutely about to go and say "The one where they go to the cinema and Gladys falls asleep and dreams". It's dreadful. I remember seeing that episode when it originally aired and thinking it was so boring - even though I was a kid, it just seemed so dull and unfunny, and watching it again last week (on DVD) didn't change my mind.
The major flaw it has is Hi-De-Hi always had a very realistic format. It never did far fetched stuff and this whole episode was the point the series really did 'jump the shark'. In fact I think it's one of the last episodes of the penultimate series.
The problem Perry and Croft were seemingly having was they were running out of ideas for the characters and situation. Like a lot of their shows they keep it in the same year for multiple series and this stops them growing characters (as you would see in shows like Fools and Horses). It can therefore start becoming hard to write. They'd shifted it to a continuation format - where they had a storyline running through three episodes (as opposed to one self contained story), but it was definately running out of steam. This episode (I feel) was one of the deciders the (following) series would be the last. However and in general the whole of the penultimate series is perhaps one of the weakest.
The other decider was Ruth Maddoc wanting out of the show. She has said in a few interviews I have seen her do that she was becoming conscious of her age when playing Gladys. Because they were stuck in 1959/1960 over nine years by the last few series Ruth was well into her forties. Most importantly she was becoming very type cast. She's a really talented and versatile actress and whilst Su Polland was (in essence) playing herself (as she is a personality rather than an actress), Maddoc was probably losing good acting roles because she was getting so recognised as Gladys. I really do believe Ruth Maddoc said she wanted to bow out of the series and Croft and Perry knew there would be no Hi-De-Hi without Gladys and made series 9 the last. After all, they gave Jeffrey Holland, Paul Shane and Su Pollard (the other three principles) 'You Rang Me Lord' immediately after 'Hi-De-Hi' finished as a project - so from their point of view they were still working for the same company!
Funnily enough because they had something to write towards and could really bring out some good storylines to wind it all up series 9 is perhaps one of the best out of all the whole run.
I enjoyed it.
shareNo no I think 'Together Again' is a worse episode. It was too sad.
shareI quite enjoyed "Only The Brave".
The dream sequence was ok but the lead-up to it was excellent.
For me, easily the worst one was "Tell It To The Marines"
The obstacle race took up far too much episode time and was just dull. Screen filler.
The one episode where everyone - even Su Pollard - seemed to be going through the motions.