Hi-de-Hi! Hi-de-Hi! Hi-de-Hi! is a BBC television sitcom shown on BBC1 from 1 January 1980 to 30 January 1988. Set between 1959 and 1960 in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, the show was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote "Dad's Army" and "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" amongst other programmes. The title was the greeting the campers heard and in early episodes was written Hi de Hi. The series revolved around the lives of the camp's entertainers, most of them struggling actors or has-beens. The inspiration was the experience of Jimmy Perry, one of the writers. After
Hi-de-Hi! cast performed the song on "Top of the Pops" that month. "Hi-de-Hi!" was one of the first BBC shows to capitalise on the merchandise market, with products such as board games, albums, books, toys and T-shirts available to buy. The location scenes of "Hi-de-Hi!" were filmed at a real holiday camp run by Warners in the town of Dovercourt near Harwich, Essex. However, the majority of filming was done at Mill Rythe Holiday Village on Hayling Island in Hampshire. The pilot episode (1979) and first two series (1980–1981) were all filmed during early spring before the holiday camp was opened