Hi-de-Hi! released. 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.
Hi-de-Hi! run) shows, which means that some sources refer to both series as series 3. "Hi-de-Hi" was made into a musical, called "Hi-de-Hi – The Holiday Musical", in the early years of the show. Labelled as a "summer pantomime" by its critics, the production featured most of the TV cast plus several new characters. It did not follow the television storylines, but it was a success nonetheless. It did a summer season in Bournemouth in 1983, a Christmas season in London in 1983 and a summer season in Blackpool in 1984. It was short lived, however, when some of the cast