David Croft, as one half of three highly successful writing partnerships (with Jimmy Perry, Jeremy Lloyd and Richard Spendlove), was arguably the greatest TV comedy writer England has ever produced, with a string of memorable hits - Dad's Army, Are You Being Served?, It Ain't Half Hot Mum!, 'Allo! 'Allo! etc. - that remain iconic to this day.
Sadly, the genius behind these and three other fondly-remembered sitcoms (Hi-De-Hi!, You Rang M'Lord? and Oh Doctor Beeching!) - beautifully-written masterpieces that featured the talented Jeffrey Holland in a starring role - died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Portugal on September 27th 2011 at the age of 89.
Jeffrey Holland: Remembering David Croft
"He was a very clever, very astute man," recalls the sixty-five-year old actor (who also had minor roles in Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Are You Being Served?). "He was also a very funny man, a very kind man. Quite a formidable boss, to be perfectly honest - he led with a rod of iron - but with a smile on his face.
"He was funny, but you didn’t mess about with David. I think the secret of his successful work, both with Jeremy Lloyd and with Jimmy Perry - of course, Jimmy Perry’s the one I’m more experienced with - was that they were able to create a situation in which a group of people who wouldn’t normally mix together, were forced together and had to get on with each other, which is of course is where the comedy lies.
"All those businessmen in Walmington-on-Sea (the fictional English town where Dad's Army was set) would never have met socially together because they were all from different backgrounds, but under the common umbrella of the Home Guard, they were forced into each other’s company and, as I say, that’s where the comedy is when they’re having to get on with each other.
"It was the same for us in Hi-De-Hi! with all the entertainment staff at the holiday camp. They were all complete idiots and failures in their own chosen professions and were only able to really exercise their craft, as it were, under the umbrella of the holiday camp, which again is why Hi-De-Hi! was such a success - with all these people doing the job badly."
David Croft: "Sadly Missed"
"I think that was one of David’s great gifts was casting the right people together and creating this incredible mix of characters. He was, as I say, very nice and very charming, a very kind man – everyone loved working with him - and he’ll be greatly and sadly missed by all of us in the business.
"We’ve got a Hi-De-Hi! reunion coming up, which David was going to be attending himself, but his wife Anne will be there at some point to represent him, so we’re very pleased to hear that she’ll be coming along.
"It’s going to be very difficult not to turn it into a wake for David Croft because it’s really a celebration of the show, which is what we must all try very hard to remember when we’re there. It’s taking place at the hotel we used to stay in when we did the filming at the holiday camp - the Cliff Hotel in Dovercourt near Harwich - and we have these every couple of years.
"I wasn’t able to do the last one because I was working, but this time I can, so we’re going to go for it and have a lot of fun. We sing a couple of silly songs that we used to do in Hi-De-Hi! and things like that. We have a great deal of fun doing those."
Jeffrey Holland: Sitcom Legend
As mentioned above, Jeffrey Holland (as part of a very familiar trio of actors made up of himself, Paul Shane and Su Pollard) starred in three successive David Croft situation comedies - Hi-De-Hi! and You Rang M'Lord? (co-written with Jimmy Perry) and then Oh Doctor Beeching! (co-written with Richard Spendlove). Did Jeffrey ever think he would be involved in hit after hit?
"No, no idea at all. I mean Hi-De-Hi! was a one-off for all of us, really and then once when they’d decided to end it, they – Jimmy and David, that is – asked Paul, Sue and I to stay behind after rehearsals one day, which we did.
"We were thinking, 'What the hell’s going on? What’s all this about?' Then they then told us that the next series we’d be doing of Hi-De-Hi! would be the last one, which was a devastating blow because we weren’t sure when it would end, but to be told it was ending the following year…
"Then they added that they wanted the three of us to stay on together to do a pilot for a projected new comedy, which turned out to be You Rang M’ Lord? and that was a difficult step for us, to play totally different characters together.
"I, for a start, was the grumpy one, Paul played the usual sort of crooked type and then Sue was his daughter in this one - a sort of innocent maid. That went on for four years and we had a wonderful time because the production values were so high - enormous, wonderful sets. It was like working in a real house, wearing fabulous costumes and being surrounded by all this glorious, glorious furniture and props.
"That was a lovely time and then, of course, we all parted company when that came to an end and then, suddenly, Richard Spendlove comes along with his new idea – I knew him anyway by then, I knew him socially - and wants the three of us to carry on with David Croft and do a third series, so we did the hattrick."
"The TV Carry On Team"
"By the time we were doing that, we were sort of being called the 'TV Carry On Team' because we’d been together for so long in so many things. It was an extraordinary relationship because Paul and Su and myself are the best of friends – we always have been – and we like each other very much.
"We all know how each other works and we know where to go with each other and physically, we are three so very different people. The contrast there works visually and the chemistry is absolutely spot on. It was a God-given gift really that we were put together like that and that we were able to carry on and do three successful series together.
"It’s just a pity they took Oh Dr. Beeching! off when they did because we only managed to get two series of that in before the BBC, in its infinite wisdom, decided it was time to axe it. It was a great pity and it’s a thorn in my side that the controller of BBC 1 at the time was known to have gone on record as saying, 'We don’t want any more net- curtain comedy' and what’s the alternative? The rubbish they’re turning out now?!"
Adrian Peel - Adrian is an English freelance writer and journalist currently living in Mexico. Over the past eight years, he has had articles, features ...
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