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Revisiting her role as Maplin’s Holiday Camp’s love-lorn Yellow Coat…
Ruth Madoc was an English-born actress who impressed us with her strong Welsh accented roles.
BBC Hi De Hi Opening Credits, TV iNTRO CHANNEL
I was sad to learn about the passing of Ruth Madoc, a British actress born in Norwich but with a hint of a Welsh accent. This was explained as her parents travelled with her job, Madoc was brought up by her Welsh grandmother who lived in Swansea. However, as the much stronger Welsh accented, Gladys Pugh in Hi-de-Hi (1980-88) back in the 1980s, Madoc’s character was easily my favourite character in this show.
This actress was remembered for an always sterling performance as Gladys Pugh, the Head Yellow Coat in this sitcom which was set in the 1950s. This sitcom told about the entertainment staff of Maplin’s Holiday Camp, at Crimpton-on-Sea, a fictional place in Essex. The staff was a mixed crowd of has beens and wannabe entertainers and included hot young Yellow Coats (for your dad). The series ran for 8 years and was created by writers, Jimmy Perry and David Croft who also wrote It Ain’t Half Hot Mum (1974-81). Perry had been inspired to write Hi-de-Hi after working as a Red Coat.
In ongoing storylines, the chalet maid Peggy (Sue Pollard) wanted to become a Yellow Coat (named after the jacket the hot young things wore) and (spoiler: she got her wish in the final episode. The Camp’s resident comedian, Ted (Paul Shane) was always involved in dodgy doings and his chalet sharer, a wannabe actor, Spike (Jeffrey Holland).
Meanwhile, Gladys hoped to find true love. This was at first with the shy, married and one-time Cambridge professor, now entertainment manager Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell). Then with his later replacement in this role, Squadron Leader, the Honourable Clive Dempster DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) Clive Dempster. Other characters are listed HERE as,
Fred Quilley, a disqualified jockey; Yvonne and Barry Stuart-Hargreaves, former ballroom champions; Mr Partridge, a music hall star reduced to performing Punch and Judy puppet shows, despite hating children.
Here are a few of those memorable moments from Ruth Madoc in this show… where her lovely Welsh accent was as iconic as the likes of Richard Burton.
Gladys’ announcements…
hi de hi funny moments – Gladys on banging in chalets, hi de hi treasures
On her wee xylophone, as Head Yellow Coat and Sports Organiser, Gladys announced everything from the knobbly knee competition to the campers to wee complaints about after-hours “banging” over the Maplin’s tannoy. She also used this opportunity to sing and make announcements of all kinds and this one (obviously) went over my head back then.
Her saying “Hi-De-Hi” over the mic, was replied to usually not very enthusiastically with “Ho-de-ho” from the campers. These scenes spawned my impersonation of her Welsh accent back in the day. Gladys was (is??) just one of my repertoire of 1980s greats and included a certain Prime Minister, Sue Ellen, JR, Miss Ellie and Pam from Dallas (1978-91) and Sarah Greene, a one-time presenter of Blue Peter (1958-).
Gladys’ love life…
hi de hi Gladys and live, hi de hi treasures
When I first watched this show, I found Gladys more of a tragic character when it came to love, of the unrequited kind in the Simon Cadell years on this show. Poor Gladys had a rival in love with the apparently younger leggy blonde but bitchy, Sylvia (Nikki Kelly) for his affections. Gladys often retaliated or made cutting remarks to her nemesis. Her other rival was Fairbrother’s wife who he still had a thing for despite her wanting a divorce.
Gladys pined over Cadell’s character, Mr Fairbrother, although in one particular episode, it suggests that she got her man. This was in an episode I sadly missed – or more likely this plot went over my head – and then Fairbrother left for Phoenix and a new job, leaving Gladys heartbroken.
After Cadell left the show after season 5, he was replaced in the show with David Griffin. In a case of now requited love, Gladys’ heart was full of love once more. This was after she fell for Griffin’s Squadron Leader, the Honourable Clive Dempster DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), who in a yay moment returned her love. It seems that they lived happily ever after, got married against his family’s wishes and then moved to Australia.
In Adverts…
HI DE HI bbc comedy RUTH MADOC SIMON CADELL WISPA TV ADVERT HD 1080P THAMES TELEVISION, IainLucey1972two
Back in the day, a certain British chocolate bar was made more appealing by adding just a few famous on-screen couples and double acts of TV comedians. These double acts included Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne and Ruth Madoc and Simon Cadell from this TV series. Needless to say, looking at it now, Ruth kind of sexed-up this chocolate bar, as is kind of suggested in this advert… or as much as she could for an advert shown before the watershed.
It seems that Gladys Pugh was not the only Welsh role that Ruth Madoc took, with a later role as Daffyd Thomas’ mother in Little Britain (2005). But also one she did much earlier. I spotted Ruth Madoc in a blink and miss it appearance in the movie trailer for Under Milk Wood (1972). In this film, she stars with the most much loved Welsh actor, Richard Burton. So, I’m off to check this film out for her Welsh rare bit role… and while I’m at it, her 1970s advert role as a Martian in another Smash-ing role.
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