Much-loved BBC sitcom legend you won't recognise – and what he's up to now

There's a few more grey hairs now, but the big smile is still there and the perfect recall from learning all those scripts back from when he starred in one the most famous 1980s TV sitcoms.

The nation's favourite BBC vintage holiday campsite TV comedy used to attract 20 million viewers every week over nine series – and made household names of his cast.

The actor reveals that at even now at 78, his old Maplins Yellowcoat still fits like a glove. “People still call out Hi-De-Hi! to me in the street all this time,” he says, looking tickled.

Anyone born before 1980 won't recognise him, but fans of nostalgia will instantly remember Hi-De-Hi’s Spike Dixon, sitcom legend Jeffrey Holland from his work in one of the best-loved Croft and Perry comedies and stage shows.

During a career spanning 57 years, Jeffrey appeared in all the popular sitcoms from Are You Being Served? to You Rang, M’Lord? and managed an incredible 45 seasons of panto – his last one with his great friend Su Pollard in 2018.

His great theatrical anecdotes from panto include a 2010 turn with Joan Collins in Dick Whittington. He recalls: “Joan didn’t turn up to the rehearsals for days and when she did, she refused to shake hands because of germs!”

He laughs, quoting his friend Danny La Rue, saying: “I remember Danny La Rue saying to me, ‘How dare they put straight men in frocks!’ But I have always maintained that the best dames in frocks are straight men.”

This is a mere snapshot of the fun he’s had with stars down the years, according to his memoirs The First Rule of Comedy…! Memories and Moments. But Jeffrey’s greatest honour remains his royal turn in front of the late Queen.

After many failed attempts to front the queue of Royal Variety Performance actors jostling to meet the royals, Jeffrey made it in the summer of 1990, when he danced on stage with Anneka Rice for the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday.

“Having waited for years, I got the full house – the Queen Mother, Her Majesty the Queen, Prince Philip and Princess Margaret!” he says. But the Queen was not amused when he asked: “Was it hot where you were?” meaning the royal box. He admits: “You could have cut the air with a knife. But Her Majesty recovered and replied, ‘Yes, it was very warm.’”

Jeffrey Michael Parkes was born on July 17, 1946, in Walsall to childhood sweethearts, Sam and Doris. Sam survived D-Day Plus One, married Doris and the couple rented a prefab house in Walsall, enjoying family holidays at Butlin’s in Clacton.

“My dad worked for an insurance firm collecting pennies from people on his bike,” explains Jeffrey. “But he was overweight and a smoker and only 50 when he died.”

Jeffrey and his brother Steve got into Queen Mary’s Grammar School, Walsall. But when a pal suggested acting as a way to meet girls, Jeffrey’s future was sealed. After drama school, Jeffrey’s first role in panto was as Slave of the Ring in Aladdin in 1968.

“Then in 1969, I was in Pinocchio, which starred an unknown Tony Robinson who later became Baldrick in Blackadder.”

Jeffrey met his first wife Eleanor while doing a show together in Norwich, and staying in the same digs. “Elly, as I was now calling her, spent more nights in my room than her own!” he says.

The couple moved to Coventry and their daughter Lucy was born in 1973, but they lost their second baby, Susie, who was stillborn. “We arranged a funeral and I will never forget the size of her tiny little coffin when the hearse arrived – about twice the size of a shoebox,” Jeffrey recalls.

Regularly without work, he adds: “Honestly, I even thought about jacking it all in to drive a bus.” But, in June 1975, Jeffrey’s life changed forever when he met comedy writers David Croft and Jimmy Perry.

“I was up for a part in the Dad’s Army stage show but I was in a foul mood and not very hopeful,” he says, confessing he nearly didn’t audition. Charming Croft and Perry, he landed the role of the Home Guard’s black market spiv Private Walker.

With regular work, Jeffrey moved his family south and their son Sam was born. A hardworking repertory actor before his Hi-De-Hi! Days, other TV credits included playing a disgruntled lorry driver in Dad’s Army’s Wake Up Walmington episode. He admits: “I’m actually driving in that scene and nearly ran Clive Dunn over!”

Croft and Perry wrote the role of Spike in Hi-De-Hi! for Jeffrey and found Paul Shane playing the part of Alf Roberts’ boss in Coronation Street. Jeffrey says: “Perry was watching the show and rang Croft and said, “I found our Ted Bovis!”

There was immediate chemistry between Jeffrey and Paul at their first rehearsal, but he thought Su Pollard was bonkers. He says: “She wore a long tweed coat and huge bowler hat at Perry’s house for her audition. He opened the door and said, ‘No, we don’t want any pegs today, thank you!’”

Based on Perry’s experiences as a Butlin’s Redcoat, the BBC sitcom was set at the fictional Maplin’s holiday camp in 1959 and starred Ruth Madoc as Gladys Pugh and Su Pollard as Peggy the maid who desperately wanted to be a Yellowcoat. There were also what Jeffrey calls the “boys and girls,” including his great friend Nikki Kelly, who added glamour.

“Many of the younger cast members came and went because there were no lines for them. And the identical Webb twins were recruited for the sole purpose of throwing me in the pool!” he laughs.

Despite their summer costumes, the show was filmed every autumn at the real life Warner’s holiday camp in Essex. Much of the fun was centred around the freezing swimming pool, especially for Spike. Ted’s hapless sidekick was known for wearing silly costumes in his quest to one day actually be funny. “I nearly lost that nappy costume several times,” he chuckles.

Remembering how the cast stayed at the Cliff Hotel in Dovercourt, Jeffrey says: “The hotel had a parrot and Su spent months teaching it to speak and one day it started squawking ‘f… off’ to tourists as they walked past.”

There was always plenty of high jinx backstage, according to Jeffrey. “David Croft used to say, ‘I know exactly who’s having who in all my shows!’“ he says.

“Poor Su also nearly met a sticky end when she was the back of my panto horse for an episode called, Empty Saddles. We also had a real horse who took a fancy to the panto one and was getting more aroused and sniffing its back end. “‘Oh, ’eck!’ said Su. ‘Why don’t you do something to help me!’, but I was helpless at the front and told her, ‘Su, you’d better brace yourself!’”

Sadly, the plug was finally pulled on Hi-De-Hi by its creators. “They felt they’d used up all the genuine gags from the holiday camp business,” says Jeffrey.

As the cast gathered for the ninth and final series, he recalls one spectacular night filming an episode called The Wind of Change. “On the night of October 14, 1987, I was startled awake at 3am by the almighty crashing of the wind on my window. I went downstairs to find several terrified colleagues had gathered and Ruth Madoc’s window had been blown in completely!” he says. Fifty eight poplar trees came down, destroying chalets.

Even though Jeffrey, Shaney and Su had been saved to star in the next Croft and Perry sitcom, You Rang, M’Lord?, filming the final Hi-De-Hi episode, Good Night Campers, had everyone in floods. “Even Croft and Perry were in tears – and Shaney was in bits!” reveals Jeffrey. “He didn’t want it to end.”

Jeffrey is still bereft at his best friend’s Shaney’s passing in 2013. “When he was admitted to Rotherham Hospice the doctor was astounded Shaney was even still alive! He’d been diagnosed with cancer 10 years earlier, and never done anything about it,” he says.

“When I visited, he was lying in bed and holding court like nothing was wrong. But I had never seen him looking so thin.” The following day Paul passed away, days before his 74th birthday. “He was a part of my life for 34 years and I still miss him very much,” grandfather-of-three Jeffrey reflects.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey’s first marriage sadly failed. He would later meet and marry actress Judy Buxton, whose Chiswick mansion flat in West London he moved into in 1997. The pair have spent years touring in theatre and recently worked on cruises together.

Now one of the last soldiers on parade from Dad’s Army, Jeffrey still goes to the annual Walmington-on-Sea fan get-togethers and events at the Hi-De-Hi! museum in Harwich. “Actors don’t retire,” he laughs. “The bookings just slow down.

“Somebody once described me as an actor’s actor. Now that I’ve got older, I understand what that means, it’s an actor who other actors like. Yeah. That’s nice.”

• The First Rule of Comedy…! Memories and Moments by Jeffrey Holland with comic historian Robert Ross is published by The History Press and available from all bookshops or www.jeffreyholland.co.uk
• https://thehistorypress.co.uk/publication/the-first-rule-of-comedy/