Hi! Summer Online

I remember this programme so well. It also starred ANNA DAWSON, MARIE GORDON SAINT, DEREK GRIFFITH, PEARLY GATES, CARL WAYNE and the dance troupe (The Blondes and The Fellas) included the late STEPHANIE LAWRENCE and ex coronation street star CHRIS QUINTEN and David HAMPSHIRE. Songs of the day and years gone bye with Leslie Crowther taking the lead and I believe each week the cast were taken to various locations which set the theme for each programme. Some of the places they took the show was at Crystal Palace, Weybourne Air park and Stratford Upon Avon. Lena Zavouroni was a great talent and this show helped her to shine. Leslie played a mean piano and was hilarious in comedy sketches with Anna Dawson and Derek Griffith - pure enjoyment for all the family. Carl Wayne sang the theme tune!

We do not get shows like 'Hi! Summer' anymore, do we? Name me one current programme which opens with its high spirited cast larking about on a brightly coloured bus to the upbeat strains of a Lyndsay De Paul pop tune. Some might think their culling a good thing, but I beg to differ. Like the B.B.C.'s long running 'Seaside Special', 'Hi! Summer' was ( to quote David Harris-Jones from 'Reggie Perrin' ) super. At least programme planners in those days acknowledged the existence of summer. Nowadays they put out the same boring old crap ( depressing dramas about serial killers in Dorset ) as the rest of the year.

The cast, which included Leslie Crowther, Anna Dawson, Pearly Gates, Lena Zavaroni, Derek Griffiths, Derek Waring, and Carl Wayne ( singer of the theme to 'New Faces' ) looked as though they were having the time of their lives, and this was communicated to the audience. Even my Dad, who normally hated anything with a laugh track, warmed to it.

'Hi! Summer' was one of several programmes designed to capture the feel of the good old traditional British holiday. The hot sun, the smell of the sea, the flavour of fish and chips. Many of the jokes could have been penned by Donald McGill. One sketch took place in a restaurant. A waiter brings Crowther's meal over. Lifting the dish, he finds the head of Lena Zavaroni underneath. "I asked for macaroni, not Zavaroni!", he roared. Alright, so its not the world's funniest gag, but so what?. Another sketch sent up 'Charlie's Angels' with Crowther as Farrah Fawcett.

'Hi!' owed a huge debt to 'The Saturday Crowd' which also had Crowther in charge of a team of boisterous comics. The difference was that 'Hi!' moved around the country from week to week, from one popular tourist spot - such as Longleat - to another. If you did not laugh at the gags, you could always admire the view.

'Moody & Pegg' star Derek Waring stood out like a sore thumb mainly because of his total inability to sing. You have not lived until you have heard his gravelly rendition of 'Get Out & Get Under'. The only way he would have sounded on-key was if accompanied by Les Dawson on the piano.

A letter in 'The Sunday People' from a viewer asked if there would be a 'Hi! Winter' later that year. There was not sadly, and 'Hi! Summer' only got one season. De Paul's catchy theme was later re-used on commercials for 'The T.V. Times'. I think it is pity that we no longer get fluff like this. Summer should be fun!

There is not much I can add to what picketty99 and ShadeGrenade have said in their excellent reviews. 'Hi! Summer' was a fun variety show, not to everyone's taste perhaps, but miles better than say, 'Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Stinkaway'. I must respond, however, to Michael Mulligan's patronising and insulting comment that because there were only three channels to watch then, people were far more easily entertained. Nonsense. Why do some people think that three channels was a bad thing? As my old Dad used to say: "You can only watch one channel at a time. It does matter how many there are.". 'Hi! Summer' was a product of an age where entertainment, not ratings, was at the top of a producer's agenda. I hope Network releases it on D.V.D. someday.

The good news about HI SUMMER was that it was shown during the Summer and only lasted one series . The bad news was that it was broadcast in 1977 one of the worst Summers on record and in those days we only had three stations and no videos or computer games . If it was pouring of rain outside watching television was pretty much your only source of entertainment as a child

The title sequence starts with the performers dressed as camp fireman riding around on a fire engine waving to passerbys along with an unforgettably bad theme song that goes " Hi-i-i-i-i- Summer oh oh oh " . Possibly the producers thought this sequence would sum up the show with its feel good air and inadvertently it probably has since Crowther and co come across as imbeciles on laughing gas .

The format is variety show with singing and dancing and comedy sketches with the sketches being the major failure . One example is a man played by Leslie Crowther in a restaurant sitting at a table . The waiter approaches with a platter , lifts the lid and the head of a child singing is on the platter blinking away at Crowther who exclaims :

" I asked for a plate of macaroni - Not Lena Zavaroni "

Some professional TV critics like Gary Bushall lament the death of variety shows on television but I reckon he'd be the first to complain if we got something this bad . Comical Ali would have a hard time trying to spin this

I was 8 years old when this ITV take on Seaside Special aired. At the time all I could remember was the theme tune which ITV used the following year for advertising their summer season and the TV times, needless to say a second series wasn't commissioned. After catching some episodes on you tube it seems obvious that for it's time when there was only 3 channels on UK TV, people were easily entertained and the producers knew they could away with making shows like Hi! Summer. It's all singing, dancing and general enforced jollity came across as cringe worthy and a waste of the cast's talents, especially veterans Leslie Crowther and Anna Dawson who was much better employed on the sketch comedy What's On Next and the late Lena Zavaroni.