''Oh Happy Band!'' is a British

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

written by

Jeremy Lloyd John Jeremy Lloyd (22 July 1930 – 23 December 2014) was an English writer, screenwriter, author, poet and actor. He was the co-writer of several successful British sitcoms, including '' Are You Being Served?'' and '' 'Allo 'Allo!''. Early ...

and David Croft. The series ran for six episodes on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

, from 3 September to 8 October 1980, and featured the final screen appearance of comedian Harry Worth. For musical sequences, the series featured the

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

Brass Ensemble. Since broadcast, the series has not been repeated or released on any home consumer media.

Plot

Harry Bennington ( Harry Worth) is the conductor of a

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

in the small, fictional northern town of Nettlebridge. During the course of the series, he and his fellow band members become involved in a campaign to prevent the building of a new

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

over their town.

Cast

* Harry Worth as Harry Beddington *Margaret Clifton as Miss Mayhew *

Jonathan Cecil Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil (22 February 1939 – 22 September 2011), known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English actor. Early life Cecil was born on 22 February 1939,''Burke's Peerage'', vol. 3 (London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 2003), p. 350 ...

as Mr Herbert * John Horsley as Mr Braithwaite * Billy Burden as Mr Sowerby *

Tom Mennard Tom Mennard (11 February 1918 – 2 November 1989) was an English comedian and actor. He had a long career in variety, radio and television. Life and career Mennard was born in Beeston, Leeds, the son of an undertaker.Roy Hudd & Philip Hindin, '' ...

as Mr Pilgrim *

Tony Sympson Tony Sympson (10 July 1906 – 30 March 1983) was a British actor. Selected filmography * '' The Indiscretions of Eve'' (1932) - Pip * '' Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle'' (1935) - Tinker * '' Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor'' (1935) ...

as Mr Giles *

Jan Holden Valerie Jeanne Wilkinson (9 May 1931 – 11 October 2005) was an English actress known as Jan Holden, using her mother's maiden name as a stage name. In theatre she was known for her performances in light comedy and appeared in several tele ...

as Mrs Draper * Moira Foot as Glenda *

Peggy Ann Clifford Peggy Ann Clifford (23 March 1921 in Poole, Dorset – 26 May 1986, in Kensington), was an English film, stage, and television character actress. She was born Peggy Anne Hamley Champion. Her mother's maiden name was Clifford. She appeared in tw ...

as Mrs Tickford *

Harold Bennett Harold Frank Bennett (17 November 1898 – 11 September 1981) was an English actor, active in stage, television and film best remembered for being in sitcoms written and produced by David Croft, having played 'Young Mr. Grace' in the 1970s Bri ...

as the Vicar

Episodes

Production

The role of lead character Harry Bennington was originally offered to

Gorden Kaye Gordon Irving Kaye (7 April 194123 January 2017), known professionally as Gorden Kaye, was an English actor. He was best known for playing womanising café owner René Artois in the television comedy series Allo 'Allo!''. Early life Kaye wa ...

. However, Kaye was unavailable and the role was instead offered to Harry Worth. Musical sequences in the series were performed by the

Brass Ensemble. A week before the series' premiere on 3 September 1980, ''British Mouthpiece'' informed its reader that "a player who took part

n the series N, or n, is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

assures our reporter that the actual situations do not try to make the band ldershot Brass Ensembletake part, or make them look foolish, as some of the other shows using bands during the past year have not brought much credit to our movement". The theme music, "Oh Happy Band!", was composed by series co-writer David Croft. It was performed by the Aldershot Brass Ensemble and sung by the Fred Tomlinson Singers. In 1980, an

LP record The LP (from long playing or long play) is an Analog recording, analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of revolutions per minute, rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use ...

of the theme tune, along with a B-side of "Our Boys Will Shine Tonight", was released by

BBC Records BBC Records was a division of the BBC founded in 1967 to commercially exploit the corporation's output for radio and television for both educational and domestic use. The division was known as BBC Radio Enterprises (1967–1970), BBC Records (1 ...

Reception

Writer and historian

Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

, in the BBC Guide to Comedy, wrote that the series was: "An odd amalgam of ideas from established sitcom creators Lloyd and Croft... Considering the usual dependability of the major protagonists here, it is fair to say that ''Oh Happy Band!'' was flat rather than sharp." Nostalgia Central noted that: "So utterly inept and banal was the show that had it not been written by comedy stalwarts Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft, it likely would have never been screened." Iwan Fox, writing for 4 Bars Rest, described the series as "terrible" and "rather excruciating", criticising the "strained" and "rather threadbare" storylines and the "stereotypical" characters. Fox noted that the casting mirrored that of ''

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...

'', with Harry Bennington, "a small, slightly bumptious ineffectual leader of men", mirroring

Captain Mainwaring Captain George Mainwaring () is a fictional Home Guard captain, first portrayed by Arthur Lowe in the BBC television sitcom ''Dad's Army''. In the 2016 film he is played by Toby Jones and in the 2019 remake of three missing episodes he is pla ...

, and the rest of Bennington's band mirroring the members of Mainwaring's platoon. However, Fox acknowledged that there were "occasional gem in the series.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oh Happy Band! 1980 British television series debuts 1980 British television series endings BBC television sitcoms Television series created by David Croft (TV producer) British English-language television shows 1980s British sitcoms Television series created by Jeremy Lloyd