Oh Happy Band! is a British television sitcom written by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft. The series ran for six episodes on BBC1, 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 Brass Ensemble.
| Oh Happy Band! | |
|---|---|
 Animated titlescreen for the series, used from the second episode onwards.[1] | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Written by | |
| Directed by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Theme music composer | David Croft |
| Opening theme | "Oh Happy Band!" |
| Ending theme | "Oh Happy Band!" |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Producer | David Croft |
| Cinematography |
|
| Editors |
|
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC1 |
| Release | 3 September – 8 October 1980 |
Since broadcast, the series has not been repeated or released on any home consumer media.
Plot
editHarry Bennington (Harry Worth) is the conductor of a brass band 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 over their town.[2]
Cast
edit- Harry Worth as Harry Beddington
- Margaret Clifton as Miss Mayhew
- Jonathan Cecil as Mr Herbert
- John Horsley as Mr Braithwaite
- Billy Burden as Mr Sowerby
- Tom Mennard as Mr Pilgrim
- Tony Sympson as Mr Giles
- Jan Holden as Mrs Draper
- Moira Foot as Glenda
- Peggy Ann Clifford as Mrs Tickford
- Harold Bennett as the Vicar
Episodes
edit| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Produced & Directed by | Written by | Original air date [3][4] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "A Bird in the Bush" | David Croft | Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft | 3 September 1980 | |
|
Note: This episode was produced as a pilot episode,[5] and featured a different, non-animated title sequence.[1][6] | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Let Bygones Be Bygones" | David Croft | Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft | 10 September 1980 | |
| 3 | 3 | "A Record to Be Proud of" | David Croft | Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft | 17 September 1980 | |
| 4 | 4 | "Home Cure" | David Croft | Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft | 24 September 1980 | |
| 5 | 5 | "A Song in the Air" | David Croft | Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft | 1 October 1980 | |
| 6 | 6 | "Diplomatic Privilege" | David Croft and John Kilby | Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft | 8 October 1980 | |
Production
editThe role of lead character Harry Bennington was originally offered to Gorden Kaye. However, Kaye was unavailable and the role was instead offered to Harry Worth.[7]
Musical sequences in the series were performed by the Aldershot Brass Ensemble.[2][8][9] A week before the series' premiere on 3 September 1980, British Mouthpiece informed its reader that "a player who took part [in the series] assures our reporter that the actual situations do not try to make the band [Aldershot Brass Ensemble] take 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".[9]
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 of the theme tune, along with a B-side of "Our Boys Will Shine Tonight", was released by BBC Records.[10]
Reception
editWriter and historian Mark Lewisohn, 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."[8]
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."[11]
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, with Harry Bennington, "a small, slightly bumptious ineffectual leader of men", mirroring Captain Mainwaring, and the rest of Bennington's band mirroring the members of Mainwaring's platoon. However, Fox acknowledged that there were "occasional gem[s]" in the series.[9]
References
edit- ^ a b "Aldershot Brass Ensemble - Ho Happy Band". YouTube. 18 July 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ a b "David Croft: Oh Happy Band". David Croft Official Website. Retrieved 7 July 2010.
- ^ "Oh Happy Band! - Episode guide". BBC. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ "Oh Happy Band! episode guide". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ "Oh Happy Band! Series 1, Episode 1 - A Bird in the Bush". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ Lloyd, Jeremy; Croft, David (3 September 1980). "A Bird in the Bush". Oh Happy Band!. Series 1. Episode 1. BBC1.
- ^ "Death of 'Allo 'Allo star Gorden Kaye, 75". The Yorkshire Post. 23 January 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
- ^ a b Lewisohn, Mark (6 April 2005). "Oh Happy Band!". BBC Guide to Comedy. Retrieved 7 July 2010.
- ^ a b c Fox, Iwan (16 August 2018). "O Happy Band! — Why mixing brass bands and political satire may never be a success". 4 Bars Rest. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ "The Fred Tomlinson Singers with The Aldershot Brass Ensemble – Oh Happy Band". Discogs. Archived from the original on 10 November 2022. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
- ^ "Oh Happy Band". Nostalgia Central. 14 September 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2024.