Oh No It's Selwyn Froggit - The Complete Series [DVD]

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Bill Maynard, who has died aged 89, was well known as an actor and comedian, especially as a member of the cast in five Carry On films and in the popular television series Heartbeat. Behind the scenes he had a reputation as a hell-raiser. His Carry On parts began in Carry On Loving (1970) and he appeared in four of the cruder Confessions series in the 70s. He had his own show on BBC Radio Leicester until 2008 and was still working well into his 80s. Maynard, Bill; Sheard, John (1997). Stand Up and Be Counted. Derby: Breedon Books. ISBN 9781859830802.

Maynard, Bill (1975). The Yo-Yo Man: The Autobiography of Bill Maynard. London: Golden Eagle Press. ISBN 0901482218. But by that time he was ill himself. He had suffered a mild stroke on the first day of shooting of a new Heartbeat series. Doctors told him that he would be all right if he took it easy; but, despite listing his hobbies as “lying down”, taking it easy was not really his forte.In August 1989, "Gala Performance" was repeated with a specially-recorded introduction by Maynard to celebrate Yorkshire Television's 21st anniversary. [45] The series was regularly repeated on UK Gold between 1997 and 1999 [46] [47] and on Forces TV in 2022. [48] Volumes of selected episodes from the series were released on VHS in the 1990s. [49] Network released a boxset of the complete series on DVD on 11 October 2010. [50] List of episodes [ edit ] a b Marlow, Lee (30 March 2018). " 'I made 31 films, most were rubbish': Bill Maynard in his own hilarious words". Leicestershire Live . Retrieved 1 June 2020. He married Muriel Linnett on 5 November 1949, and they had two children. She died in June 1983. [2] Maynard was a vegetarian. His son is musician Martin Maynard Williams.

Bill Maynard reprised the character in 1978 in the series simply titled Selwyn, with the hapless Froggitt now working as the Entertainment Officer at Paradise Valley, a Butlin’s-esque holiday camp in Yorkshire (he had seen the job advertised in The Times). All three series of The Gaffer have been released on DVD by Network, A 3-disc set of the complete series has also been released.Dwyer, Terry (30 September 1974). "In mint condition". Leicester Mercury: 2 . Retrieved 4 March 2023. In October 2009, he made a return to the stage when he appeared as the main guest of honour at the Pride of Bridlington Awards held in the East Riding of Yorkshire. [12] By then, his career slowly wound down due to his age and impaired mobility from his strokes, whereupon his final television appearance was made on 14 April 2018 for an episode of Pointless Celebrities; filming took place prior to his death, the episode aired two weeks after his funeral. If Open All Hours ensured that she was a welcome fixture for the family audience, then Baron’s run as the cheery Auntie Mabel in the much loved and hugely successful BBC educational programme Come Outside (1993-97) meant that she became a firm favourite with children. Mabel, piloting a polka dotted light aeroplane (a Slingsby T67 Firefly) and accompanied by her dog Pippin, would discover how various everyday things worked for the benefit of the young audience.

In total, 29 episodes of Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt, including 7 under the title Selwyn, were produced.Maynard was born in Farnham, Surrey, whereupon his family moved north to Leicestershire. He was educated at Kibworth Beauchamp Grammar School. Maynard lived in Sapcote, Leicestershire during the latter part of his life. Retrospectively, Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt has been described as "a kind of Billy Liar for nutters" in The Guinness Book of Classic British TV. [42] In 2010, Michael Coveney of The Guardian wrote that the series exhibited Alan Plater's "gift of writing supple, salty dialogue for working-class characters", as with Plater's scripts for Z-Cars and its sequel Softly, Softly. [43] The series was an influence on Victoria Wood. [44] Oh, No! It's Selwyn Froggitt!' was a truly hilarious ITV Yorkshire sitcom, centred on an extremely annoying but chillingly plausible character. American television has no counterpart to Selwyn Froggitt ... the nearest equivalent would probably be Cliff Clavin off 'Cheers', but that's a very distant resemblance. Like I said, 'Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt' grew out of a pilot, the same series of pilots which saw the birth of 'Rising Damp'. Selwyn Froggitt from the fictional Yorkshire village of Scarsdale is one of life's idiots. He has too much energy and too much time on his hands and cannot go through a day in life without messing something up. He works as a labourer and lives at home with his overbearing mother ( Megs Jenkins from 'Worzel Gummidge' ) and his brother Maurice. Romance was on the scene when Maurice started dating the lovely Vera Parkinson ( played first by Rosemary Martin, then by Lynda Baron )

experience as a comedian at Butlin's for the holiday camp setting. [10] Plater was not involved with this fourth series and Robert Keegan, who had played Maurice, considered the removal of the supporting cast a potential mistake "as I think viewers of situation comedy like to get to know lots of characters". [33] A proposed fifth series was not produced after disappointing audience reactions. [2] Maynard confirmed the series had finished in May 1980, telling the media "if you keep on with the same character all the time, people won't accept you as anything else. If I do [play Selwyn again], it will be when people have begun to forget about him." [34] [35] Reception and legacy [ edit ] After 60 years, Bill Maynard has last laugh on his critics". Leicester Mercury. 16 September 2013. Archived from the original on 27 October 2013 . Retrieved 9 March 2016. Johns, Victor (12 March 1977). "The new role that fits the bill - even though it's a big surprise". Liverpool Echo: 7 . Retrieved 3 March 2023. Gibson, Enid (16 July 1976). "Top Marx for Rosemary". Grimsby Evening Telegraph: 11 . Retrieved 3 March 2023. Hildred, Stafford (9 January 1981). "Bill's boss is no accident". Sandwell Evening Mail: 22 . Retrieved 3 March 2023.Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television, which produced the show, remained silent, perhaps so as not to offend the ITV schedulers. Maynard had no such compunction. His involvement in Heartbeat ended in 2000, but he played Greengrass again in The Royal in 2003.