High Hopes (TV series)
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High Hopes is a Welsh sitcom and is set in a fictional area of the South Wales Valleys. It stars Margaret John as widow Elsie Hepplewhite, Steven Meo as (Dwayne) Hoffman and Ben Evans as Charlie. It revolves around Elsie's son Richard (known as Fagin)'s scrapes with the two boys, who attempted to rob the Hepplewhites' house in the first episode. It started in 2002 to much acclaim, and in December 2005, it completed its fourth series. The pilot was shown all over the UK three years before, with slight differences to future cast and plot.
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[edit] Characters
[edit] Richard (Fagin) Hepplewhite
- Played by: Robert Blythe
Richard Hepplewhite is an entrepreneur who lives with his mother in the Welsh valleys. Fresh from serving time for second-degree murder at Strangeways Prison (in an unusual miscarriage of justice), he is claustrophobic and agoraphobic, running his odd-job business from his desk at the house. He takes the boys in during the first episode. In one episode, he is briefly cured of his agoraphobia after falling over, but he still lives in fear of being "sucked off into the sky".
[edit] Elsie Hepplewhite
- Played by: Margaret John
Elsie is Fagin's mother whose husband was captured by Japan in World War II as a prisoner of war, where he died. So, she shares detriment for the Japanese with Richard, she because of her husband's death, him because of their technological advances. Her grandfather died after swallowing a silver threepence that was in his Christmas pudding, not before running down the road for one and a half miles (bearing in mind he was ninety-four!)
[edit] (Dwayne) Hoffman
- Played by: Steve Meo
Hoffman (his first name is rarely used) is a teenage petty criminal who's best friend is Charlie. He and Charlie are apprentices to Fagin's business. Hoffman enters many scrapes, like stealing an iconic Welsh painting "Dafydd ar y Twmp" (or Dafydd and his Hump, according to Hoffman), and trying to escape the clutches of a randy policewoman!
[edit] Charlie
- Played by: Ben Evans
Charlie is the second teenager in the household. He seems not to be brighter than Hoffman, and once made a collage of Charlotte Church with no clothes on (or, Charlotte Church's inverted head atop a page three girl's body), and also entering a romance with a Victor.
[edit] Other characters
Other characters include Mrs. Coles, the local shopkeeper (Little Britain regular Di Botcher), PC Claude Cox (Keiron Self), a friend of the family, with a fondness of cake, plastic sex dolls and pornographic films. Also present is show writer Boyd Clack who is Sergeant Ball, in another of his appearances in his own show (he was Gwynne in his sitcom Satellite City.)
[edit] Pilot and series comparison
The pilot and the series in general can be compared:
- In the pilot, the boys knew Fagin already, but in the series, Fagin met them and their knowledge of each other developed (quickly!)
- As stated above, the whole of the UK (including Wales) saw the pilot, but the series has been shown only in Wales.
- Different actors played Charlie and Hoffman and also PC Cox.
The series' theme tune is an instrumental version of the 1959 song High Hopes by Frank Sinatra on a harp.
