| Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! | |
|---|---|
| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | Roy Clarke |
| Directed by | Derrick Goodwin (pilot) Ronnie Baxter (tv series) |
| Starring | Bill Maynard Megs Jenkins Robert Keegan Rosemary Martin Lynda Baron Richard Davies Bill Dean Harold Goodwin Ray Mort |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30mins |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Original run | 30 September 1974 – 27 December 1977 |
Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! was a popular ITV situation comedy which ran from 1974 to 1977.
It starred Bill Maynard as the council labourer, Scarsdale Working Men’s Club secretary, hapless handyman and all-round public nuisance Selwyn Froggitt. It was created by Roy Clarke, who wrote the pilot episode transmitted in 1974, though the series was mostly written by Alan Plater. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television
With outdoor location filming of the series filmed in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire including Elvington, North Yorkshire
Contents |
Set in the fictional Yorkshire Town of Scarsdale UK, the show was centred around the bungling exploits of Selwyn Froggitt, a burly, balding, good-natured council labourer (Maynard) usually clad in a donkey jacket, with pretensions to intellectual competence (he carried the Times rolled up in the pocket of his donkey jacket, although was hardly ever seen reading it, preferring to tell people that "There was an article about it in the Times") and an urge to improve his life and that of everyone around him. Froggitt was on the committee of his local working men's club, serving as concert secretary in charge of booking 'turns'.
Froggitt was fundamentally and spectacularly incompetent at everything he turned his hand to, being equally inept at his day job (digging holes and filling them in), do-it-yourself at home, and booking acts for the club. Nevertheless he was extremely honest and hard-working, unlike the other committee members who usually sat back in comfort while Froggitt did the manual labour. They generally despised Selwyn but tolerated him because he was too stupid to realise how dishonest they were.
The show featured a number of catchphrases: Maynard's "Magic, our Maurice!" accompanied by two thumbs up, his mother's (Megs Jenkins) "Don't open that cupboard, our Selwyn, things fall out!" and almost everyone at the club's "A pint of cooking and a bag of nuts, Raymond." Raymond the barman (Ray Mort) was fond of answering the telephone with a number of highly fictitious and fanciful addresses. All decisions taken by the club committee were taken on a "Show of hands..." and "Carried unanimous".
Froggitt's colleages on the committee included the dour Scouser Jack (Bill Dean), Harry (Harold Goodwin) and excitable, stereotypical Welshman Clive (Richard Davies). His brother Maurice was played by Robert Keegan.
The show's humour included a fair measure of slapstick alongside Plater's typical northern humour.
Locations used for outdoor filming of the series were in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire and Elvington, North Yorkshire, whilst indoor filming was done at Yorkshire Television Studios, "Kirkstall Road, Leeds" themselves.
In 1978 after three successful series under the title of Oh No Its Selwyn Froggitt. Yorkshire Television changed the format of the show radically. The new version of the series was entitled Selwyn; all of the regular cast bar Maynard departed to focus on other work and the Froggitt character became entertainments manager at a seedy holiday camp on the east coast. Plater was no longer involved with the show during that series. Selwyn ran for only a single series with disappointing audience reactions, a planned second series was cancelled.
All three series of Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! including The complete series of short-lived follow-up sequel Selwyn have been released on DVD. A 4-disc set of the complete series of both complete series titles has also been released.
| DVD | Year(s) | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete Series 1 | 1974 1976 |
25 May 2009 |
| The Complete Series 2 | 1977 | 7 September 2009 |
| The Complete Series 3 | 1977 | 3 May 2010 |
| The Complete Series 1 to 3 Box Set | 1974- 1977 |
11 October 2010 |
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