Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!

Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! was a popular ITV situation comedy that 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 and Elvington, North Yorkshire.

Cast

• Bill Maynard - Selwyn Froggitt
• Megs Jenkins - Mrs Froggitt
• Robert Keegan - Maurice Froggitt
• Rosemary Martin - Vera Parkinson (Series 1)
• Lynda Baron - Vera Parkinson (From Series 2)
• Richard Davies - Clive
• Bill Dean - Jack
• Harold Goodwin - Harry
• Ray Mort - Ray

Plot

Set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Scarsdale, the show was centred on 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: Selwyn's "Magic!" accompanied by two thumbs up; and his usual order at the club was, "A pint of cooking and a bag of nuts." (Although at virtually every opportunity whilst in the bar Selwyn would order at least one bag of nuts, he would rarely, if ever, be seen eating the nuts). 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 unanimously". Another running gag was Selwyn's mum saying "I wish you wouldn't open that cupboard Selwyn, things fall out!" whenever he opened the cupboard in the Froggitt front room upon which a flow of objects would fall onto the floor.

Froggitt's colleagues 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.

Filming locations

Locations used for outdoor filming of the series were in Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire and Elvington, North Yorkshire, while indoor filming was done at Yorkshire Television Studios, "Kirkstall Road, Leeds" themselves.

Selwyn

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.

DVD release

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 four-disc set of the complete series of both complete series titles has also been released.

External links

• Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! at the Internet Movie Database
• Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! at the British Comedy Guide