Hinge and Bracket
Encyclopedia
Dr. Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket were the stage personae of the musical performance and female impersonation artists George Logan and Patrick Fyffe. Active in theatre, radio and television between 1972 and 2001, this comedy partnership entertained the public in the guise of two elderly eccentric spinsters, living genteel lives in the village of Stackton Tressel
and celebrating their former careers on the provincial operatic stage.
Talented musicians and vocal performers, Logan and Fyffe played exclusively in drag and in falsetto, serving up the musical numbers in a rich sauce of spinsterish bickering which formed the dynamic of the act. Logan acted as accompanist, arranger and foil for Fyffe's vocal performances. Details of the ladies' genteel lifestyle and theatrical history were shared with the audience for comic effect. In the spirit of authenticity, Logan and Fyffe enjoyed developing a detailed backdrop and life history for their stage personae.
Having breathed life into two such authentic figures, George Logan and Patrick Fyffe declined, for the duration of their stage partnership, to be interviewed out of character. In this way, they were consciously preserving the illusion of "the ladies" for their affectionate following, many of whom preferred, at some level at least, to believe in these endearing characters as real people.
Their stage partnership spanned theatre, stage shows, radio and television, and continued for 30 years until the death of Patrick Fyffe in 2002. George Logan retired from the stage in 2004.
Dame Hilda Bracket is portrayed as a lively, fun-loving, flamboyant doyenne of opera. She takes charge of the stage and inhabits the limelight sporting a coquettish lop-sided grin and a chiffon hanky dangling at the wrist. Projecting enthusiasm and flirting shamelessly with the audience, she leads the performance with gusto, exerting a comical degree of bossiness, and occasional wilfulness, over the long-suffering Dr. Hinge.
Dr Evadne Hinge is played in sharp contrast as a reserved, austere intellectual whose role is to provide piano accompaniment, direction and, where necessary, vocal support for Dame Hilda Bracket's singing performances. Cutting a modest, almost apologetic figure on stage, Evadne slides demurely onto the piano stool and peers sideways at the audience over half-moon spectacles on a decorative chain.
Together, they play and sing songs from a traditional light-operatic repertoire, taken mainly from Gilbert & Sullivan, Noel Coward
and Ivor Novello
("Dear Ivor"), but occasionally "coming bang up to date" with "modern" shows such as South Pacific
. Their musical turns are interspersed with comic anecdotes and frequent discursions into repartee, punctuated by flashes of cattiness and bickering. Between numbers, Hilda's wisecracking antics and Evadne's acid reactions to her companion's attention-seeking are a rich source of comedy in the act.
Early on, Dame Hilda establishes the pecking order by explaining their respective titles: her own damehood was awarded for "services to music and opera", whereas Evadne's "Dr." was bestowed "for hard work".
Disapproving, but never daunted by the frivolous and overbearing Hilda, Evadne raises her eyebrows and takes controlled revenge through terse and well-timed put-downs which deflate Hilda's ego. Evadne also reminds the audience at every opportunity that she is in fact younger than Hilda.
Throughout their exchanges, and notwithstanding their petty squabbles over such details as the date they first met, or which opera was in rehearsal at the time, Hilda and Evadne never fail to address each other as "Dear", and occasionally stop mid-concert for sherry, or to examine the fascinating contents of their handbags.
In spite of their petty disagreements, the ladies are portrayed as indivisible companions and an unassailable partnership.
A regular treat for the audience sees Hilda make a comedic meal of polishing her spectacles. Each lens in turn is breathed upon in a loud, honking baritone (hungh!) before the glasses are finally (hungh!) positioned on her nose.
Hilda's cousin's career in the military:
H-"He was in the guards..... Only for two weeks"
Cousin Evelyn ("Yes it's one of those difficult names") was caught playing [cards] with his privates. In Dear Ladies this incident was attributed to Hilda's nephew Julian instead.
Hilda checks the time on her brother's watch:
E-"Why are you wearing your brother's watch, Dear?"
H-"Because he's borrowed mine."
Cue various oblique references to cross-dressing.
Evadne's mysterious health problems:
Frequently aired in public by Hilda, Evadne's afflictions include knees prone to locking, a separate condition requiring treatment with three forms of Ralgex, and a non-specific rash. Letters from Evadne's clinic, invariably addressed to "Mrs Ming", are seized upon and read "sotto voce" by Hilda, mumbling practical instructions such as "try not to pick it".
Evadne's names:
In start-of-show announcements, the list of Evadne's names is occasionally expanded beyond the usual "Evadne Mona Montpelier", to include additions such as "Pauline", "Renee", "Albuquerque" and "Liversedge". Later shows, in deference to the advent of the cyber-age, incorporate "DotCom" into this list.
Hilda compliments Evadne on her singing:
H-"Very reminiscent of Lilian Baylis
, Dear."
E-"But she didn't sing, Dear".
Hilda and Evadne receive their end-of-concert presentations:
Over the applause, Hilda and Evadne are presented with gifts of appreciation by the organisers. Huge bouquets arrive for Hilda, but for Evadne, never more than a meagre token, ranging from the tiniest posy of flowers, via half a dozen eggs in a cardboard carton, to a banjo.
Always perched on the end of Evadne's nose, and lending an appropriate air of severity to the character, these spectacles began life as a brown half-moon design on a gold chain. The second incarnation were again spectacles of brown half-moon design, but this time on a pearl chain. In 1984 on the final series of 'Dear Ladies', the BBC provided George Logan with a slightly different pair of brown half-moon spectacles on a chain made entirely of very large shaped pearls, Logan continued to use them on a few live stage shows (before he reverted back to the brown half-moon spectacles on a pearl chain). When Evadne's pearl chain finally broke and had to be replaced, Patrick Fyffe gave George Logan a silver chain, (which actually came from Dame Hilda's reading spectacles). Logan soon replaced this with a more dainty gold chain. In the later years, and after Logan's props were accidentally lost, Evadne peered over red half-moon spectacles on a different gold chain. Through each and every incarnation of these spectacles, Evadne's disapproving glare had the power to melt paint.
The Ladies' Handbags:
Hinge and Bracket were never seen on stage without their handbags, and with each successive concert, their bags appeared to grow in size. The clasp of Hilda's vintage 50's metal-framed carry-all closed with the snap of a crocodile's jaws, and in later years she would claim this action as an attention-getter learned from Mrs Thatcher
("...and she got it from Harold Wilson
"). The handbags' contents reflected the personalities of their owners: Hilda's held little beyond her reading glasses, a chiffon hankie and the obligatory powder compact, whereas Evadne's accoutrements were a cross between a portable pharmacy and the contents of Just William
's trouser-pocket. Hilda's favourite humiliation tactic was to ridicule the contents of Evadne's handbag in front of the audience.
In conversation in the televised shows, there would be various old fashioned slang references to "Dorothy", and a few racier remarks. The stage shows were the main medium for delivering gay-themed innuendo. But in musical performance, Hinge and Bracket were inveterate teasers of their audience. In the course of their shows, they performed what amounted to the entire repertoire of light opera songs containing the word "gay", additionally mining G&S classics as a rich source of double-entendre from 'The Gondoliers
' "Then One Of Us Will Be A Queen", via Patience
"blithe and gay" through to the story of Iolanthe
, which famously had one dainty foot in fairyland. Thus would the trail of gems be laid, innocently, straight-faced and of course in impeccable context. The audience could stoop to gather these, if so they wished, but "the ladies" were always looking firmly the other way.
Accordingly, a recurring joke in their musical act was Dame Hilda's discomfiture whenever called upon to perform an aria in its original language. With an irritable flourish, Hilda would produce from her handbag the famous reading spectacles for (hungh!) polishing, and squint impatiently at the Italian (hungh!) libretto. Cue a bravura performance from Fyffe, singing as Hilda with a smell under her nose, but nevertheless demonstrating a knowledge of Italian which was a "little more than Asti Spumante" - at least in the context of operatic performance. Hilda's back-story in fact extended to a few glorious years spent in Italy in the run-up to World War 2, studying "the rhythm method" under the large Italian operatic impresario Signor Bonavoce.
Evadne's doctorate in music (awarded at the age of 16) and reputation as a pianist preceded her, but the convention of the act demanded that, because of Hilda's "limited attention span", Evadne was always denied the opportunity to perform full pieces on stage. Once in a while, however, the audience would be treated to a brief taste of Logan's Royal Scottish Academy standard piano skills - notably Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor (condensed to 2 minutes). Additionally, Evadne was reported to "have the advantage of French" - which she had "picked up many years ago from a wine list". Not to be outdone on this front, Hilda would attempt to compete by tossing in the odd French phrase with her customary "joie de vie" (sic) and invariably got it wrong.
The ladies' musical credentials were further supported by allusions to celebrity audience members attending their concerts - names from the world of opera and music with whom they claimed equal status. Some of these names were real figures, and actually present at their recordings - Dame Eva Turner and Olive Gilbert
being two notable examples. Others were nebulous inventions, embraced by Dame Hilda's blanket welcome line to the distinguished audience: "you celebrities know who you are, so we'll say nothing".
Frequent collaborators from the world of light opera included baritones Michael Rayner and Ian Belsey
.
Lives of the Ladies: Village People
Hinge and Bracket's fictional home life, referred to constantly in their shows, is further developed in the radio and television series. The invented back-story has the ladies residing in the village or small town of Stackton Tressel
in Suffolk
, which, in the words of Bracket, lies 17 miles from Bury St. Edmunds "as the crow flies, though there haven't been a lot of crows this year". Here, the ladies share a house called Utopia Ltd
. They also share their home with three cats, Sandy the Goldfish and Milton the Budgie. Evadne is not keen on the pets, or more accurately, on Hilda's sugary attitude towards them. In one story from the television series, Sandy the goldfish is banished to a bucket under the sink when Evadne borrows his bowl to use as a crystal ball for her "Gypsy Mona" spot at the village fête.
The ladies otherwise amuse themselves with recitals of Gilbert & Sullivan, Noel Coward
and Ivor Novello
("Dear Ivor"), and employ an eccentric housekeeper, Maud, played in the radio series by character actress Daphne Heard
(and, on her death, by Jean Heywood
). Maud is characterised by her bovine devotion to "Dame 'Ilder", a barely disguised antipathy to Evadne, and a general suspicion of men. She is particularly wary of men with beards, men with moustaches, and foreign men (Evadne's French friend André, played in the radio series by André Maranne
, is suspected by Maud of being a white slaver). Maud systematically breaks, steps in, ruins or otherwise bungles every aspect of her household duties, and is indulged by Hilda because of her history as Hilda's dresser from their days with the "Rosa Charles Opera Company". Evadne is constantly at loggerheads with Maud, who retorts with observations such as "we can't all be musical". The TV series did not feature Maud in person, although a couple of references were made to her in the first two episodes of Dear Ladies Series 1.
Dame Hilda drives around in her shiny open-top vintage Rolls, while Evadne is more than happy to rely on her faithful old tricycle and cart, (usually unaware that all the fruit and vegetables just bought from the local greengrocer are falling out of the back of the trailer). Fellow villagers are known by such unlikely names as Methuen Hawkins (pharmacist) and Tewkesbury Ptolman. They make guest appearances in the ladies' concerts, most notably baritone (and butcher) Tewkesbury Ptolman, who appears in a number of the shows "by kind permission of Christopher Underwood".
Theirs is a genteel English post-war world of cucumber sandwiches, bell ringing, church fêtes and ladies' bowls matches, all served with a liberal helping of old-fashioned values recalled, and a sprinkling of double entendre
s. But the ladies do not always play fair: in one episode, Hilda and Evadne organise the refreshments for a "friendly" inter-village football match, manned by two teams of Stanley Matthews
look-alikes and intentionally poison the visiting team.
Over the years, the balance of the act shifted from musical performance towards verbal comedy and mild farce. Hinge and Bracket evolved as an act with appeal well beyond their original gay audience, but a certain level of double-entendre was carefully preserved in all media of delivery (and was always allowed more prominence in their stage shows). In the Seventies, the impression gained from watching their concert performances was that some of their more involved double-meaning gags had flown underneath the audience's radar. In the closing minutes of a concert, Patrick Fyffe as Hilda may well have expressed a wish to be seen across the road by a boy scout, whilst carrying a big bag of shillings, but this bawdy joke was wasted on an "untrained" audience in the Royal Hall Harrogate. Equally, allusions to "Dick Turpin's doings on Wimbledon Common" were softened by references to The Wombles
, so that the audience were laughing before they had properly worked out what was behind the reference.
By the Nineties, the age of innocence had passed, and people were more on the alert for the gay gag: in the 1994 Regents Park anniversary show "Shaken, Not Stirred", the double meanings came in spades, and to the sharp appreciation of the audience.
But the appeal of Hinge and Bracket was never merely in the disposition of a drag act or a gay joke. The pitch was always warmth, nostalgia, musical appreciation, gentility, quasi highbrow in the recitals, playful dottiness in the radio shows, and cosy mischief - sweetness even - in the television series.
, the television series were a framework in which Logan and Fyffe could play out in full colour their "take" on the observed behaviour of the elderly ladies of the WI and churchgoing communities of their youth. The atmosphere was borrowed from an era when people chipped in for the community, involved themselves in one another's lives and believed in the importance of cultural pursuits.
's "We'll gather Lilacs" has both ladies bursting into tears and bawling into their chiffon hankies by verse two. On other occasions, the solemnity of a song would be undermined by Hilda's impish chortling during the more melodramatic passages (c/f Noel Coward
's "Zigeuner"). In one performance, Hilda sails majestically through the first bars of Aida
's aria "Ritorna vincitor" only to segue directly into a rendition of "Pedro the Fisherman" à la Gracie Fields
. Hinge and Bracket had mastered their ingredients: they knew their subject, and their audience, and the science of raising a laugh.
. Borrowings from Hinge and Bracket in modern British comedy are detectable in some comic creations of recent years. Notably in the Florence and Emily ("I'm a Laydee") characters from Little Britain
, and also in the eccentric personage of Hyacinth Bucket
. Bucket is yet another example of singing household hardware, and in full amateur operatic flow she is reminiscent of Bracket (Braqué?) in both voice and stiff-legged gait. Also, Hyacinth's forbearing, modest but quietly competent spouse Richard bears more than a passing resemblance to Evadne, as a foil. But a comparable mix of wit, warmth and musical talent epitomised by Hinge and Bracket has not been achieved since Fyffe passed away, and Logan laid aside his half-moon spectacles.
In a 2007 television interview, George Logan explains that both he and Fyffe had been boy sopranos, and found themselves able to produce a falsetto voice after puberty. Patrick Fyffe's falsetto voice was additionally gifted with the full rounded tones of a mezzo soprano, and capable of producing some rousing high notes in performance. His vocal interpretations demonstrated profound emotional connection with the songs, and with his audience.
George Logan, who claims not to have seen himself as a singer in the same vein, nevertheless projected a light quavering soprano of clarion tone, and admirable breath control in the "patter" songs, whilst simultaneously providing the piano accompaniment. Though formally trained as a classical pianist, he also has the ability to play by ear, and used both skills to the benefit of the act. In many instances the material performed by Hinge and Bracket required transposition to a different key or other special musical arrangement.
Thus, the inspiration for Dr Hinge’s character as a serious musician came from Logan's formal musical background. Similarly, Patrick Fyffe's affinity with musical comedy and operetta informed the character of Dame Hilda. This meshing of the two areas of interest allowed the act to explore and exploit many different areas of the vocal music repertoire.
From June 1972, Hinge and Bracket worked for two years around the London pubs and clubs. Most notably, they appeared at a gay Kensington restaurant, called AD8, every Sunday lunchtime. The restaurant was owned by Desmond Morgan and April Ashley
. Ashley was a celebrity of the 1960s after a sex change in Morocco in 1960. Hinge and Bracket were popular with diners, and their Sunday slot became a ritual in moneyed gay society.
It was from this circuit that Hinge and Bracket were recruited to appear at the 1974 Edinburgh Festival
.
Their Edinburgh show was a one-hour scripted vignette, presenting them in a Victorian church hall setting, along with a visiting baritone. In this intimate atmosphere, Evadne and Hilda handed round glasses of sherry to their audience. News of the show (or the sherry) quickly spread around the festival, and after the first couple of nights, they were playing to packed houses. Immediately after Edinburgh, they moved the show to London, where they appeared for an interim fortnight at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, immediately followed by a six month season at The Mayfair Theatre.
The format of the show remained largely unchanged until the act moved to The Ambassador’s Theatre. One month into their run, they were approached by playwright Ray Cooney
to provide a show for the late night slot. And so, the first specially commissioned Hinge and Bracket show, "Sixty Glorious Minutes", was written, and the Hinge and Bracket phenomenon was born.
for three seasons from 1977 to 1979. Produced by James Casey
at BBC Radio in Manchester and scripted by Mike Craig, Laurie Kinsley and Ron McDonnell, these programmes were a mixture of period songs and situation comedy. Actress Daphne Heard
was a series regular as The Dear Ladies' housekeeper, Maud, and each show featured an appearance by a guest artiste.
The Random Jottings of Hinge and Bracket, which ran for 68 episodes on BBC Radio 2
from 1982 to 1989, was scripted by Gerald Frow, and placed the stars in a variety of comedy situations, each episode being introduced from a supposed entry in Dame Hilda's diary. With the death of Daphne Heard
in 1983, Maud's mantle was assumed by character actress Jean Heywood
. Maud in her later incarnation was periodically joined by her uncouth and mischievous sister Gudrun, played with bloodcurdling relish by comedienne Liz Smith
.
Their final radio series, At Home with Hinge and Bracket, had the format of informal musical evenings with a celebrity guest, and ran for a single season in 1990. Guests on these shows were Anthony Newley
, Rosalind Plowright
, Benjamin Luxon
, June Whitfield
, Evelyn Laye
and Jack Brymer
.
Certain of the radio episodes have been re-broadcast on BBC 7
in recent years - the radio station subsequently known as BBC Radio 7 and, latterly, Radio 4 Extra.
and a special performance, co-scripted by Gyles Brandreth
, from the Princess Hall, Cheltenham Ladies' College
in 1983.
Hinge and Bracket appeared in their own series called Dear Ladies on BBC 2, between 1983 and 1985. The scripts were written by Gyles Brandreth
. Locations were picturesque Cheshire towns and villages, including Knutsford
, Great Budworth
and Nantwich
. Three series were made, including a pilot. In the third series of 'Dear Ladies', a few small changes were made, perhaps the most noticeable change being Hinge wearing a slightly different pair of Brown half-moon spectacles and chain.
and 'Ruth' in The Pirates of Penzance
; and Doctor Hinge as Miss Marple
in Murder at the Vicarage in 1994. The characters appeared together in Oscar Wilde
’s The Importance of Being Earnest
for a West End run, followed by a nationwide tour; and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in a New Year’s Eve performance of Die Fledermaus
, conducted by Plácido Domingo
and starring Kiri Te Kanawa
. They toured the UK with the Peter Shaffer
play Lettice and Lovage, as well as continuing to appear in their variety act, touring with the variety show Palladium Nights until 2001). Hinge and Bracket appeared on the Royal Variety Show twice, and were selected to perform privately for the Royal Family on a number of occasions.
Fyffe (Dame Hilda) also toured a one-woman show entitled By Kind Permission, which saw Dame Hilda perform new songs (written by Fyffe, Barrie Bignold and Stuart Calvert) and perform sketches as different characters.
, Staffordshire
and died on 11 May 2002 at Wellington
, Somerset
from spinal cancer. He is outlived by his sister, the soprano Jane Fyffe, who was a performer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
in the late 1950s.
Many of Fyffe's immediate family had been active in musical theatre, but he initially trained as a hairdresser, and ran his own salon in Stafford before making a career on the stage. He was a regular star of local amateur productions, but a desire to turn professional took him to London. His early professional appearances included a 1964 production of the musical Robert and Elizabeth
, at the Lyric Theatre
,, (in which his sister played the lead for a period, and he played one of Elizabeth's brothers), and a 1971 production of the same show at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow.
With some experience of repertory and a couple of provincial tours behind him, Fyffe invented the character of glamorous soprano "Perri St Claire". Played on stage as a sophisticated young lady with singing talent, the "Perri" character was sufficiently eye-catching to earn him some television slots, and Fyffe was asked to appear in character in a number of television series of the late sixties, notably Z-Cars
and the last programme of Doctor in the House
Series 1 in 1969, when he appeared as a cabaret singer.. Fyffe also appeared in the first Steptoe and Son film, as a drag artist who becomes the mistaken object of Steptoe Senior's lust.
, Scotland
, to a musical and theatrical family. He was educated at the Royal Scottish Academy Glasgow and Glasgow University, trained as a classical pianist and has a particular interest in opera and vocal music.
After leaving Glasgow, Logan worked in London as a computer programmer, but continued to use his piano skills around the London clubs and pubs, accompanying the stage acts. In 1970 he met and became friends with Patrick Fyffe, and together they formed Hinge and Bracket, making their first appearance in 1972.
Logan applied his formal training to producing all the musical arrangements for the act. Mainly because of the atypical vocal range of the performers, most of Hinge and Bracket's material required transposition or adaptation for performance.
Logan frequented the Toucan club and the Piano Bar in Soho, where he would hold court with his many tales of showbiz high jinks.
After the death of his stage partner, and a few seasons of pantomime, he retired from the stage in 2004. Having, like his stage counterpart Evadne, "the advantage of French", as well as an interest in fine food and wine, he opened a bed-and-breakfast in France, where he lives today.
Stackton Tressel
Stackton Tressel is a fictional, archetypical English village.Originally featuring in the 1974 Edinburgh Festival and then on the London stage, the exploits of its most notable residents, Doctor Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket, were broadcast by the BBC – by both radio and televisual...
and celebrating their former careers on the provincial operatic stage.
Two Nice Old Ladies with a Musical Bent
Early appearances show Dr. Evadne and Dame Hilda ostensibly emerging from retirement to perform in concert "by popular request". "The ladies" greet their public as old friends and give recitals in which they sing, play and reminisce about their past lives on tour in opera and musical theatre in the more elegant age of the years following the Second World War.Talented musicians and vocal performers, Logan and Fyffe played exclusively in drag and in falsetto, serving up the musical numbers in a rich sauce of spinsterish bickering which formed the dynamic of the act. Logan acted as accompanist, arranger and foil for Fyffe's vocal performances. Details of the ladies' genteel lifestyle and theatrical history were shared with the audience for comic effect. In the spirit of authenticity, Logan and Fyffe enjoyed developing a detailed backdrop and life history for their stage personae.
Having breathed life into two such authentic figures, George Logan and Patrick Fyffe declined, for the duration of their stage partnership, to be interviewed out of character. In this way, they were consciously preserving the illusion of "the ladies" for their affectionate following, many of whom preferred, at some level at least, to believe in these endearing characters as real people.
Their stage partnership spanned theatre, stage shows, radio and television, and continued for 30 years until the death of Patrick Fyffe in 2002. George Logan retired from the stage in 2004.
Dynamic of the Partnership
In a 2007 televised interview, George Logan explains how he and Patrick Fyffe collaborated on their own stage material, developing the framework for a new show around a series of ideas, then subsequently refining the gags and the timing in live performance. In Logan's words they needed to "play it like a duet with the audience" in order to perfect a show. He notes that the differences in their personalities worked to the good of the act: Logan himself was apt to work "from the head" as a performer, whereas Fyffe's approach to performing was more instinctive - a "natural comedian given to bouts of insane humour" and never happier than when deviating from the script. Part of Logan's role in such circumstances was to keep the shows on track.Final Curtain
When Patrick Fyffe died in 2002, George Logan decided that, without a Hilda, there would be no more Dr. Evadne Hinge. In a television interview he spoke of working himself, but made it clear that he did not miss the Hinge persona. Feeling that the appeal of Hinge and Bracket lay more in the interaction between the two characters, than with either of the separate personalities, Logan determined that the body of work he and Patrick Fyffe had created together should now stand as a finished item. In a 2007 interview in which he pays tribute to his stage partner, Logan praises Fyffe's comedic genius and observes: "[Patrick was] fabulously talented, a brilliant clown and a natural comedian. Since Patrick is no longer with us, [Hinge and Bracket] can never happen again. When you've worked with the best, there'd be no point in doing second-best afterwards, so I'd rather leave it as it is".Encore!
After Fyffe's death in 2002, and with very little of Hinge and Bracket's work available in the public domain, it seemed that the Stackton Tressel well had run dry. Since then, diligent campaigning by enthusiasts has seen recordings of the act released by the BBC on DVD, and recently, a new campaign was launched calling for a celebration of the act on BBC television, in time for the 10th anniversary of Patrick Fyffe's death in 2012.Characters and Interaction
Full Names: Dr. Evadne Mona Montpelier Hinge (George Logan); Dame Hilda Nemone Bracket (Patrick Fyffe).Dame Hilda Bracket is portrayed as a lively, fun-loving, flamboyant doyenne of opera. She takes charge of the stage and inhabits the limelight sporting a coquettish lop-sided grin and a chiffon hanky dangling at the wrist. Projecting enthusiasm and flirting shamelessly with the audience, she leads the performance with gusto, exerting a comical degree of bossiness, and occasional wilfulness, over the long-suffering Dr. Hinge.
Dr Evadne Hinge is played in sharp contrast as a reserved, austere intellectual whose role is to provide piano accompaniment, direction and, where necessary, vocal support for Dame Hilda Bracket's singing performances. Cutting a modest, almost apologetic figure on stage, Evadne slides demurely onto the piano stool and peers sideways at the audience over half-moon spectacles on a decorative chain.
Together, they play and sing songs from a traditional light-operatic repertoire, taken mainly from Gilbert & Sullivan, Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
and Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
("Dear Ivor"), but occasionally "coming bang up to date" with "modern" shows such as South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
. Their musical turns are interspersed with comic anecdotes and frequent discursions into repartee, punctuated by flashes of cattiness and bickering. Between numbers, Hilda's wisecracking antics and Evadne's acid reactions to her companion's attention-seeking are a rich source of comedy in the act.
Early on, Dame Hilda establishes the pecking order by explaining their respective titles: her own damehood was awarded for "services to music and opera", whereas Evadne's "Dr." was bestowed "for hard work".
Disapproving, but never daunted by the frivolous and overbearing Hilda, Evadne raises her eyebrows and takes controlled revenge through terse and well-timed put-downs which deflate Hilda's ego. Evadne also reminds the audience at every opportunity that she is in fact younger than Hilda.
Throughout their exchanges, and notwithstanding their petty squabbles over such details as the date they first met, or which opera was in rehearsal at the time, Hilda and Evadne never fail to address each other as "Dear", and occasionally stop mid-concert for sherry, or to examine the fascinating contents of their handbags.
In spite of their petty disagreements, the ladies are portrayed as indivisible companions and an unassailable partnership.
Favourite devices and themes of the act
Hilda polishes her reading glasses:A regular treat for the audience sees Hilda make a comedic meal of polishing her spectacles. Each lens in turn is breathed upon in a loud, honking baritone (hungh!) before the glasses are finally (hungh!) positioned on her nose.
Hilda's cousin's career in the military:
H-"He was in the guards..... Only for two weeks"
Cousin Evelyn ("Yes it's one of those difficult names") was caught playing [cards] with his privates. In Dear Ladies this incident was attributed to Hilda's nephew Julian instead.
Hilda checks the time on her brother's watch:
E-"Why are you wearing your brother's watch, Dear?"
H-"Because he's borrowed mine."
Cue various oblique references to cross-dressing.
Evadne's mysterious health problems:
Frequently aired in public by Hilda, Evadne's afflictions include knees prone to locking, a separate condition requiring treatment with three forms of Ralgex, and a non-specific rash. Letters from Evadne's clinic, invariably addressed to "Mrs Ming", are seized upon and read "sotto voce" by Hilda, mumbling practical instructions such as "try not to pick it".
Evadne's names:
In start-of-show announcements, the list of Evadne's names is occasionally expanded beyond the usual "Evadne Mona Montpelier", to include additions such as "Pauline", "Renee", "Albuquerque" and "Liversedge". Later shows, in deference to the advent of the cyber-age, incorporate "DotCom" into this list.
Hilda compliments Evadne on her singing:
H-"Very reminiscent of Lilian Baylis
Lilian Baylis
Lilian Mary BaylisCH was an English theatrical producer and manager. She managed the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres in London, and ran an opera company, which became the English National Opera , a theatre company, which evolved into the English National Theatre, and a ballet company, which...
, Dear."
E-"But she didn't sing, Dear".
Hilda and Evadne receive their end-of-concert presentations:
Over the applause, Hilda and Evadne are presented with gifts of appreciation by the organisers. Huge bouquets arrive for Hilda, but for Evadne, never more than a meagre token, ranging from the tiniest posy of flowers, via half a dozen eggs in a cardboard carton, to a banjo.
Favourite props
Evadne's half-moon spectacles:Always perched on the end of Evadne's nose, and lending an appropriate air of severity to the character, these spectacles began life as a brown half-moon design on a gold chain. The second incarnation were again spectacles of brown half-moon design, but this time on a pearl chain. In 1984 on the final series of 'Dear Ladies', the BBC provided George Logan with a slightly different pair of brown half-moon spectacles on a chain made entirely of very large shaped pearls, Logan continued to use them on a few live stage shows (before he reverted back to the brown half-moon spectacles on a pearl chain). When Evadne's pearl chain finally broke and had to be replaced, Patrick Fyffe gave George Logan a silver chain, (which actually came from Dame Hilda's reading spectacles). Logan soon replaced this with a more dainty gold chain. In the later years, and after Logan's props were accidentally lost, Evadne peered over red half-moon spectacles on a different gold chain. Through each and every incarnation of these spectacles, Evadne's disapproving glare had the power to melt paint.
The Ladies' Handbags:
Hinge and Bracket were never seen on stage without their handbags, and with each successive concert, their bags appeared to grow in size. The clasp of Hilda's vintage 50's metal-framed carry-all closed with the snap of a crocodile's jaws, and in later years she would claim this action as an attention-getter learned from Mrs Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
("...and she got it from Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
"). The handbags' contents reflected the personalities of their owners: Hilda's held little beyond her reading glasses, a chiffon hankie and the obligatory powder compact, whereas Evadne's accoutrements were a cross between a portable pharmacy and the contents of Just William
Just William
Just William is the first book of children's short stories about the young school boy William Brown, written by Richmal Crompton, and published in 1922. The book was the first in the series of William Brown books which was the basis for numerous television series, films and radio adaptations...
's trouser-pocket. Hilda's favourite humiliation tactic was to ridicule the contents of Evadne's handbag in front of the audience.
Gay references
These were present throughout the stage shows, some examples in the television series, largely absent from the radio shows.In conversation in the televised shows, there would be various old fashioned slang references to "Dorothy", and a few racier remarks. The stage shows were the main medium for delivering gay-themed innuendo. But in musical performance, Hinge and Bracket were inveterate teasers of their audience. In the course of their shows, they performed what amounted to the entire repertoire of light opera songs containing the word "gay", additionally mining G&S classics as a rich source of double-entendre from 'The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
' "Then One Of Us Will Be A Queen", via Patience
Patience
Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. Patience is the...
"blithe and gay" through to the story of Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
, which famously had one dainty foot in fairyland. Thus would the trail of gems be laid, innocently, straight-faced and of course in impeccable context. The audience could stoop to gather these, if so they wished, but "the ladies" were always looking firmly the other way.
Lives of the Ladies: Musical & Academic Credentials
According to their invented background, the ladies won their musical spurs touring with the "Rosa Charles Opera Company", where Hilda sang lead roles and Evadne joined in the capacity of assistant to the assistant musical director, quickly rising to the full directorship. Audiences in the Seventies at least, would have recognised in this invented name a respectful nod to Carl Rosa, founder of a real-life opera troupe in England in the late 19th Century. Carl Rosa did much to popularise opera across Victorian England, and the company flourished through into the mid 20th Century, touring with the standard operatic repertoire up until 1960 - all sung, of course, in the "natural language of the civilised world": English.Accordingly, a recurring joke in their musical act was Dame Hilda's discomfiture whenever called upon to perform an aria in its original language. With an irritable flourish, Hilda would produce from her handbag the famous reading spectacles for (hungh!) polishing, and squint impatiently at the Italian (hungh!) libretto. Cue a bravura performance from Fyffe, singing as Hilda with a smell under her nose, but nevertheless demonstrating a knowledge of Italian which was a "little more than Asti Spumante" - at least in the context of operatic performance. Hilda's back-story in fact extended to a few glorious years spent in Italy in the run-up to World War 2, studying "the rhythm method" under the large Italian operatic impresario Signor Bonavoce.
Evadne's doctorate in music (awarded at the age of 16) and reputation as a pianist preceded her, but the convention of the act demanded that, because of Hilda's "limited attention span", Evadne was always denied the opportunity to perform full pieces on stage. Once in a while, however, the audience would be treated to a brief taste of Logan's Royal Scottish Academy standard piano skills - notably Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor (condensed to 2 minutes). Additionally, Evadne was reported to "have the advantage of French" - which she had "picked up many years ago from a wine list". Not to be outdone on this front, Hilda would attempt to compete by tossing in the odd French phrase with her customary "joie de vie" (sic) and invariably got it wrong.
The ladies' musical credentials were further supported by allusions to celebrity audience members attending their concerts - names from the world of opera and music with whom they claimed equal status. Some of these names were real figures, and actually present at their recordings - Dame Eva Turner and Olive Gilbert
Olive Gilbert
Olive Sarah Gilbert was an operatic singer and actress, who performed in many of Ivor Novello's musicals.-Biography:Gilbert was born in Carmarthen, Wales....
being two notable examples. Others were nebulous inventions, embraced by Dame Hilda's blanket welcome line to the distinguished audience: "you celebrities know who you are, so we'll say nothing".
Frequent collaborators from the world of light opera included baritones Michael Rayner and Ian Belsey
Ian Belsey
Ian Belsey is a lyric baritone specializing in opera of the bel canto period, but is best known for his performances in light music and operetta, particularly the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.-Biography:...
.
Lives of the Ladies: Village PeopleVillage PeopleVillage People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics....
Hinge and Bracket's fictional home life, referred to constantly in their shows, is further developed in the radio and television series. The invented back-story has the ladies residing in the village or small town of Stackton TresselStackton Tressel
Stackton Tressel is a fictional, archetypical English village.Originally featuring in the 1974 Edinburgh Festival and then on the London stage, the exploits of its most notable residents, Doctor Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket, were broadcast by the BBC – by both radio and televisual...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, which, in the words of Bracket, lies 17 miles from Bury St. Edmunds "as the crow flies, though there haven't been a lot of crows this year". Here, the ladies share a house called Utopia Ltd
Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances...
. They also share their home with three cats, Sandy the Goldfish and Milton the Budgie. Evadne is not keen on the pets, or more accurately, on Hilda's sugary attitude towards them. In one story from the television series, Sandy the goldfish is banished to a bucket under the sink when Evadne borrows his bowl to use as a crystal ball for her "Gypsy Mona" spot at the village fête.
The ladies otherwise amuse themselves with recitals of Gilbert & Sullivan, Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
and Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
("Dear Ivor"), and employ an eccentric housekeeper, Maud, played in the radio series by character actress Daphne Heard
Daphne Heard
Daphne Heard was an English actress. She was born in Plymouth, Devon.She had a long and distinguished career on the stage, especially in classical roles, but was perhaps best known to the general public in latter years as "Mrs...
(and, on her death, by Jean Heywood
Jean Heywood
Jean Heywood is a British actress, appearing in films such as Billy Elliot and Our Day Out as well as TV series When the Boat Comes In, All Creatures Great and Small, Boys from the Blackstuff, Family Affairs, The Bill and Casualty.In 2010, Heywood made a guest appearance in the ITV series Married...
). Maud is characterised by her bovine devotion to "Dame 'Ilder", a barely disguised antipathy to Evadne, and a general suspicion of men. She is particularly wary of men with beards, men with moustaches, and foreign men (Evadne's French friend André, played in the radio series by André Maranne
André Maranne
André Maranne is an Anglo-French actor who appeared chiefly in English-language roles from the mid 1950s.-Career:Born in Toulouse, France, Maranne's most prominent recurring role was Sergeant François Chevalier in six of The Pink Panther films, alongside Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Before the...
, is suspected by Maud of being a white slaver). Maud systematically breaks, steps in, ruins or otherwise bungles every aspect of her household duties, and is indulged by Hilda because of her history as Hilda's dresser from their days with the "Rosa Charles Opera Company". Evadne is constantly at loggerheads with Maud, who retorts with observations such as "we can't all be musical". The TV series did not feature Maud in person, although a couple of references were made to her in the first two episodes of Dear Ladies Series 1.
Dame Hilda drives around in her shiny open-top vintage Rolls, while Evadne is more than happy to rely on her faithful old tricycle and cart, (usually unaware that all the fruit and vegetables just bought from the local greengrocer are falling out of the back of the trailer). Fellow villagers are known by such unlikely names as Methuen Hawkins (pharmacist) and Tewkesbury Ptolman. They make guest appearances in the ladies' concerts, most notably baritone (and butcher) Tewkesbury Ptolman, who appears in a number of the shows "by kind permission of Christopher Underwood".
Theirs is a genteel English post-war world of cucumber sandwiches, bell ringing, church fêtes and ladies' bowls matches, all served with a liberal helping of old-fashioned values recalled, and a sprinkling of double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
s. But the ladies do not always play fair: in one episode, Hilda and Evadne organise the refreshments for a "friendly" inter-village football match, manned by two teams of Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE was an English footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the English game, he is the only player to have been knighted while still playing, as well as being the first winner of both the European Footballer of the Year and the Football Writers'...
look-alikes and intentionally poison the visiting team.
Reinventing Drag
To label Hinge and Bracket a drag act would be to simplify their appeal and in some measure undervalue their art. Logan and Fyffe, in full "fig", not only looked, but also sang like two elderly eccentric spinsters. In addition, they created a back-story for their characters, and embellished the characterisations with detailed reminiscences. To the audiences of the Seventies, who actually remembered real-life equivalents of Evadne or Hilda - ladies in black sequinned gowns whose precise diction and vocabularies included the strange words "orf" and "gel" - such authenticity was essential. Logan and Fyffe in performance inhabited Evadne and Hilda to the very fingertips, and bolstered the illusion by channelling their own personalities through their invented characters. In the public eye, these characters existed independently of their creators.Dropping an Octave
Though Hinge and Bracket were not a "drag act" in the traditional sense, the drag aspect was nevertheless a rich source of comic effect: in concert, a favourite device was for Hilda, Evadne or even both to suddenly drop out of falsetto in the lower registers of a song and give the audience a blast of full-blooded baritone. Such manoeuvres caught the listener unawares, because the falsetto performances were otherwise so convincing. This use of musical bathos was all the more effective because, in all other aspects of performance, Hinge and Bracket were impeccable in the image they projected: whilst they would regularly exploit the inherent disconnect of being two men in drag, they would never abandon character.One Upmanship
As comic inventions, Evadne and Hilda operated as perfect foils for one another. Hilda would assume the lead, hog the limelight, monopolize the audience; Evadne would wait patiently for her moment, then swiftly deflate Hilda's ego with a well-aimed barb. This cycle was repeated to intense comic effect, and formed the dynamic of the act. Hilda would grandstand and linger too long over a high note, only for Evadne to race through the rest of the phrase on the piano and finish without her. Hilda fancied herself in charge of the stage, but Evadne had control of the keyboard and could undermine Hilda with a stroke of her intellect.Moving with the Times
The appeal of Hinge and Bracket worked on several levels: gay, highbrow cultural, mainstream dotty, and pantomime dame. Over the 30 years of the comedic partnership, the transition of the act from minority interest, via arty to mainstream and populist appeal, was, arguably, reflecting the changing attitude in British society towards culture and the arts in general and gay culture in particular.Over the years, the balance of the act shifted from musical performance towards verbal comedy and mild farce. Hinge and Bracket evolved as an act with appeal well beyond their original gay audience, but a certain level of double-entendre was carefully preserved in all media of delivery (and was always allowed more prominence in their stage shows). In the Seventies, the impression gained from watching their concert performances was that some of their more involved double-meaning gags had flown underneath the audience's radar. In the closing minutes of a concert, Patrick Fyffe as Hilda may well have expressed a wish to be seen across the road by a boy scout, whilst carrying a big bag of shillings, but this bawdy joke was wasted on an "untrained" audience in the Royal Hall Harrogate. Equally, allusions to "Dick Turpin's doings on Wimbledon Common" were softened by references to The Wombles
The Wombles
The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. Wombles were created by author Elisabeth Beresford, originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968...
, so that the audience were laughing before they had properly worked out what was behind the reference.
By the Nineties, the age of innocence had passed, and people were more on the alert for the gay gag: in the 1994 Regents Park anniversary show "Shaken, Not Stirred", the double meanings came in spades, and to the sharp appreciation of the audience.
But the appeal of Hinge and Bracket was never merely in the disposition of a drag act or a gay joke. The pitch was always warmth, nostalgia, musical appreciation, gentility, quasi highbrow in the recitals, playful dottiness in the radio shows, and cosy mischief - sweetness even - in the television series.
Tongue-in-Cheek Tradition
For those who preferred uncomplicated, eccentric humour, Hinge and Bracket's radio and television series served up the English village antics of these two elderly dotty spinsters like a traditional cream tea. Three television series of "Dear Ladies" arrived on screen in the Eighties as well-observed, gentle dotty humour with a flavour of post-war manners, and celebrating village life. A natural progression from "The Enchanting World of Hinge and Bracket" radio shows, and scripted by Gyles BrandrethGyles Brandreth
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is a British writer, broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament and junior minister.-Early life:...
, the television series were a framework in which Logan and Fyffe could play out in full colour their "take" on the observed behaviour of the elderly ladies of the WI and churchgoing communities of their youth. The atmosphere was borrowed from an era when people chipped in for the community, involved themselves in one another's lives and believed in the importance of cultural pursuits.
Recreating The Golden Age of Song
Although "the ladies" developed into fully rounded characters, and eventually became familiar figures on popular television and chat shows, Hinge and Bracket's definitive identity was as musical performers. In concert, they would not only perform the songs, but also express their characters' deep enjoyment of the pieces, and whilst the act's emphasis over the years moved away from singing to chat, their performances and personae stood as a tribute to amateur operatics - where the word "amateur" expressed, in its purest sense, a love of the music and of the show. On stage Patrick Fyffe conveyed nothing if not the joy of vocal performance, and trod the boards with the dignified poise and conviction (if not the voice!) of a provincial Callas. Whilst this dignity was a device deliberately to be undermined in the service of comedy, it nevertheless set a standard for the audience's expectations. Together, the figures of Hilda and Evadne represented the exuberant spirit and intellectual rigour which had underpinned an entire golden age of operatic and musical spectacle.Music with Mischief
Because Hilda and Evadne were always portrayed as deadly serious about their music and the performing arts, an important device in the Hinge and Bracket shows was the ladies' apparent conviction that their audiences felt the same way. However, the key to the wide popularity of Hinge and Bracket lay in the skill with which they exploited that very seriousness to comic effect. Accordingly, songs which, delivered from a more conventional platform would have sounded hackneyed, melodramatic or over-sentimental, were presented to the listener in comic context, and with regular doses of stage mischief to defuse excessive sentiment, mawkishness or melodrama. In performance, the release valve could be vented in all manner of ways: on the one hand, their rendition of NovelloIvor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
's "We'll gather Lilacs" has both ladies bursting into tears and bawling into their chiffon hankies by verse two. On other occasions, the solemnity of a song would be undermined by Hilda's impish chortling during the more melodramatic passages (c/f Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's "Zigeuner"). In one performance, Hilda sails majestically through the first bars of Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
's aria "Ritorna vincitor" only to segue directly into a rendition of "Pedro the Fisherman" à la Gracie Fields
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields, DBE , was an English-born, later Italian-based actress, singer and comedienne and star of both cinema and music hall.-Early life:...
. Hinge and Bracket had mastered their ingredients: they knew their subject, and their audience, and the science of raising a laugh.
Hinge and Bracket in the Comedic Timeline
In interview, George Logan has acknowledged that the overall style of Hinge and Bracket harked back to the era of Ealing comedy and owed a great debt to Joyce GrenfellJoyce Grenfell
Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was an English actress, comedienne, diseuse and singer-songwriter.-Early life:...
. Borrowings from Hinge and Bracket in modern British comedy are detectable in some comic creations of recent years. Notably in the Florence and Emily ("I'm a Laydee") characters from Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
, and also in the eccentric personage of Hyacinth Bucket
Hyacinth Bucket
Hyacinth Bucket, who insists her last name is pronounced "Bouquet" , is the main character in the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances , played by Patricia Routledge.-Personality:...
. Bucket is yet another example of singing household hardware, and in full amateur operatic flow she is reminiscent of Bracket (Braqué?) in both voice and stiff-legged gait. Also, Hyacinth's forbearing, modest but quietly competent spouse Richard bears more than a passing resemblance to Evadne, as a foil. But a comparable mix of wit, warmth and musical talent epitomised by Hinge and Bracket has not been achieved since Fyffe passed away, and Logan laid aside his half-moon spectacles.
Musical pedigree of the performers
Both George Logan and Patrick Fyffe were born into musically talented families with a strong stage background. Logan went on to study music at the Royal Academy in Glasgow and attended Glasgow University. Fyffe appeared in amateur theatre before turning professional.In a 2007 television interview, George Logan explains that both he and Fyffe had been boy sopranos, and found themselves able to produce a falsetto voice after puberty. Patrick Fyffe's falsetto voice was additionally gifted with the full rounded tones of a mezzo soprano, and capable of producing some rousing high notes in performance. His vocal interpretations demonstrated profound emotional connection with the songs, and with his audience.
George Logan, who claims not to have seen himself as a singer in the same vein, nevertheless projected a light quavering soprano of clarion tone, and admirable breath control in the "patter" songs, whilst simultaneously providing the piano accompaniment. Though formally trained as a classical pianist, he also has the ability to play by ear, and used both skills to the benefit of the act. In many instances the material performed by Hinge and Bracket required transposition to a different key or other special musical arrangement.
Thus, the inspiration for Dr Hinge’s character as a serious musician came from Logan's formal musical background. Similarly, Patrick Fyffe's affinity with musical comedy and operetta informed the character of Dame Hilda. This meshing of the two areas of interest allowed the act to explore and exploit many different areas of the vocal music repertoire.
Early career
Patrick Fyffe and George Logan were already well acquainted from their separate appearances in London cabaret when Fyffe approached Logan to stand in briefly as the piano accompanist for his drag act. One thing led to another, and before he knew it, Logan was sitting at the keyboard in one of Fyffe's spare frocks. The names "Hinge" and "Bracket" were chosen after much deliberation, and in preference to bawdier alternatives. Fortunately so, since "Dr P. Nissen" and "Dame Ava Fanny" would hardly have flown under the radar as family entertainment in quite the same way.From June 1972, Hinge and Bracket worked for two years around the London pubs and clubs. Most notably, they appeared at a gay Kensington restaurant, called AD8, every Sunday lunchtime. The restaurant was owned by Desmond Morgan and April Ashley
April Ashley
April Ashley is an English model and restaurant hostess. She was the first British person to be outed as a transsexual, which was by the Sunday People in 1961...
. Ashley was a celebrity of the 1960s after a sex change in Morocco in 1960. Hinge and Bracket were popular with diners, and their Sunday slot became a ritual in moneyed gay society.
It was from this circuit that Hinge and Bracket were recruited to appear at the 1974 Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
.
Their Edinburgh show was a one-hour scripted vignette, presenting them in a Victorian church hall setting, along with a visiting baritone. In this intimate atmosphere, Evadne and Hilda handed round glasses of sherry to their audience. News of the show (or the sherry) quickly spread around the festival, and after the first couple of nights, they were playing to packed houses. Immediately after Edinburgh, they moved the show to London, where they appeared for an interim fortnight at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, immediately followed by a six month season at The Mayfair Theatre.
The format of the show remained largely unchanged until the act moved to The Ambassador’s Theatre. One month into their run, they were approached by playwright Ray Cooney
Ray Cooney
Raymond George Alfred Cooney, OBE is an English playwright and actor. His biggest success, Run for Your Wife, lasted nine years in London's West End and is its longest-running comedy. He has had 17 of his plays performed there....
to provide a show for the late night slot. And so, the first specially commissioned Hinge and Bracket show, "Sixty Glorious Minutes", was written, and the Hinge and Bracket phenomenon was born.
Radio
Hinge and Bracket toured theatres with their double act for some years before appearing on the radio. Their first series, The Enchanting World of Hinge and Bracket, ran on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
for three seasons from 1977 to 1979. Produced by James Casey
James Casey (Variety Artist)
James Casey was at various times during his long career a Variety comedian on the English music-halls, a scriptwriter for BBC Radio's variety shows and situation comedies, and a senior BBC Radio Light Entertainment producer....
at BBC Radio in Manchester and scripted by Mike Craig, Laurie Kinsley and Ron McDonnell, these programmes were a mixture of period songs and situation comedy. Actress Daphne Heard
Daphne Heard
Daphne Heard was an English actress. She was born in Plymouth, Devon.She had a long and distinguished career on the stage, especially in classical roles, but was perhaps best known to the general public in latter years as "Mrs...
was a series regular as The Dear Ladies' housekeeper, Maud, and each show featured an appearance by a guest artiste.
The Random Jottings of Hinge and Bracket, which ran for 68 episodes on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
from 1982 to 1989, was scripted by Gerald Frow, and placed the stars in a variety of comedy situations, each episode being introduced from a supposed entry in Dame Hilda's diary. With the death of Daphne Heard
Daphne Heard
Daphne Heard was an English actress. She was born in Plymouth, Devon.She had a long and distinguished career on the stage, especially in classical roles, but was perhaps best known to the general public in latter years as "Mrs...
in 1983, Maud's mantle was assumed by character actress Jean Heywood
Jean Heywood
Jean Heywood is a British actress, appearing in films such as Billy Elliot and Our Day Out as well as TV series When the Boat Comes In, All Creatures Great and Small, Boys from the Blackstuff, Family Affairs, The Bill and Casualty.In 2010, Heywood made a guest appearance in the ITV series Married...
. Maud in her later incarnation was periodically joined by her uncouth and mischievous sister Gudrun, played with bloodcurdling relish by comedienne Liz Smith
Liz Smith (actress)
Liz Smith, MBE is a British actress, best-known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
.
Their final radio series, At Home with Hinge and Bracket, had the format of informal musical evenings with a celebrity guest, and ran for a single season in 1990. Guests on these shows were Anthony Newley
Anthony Newley
Anthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...
, Rosalind Plowright
Rosalind Plowright
Rosalind Anne Plowright OBE is an English opera singer who spent much of her career as a soprano but in 1999 changed to the mezzo-soprano range.- Life and career :...
, Benjamin Luxon
Benjamin Luxon
Benjamin Matthew Luxon CBE is a retired British baritone.-Biography:He studied with Walter Grünner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and established an international reputation as a singer when he won a third prize at the 1961 ARD International Music Competition in Munich...
, June Whitfield
June Whitfield
June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, well known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
, Evelyn Laye
Evelyn Laye
Evelyn Laye, CBE was an English theatre and film actress.-Early years and career:Born as Elsie Evelyn Lay in Bloomsbury, London, Laye made her first stage appearance in August 1915 at the Theatre Royal, Brighton as Nang-Ping in Mr...
and Jack Brymer
Jack Brymer
John Alexander Brymer OBE , was a British clarinettist, born in South Shields.-Biography:The son of a builder, Jack Brymer started his working life as a teacher, being at Heath Clark School, Thornton Heath, Surrey in the late 1940s...
.
Certain of the radio episodes have been re-broadcast on BBC 7
BBC 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra, formerly known as BBC 7 and BBC Radio 7, is a British digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming nationally 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's archive of spoken-word entertainment...
in recent years - the radio station subsequently known as BBC Radio 7 and, latterly, Radio 4 Extra.
Television
A number of Hinge and Bracket gala and concert performances were televised by the BBC between 1978 and 1983. Venues included the Royal Hall, Harrogate and the Opera House, Buxton, and the repertoire ranged from Verdi through light opera and musical comedy to music hall. In addition, the BBC recorded a "Dear Ladies Masterclass" (with early-career contributions from baritone Gerard Quinn and pianist Janet Mellor) held at the Royal Northern College of MusicRoyal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
and a special performance, co-scripted by Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is a British writer, broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament and junior minister.-Early life:...
, from the Princess Hall, Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College
The Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.-History:The school was founded in 1853...
in 1983.
Hinge and Bracket appeared in their own series called Dear Ladies on BBC 2, between 1983 and 1985. The scripts were written by Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth is a British writer, broadcaster and former Conservative Member of Parliament and junior minister.-Early life:...
. Locations were picturesque Cheshire towns and villages, including Knutsford
Knutsford
Knutsford is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, in North West England...
, Great Budworth
Great Budworth
Great Budworth is a civil parish and village, approximately north of Northwich, England, within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire. It lies off the A559 road, east of Comberbach, northwest of Higher Marston and southeast of Budworth Heath...
and Nantwich
Nantwich
Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The town gives its name to the parliamentary constituency of Crewe and Nantwich...
. Three series were made, including a pilot. In the third series of 'Dear Ladies', a few small changes were made, perhaps the most noticeable change being Hinge wearing a slightly different pair of Brown half-moon spectacles and chain.
Stage
The two also made independent stage appearances: Dame Hilda as 'Katisha' in The MikadoThe Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
and 'Ruth' in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
; and Doctor Hinge as Miss Marple
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...
in Murder at the Vicarage in 1994. The characters appeared together in Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
’s The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
for a West End run, followed by a nationwide tour; and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in a New Year’s Eve performance of Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, conducted by Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
and starring Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
. They toured the UK with the Peter Shaffer
Peter Shaffer
Sir Peter Levin Shaffer is an English dramatist and playwright, screenwriter and author of numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been filmed.-Early life:...
play Lettice and Lovage, as well as continuing to appear in their variety act, touring with the variety show Palladium Nights until 2001). Hinge and Bracket appeared on the Royal Variety Show twice, and were selected to perform privately for the Royal Family on a number of occasions.
Fyffe (Dame Hilda) also toured a one-woman show entitled By Kind Permission, which saw Dame Hilda perform new songs (written by Fyffe, Barrie Bignold and Stuart Calvert) and perform sketches as different characters.
Patrick Fyffe
Patrick Fyffe was born on 23 January 1942 in StaffordStafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
and died on 11 May 2002 at Wellington
Wellington, Somerset
Wellington is a small industrial town in rural Somerset, England, situated south west of Taunton in the Taunton Deane district, near the border with Devon, which runs along the Blackdown Hills to the south of the town...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
from spinal cancer. He is outlived by his sister, the soprano Jane Fyffe, who was a performer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
in the late 1950s.
Many of Fyffe's immediate family had been active in musical theatre, but he initially trained as a hairdresser, and ran his own salon in Stafford before making a career on the stage. He was a regular star of local amateur productions, but a desire to turn professional took him to London. His early professional appearances included a 1964 production of the musical Robert and Elizabeth
Robert and Elizabeth
Robert and Elizabeth is a musical with music by Ron Grainer and book and lyrics by Ronald Millar. The story is based on an unproduced musical titled The Third Kiss by Judge Fred G. Moritt, which in turn was adapted from the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street by Rudolph Besier...
, at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (London)
The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
,, (in which his sister played the lead for a period, and he played one of Elizabeth's brothers), and a 1971 production of the same show at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow.
With some experience of repertory and a couple of provincial tours behind him, Fyffe invented the character of glamorous soprano "Perri St Claire". Played on stage as a sophisticated young lady with singing talent, the "Perri" character was sufficiently eye-catching to earn him some television slots, and Fyffe was asked to appear in character in a number of television series of the late sixties, notably Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
and the last programme of Doctor in the House
Doctor in the House (TV series)
Doctor in the House is the syndicated title given, by the United States, to a British television comedy series , based on a set of books and a movie of the same name by Richard Gordon about the misadventures of a group of medical students — and their later misadventures as doctors.The first...
Series 1 in 1969, when he appeared as a cabaret singer.. Fyffe also appeared in the first Steptoe and Son film, as a drag artist who becomes the mistaken object of Steptoe Senior's lust.
George Logan
George Logan was born on 7 July 1944 in RutherglenRutherglen
Rutherglen is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1975, it lost its own local council and administratively became a component of the City of Glasgow. In 1996 Rutherglen was reallocated to the South Lanarkshire council area.-History:...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, to a musical and theatrical family. He was educated at the Royal Scottish Academy Glasgow and Glasgow University, trained as a classical pianist and has a particular interest in opera and vocal music.
After leaving Glasgow, Logan worked in London as a computer programmer, but continued to use his piano skills around the London clubs and pubs, accompanying the stage acts. In 1970 he met and became friends with Patrick Fyffe, and together they formed Hinge and Bracket, making their first appearance in 1972.
Logan applied his formal training to producing all the musical arrangements for the act. Mainly because of the atypical vocal range of the performers, most of Hinge and Bracket's material required transposition or adaptation for performance.
Logan frequented the Toucan club and the Piano Bar in Soho, where he would hold court with his many tales of showbiz high jinks.
After the death of his stage partner, and a few seasons of pantomime, he retired from the stage in 2004. Having, like his stage counterpart Evadne, "the advantage of French", as well as an interest in fine food and wine, he opened a bed-and-breakfast in France, where he lives today.
A Legacy to Theatrical Music
Following special provision in Patrick Fyffe's will, The Dame Hilda Bracket Trust was established in September 2004 and registered as a charity in March 2006. The stated aims of the Trust were "to encourage and advance the education of the public in the study, performance, understanding and appreciation of theatrical music, in particular grand and light opera, operetta and musical comedy...through the establishment and maintenance of scholarships and trusts". Fyffe's stage partner, George Logan, and his housekeeper and friend, Hilary Miles, were among the appointed trustees. In 2007, it was decided that Patrick Fyffe's wishes would be best furthered if administration of the funds were handed over to an organisation with appropriate expertise and administrative capability. Accordingly, in 2007, The Dame Hilda Bracket Trust was subsumed into The Sadlers Wells Trust.DVD release
- Hinge and Bracket's television series Dear Ladies is available on DVD.
- Hinge and Bracket: Gala Evenings is available on DVD, featuring over 6 hours of material.
- The Complete Dear Ladies & Gala Evenings set is available on DVD, distributed by Acorn Media UKAcorn Media UKAcorn Media UK is a DVD publisher which distributes and sells home video products with a particular focus on British television.- Company history :The company was founded in 1997 when Lesley Fromant set up a branch of parent company Acorn Media in the UK....
. This includes all three series of Dear Ladies as well as the Gala Evenings DVD.