- Date First Aired: 01/01/1980
It is 1959, and Cambridge University Archaeology Professor Jeffrey Fairbrother, who's bored of the world of academia, has decided to take a job at the Maplin's Holiday Camp as the new Entertainment Manager, a job he looks forward to with idealized optimism. Meanwhile, Camp Host Ted Bovis decides to instruct his new recruit, Camp Comedian Spike Dixon, on succeeding at Maplins.
Tropes in this episode:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Jeffrey's mother, describing the state of the country:Jeffrey's mother: We've lost the Empire, Eden's gone, and hordes of teddy-bear boys are tearing up cinema seats every time that dreadful little Cockney man is singing about a little white ball.
- Book Dumb: Apparently, Ted doesn't even know what an archeologist is.
- The Bore: Jeffrey is stated to be this. He comments that his wife left him because he was boring and that his students have been falling asleep at his classes.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Fred hates the old and sick horses he had to use, compared to later episodes where he'd be their biggest supporter and stay up all night to comfort them.
- Marty Storm is introduced twice alongside the other mains only quickly drop off the face of the Earth.
- Peggy is quite snarky and flirty, something that wouldn't last long.
- Establishing Character Moment: Barry and Yvonne's introduction has them ballroom dancing all while engaging in Snark-to-Snark Combat.
- Extra-Long Episode: This episode is 40 minutes long, longer than the 30 minute run of other episodes. Some repeats have cut this down to a shorter length.
- Photo Montage: The first few days of the holiday camp and it's activities are shown through a montage of photos. With a half of them involving Spike getting thrown into the pool.
- Pie in the Face: Jeffrey gets one to his face courtesy of Ted.
- Right in Front of Me: Both Ted and Spike mock Jeffrey on the train not knowing that he was the man who was across from him.
- Rule of Pool: It's mentioned early on that people are liable to getting thrown into the pool at Maplin's, and poor Spike is a frequent victim to this throughout the episode.
- Shout-Out:
- The name of the episode comes from the nursery rhyme "The Cat and the Fiddle".
- Ted mentions about how TV producers are casting for a new "show about people that live in this mucky street".
- When going through the comedy props, Ted briefly comments, "Eh, what's up doc?"
- Sticky Fingers: Ted frequently steals soap from the chalets.
- Welcome Episode: Spike and Jeffrey join the entertainments staff at Maplins and meet the rest of the cast.
