High Hopes. Image shows from L to R: Mam (Margaret John), Fagin (Robert Blythe). Copyright: BBC
High Hopes

High Hopes

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC One Wales
  • 1999 - 2015
  • 40 episodes (6 series)

BBC Wales sitcom about four petty criminals living in the South Wales valleys. Stars Robert Blythe and Margaret John. Stars Robert Blythe, Margaret John, Steven Meo, Ben Evans, Oliver Wood and more.

High Hopes. Copyright: BBC

Key details

Genre
Sitcom
Broadcast
1999 - 2015
Channel
BBC One Wales
Episodes
40 (1 pilot + 6 series), plus 4 highlights & documentary specials
Stars
Robert Blythe, Margaret John, Steven Meo, Ben Evans, Oliver Wood, Keiron Self, Boyd Clack and Di Botcher
Writers
Boyd Clack and Kirsten Jones
Director
Gareth Gwenlan
Producers
Gareth Gwenlan, Maggie Russell and Ellen Harris
Company

Sitcom taking a sideways look at the larger-than-life characters in the fictitious valleys town of Cwm Pen-ol - a place where a life of crime is de rigeur.

Self-appointed professor of crime Richard "Fagin" Hepplewhite is an ageing agoraphobic whose career in crime has been less than glittering. A loveable rogue, he prefers to think of himself as "a spider at the centre of an intricate web" as he attempts to orchestrate the networks of criminal activity that he invents in the comfort of his own shabby front room.

Fagin's quirky Mam, Elsie, runs the Hepplewhite household. A practical woman - always on hand with tea and angel cake - she is the proud owner of a vast collection of pinnies and she knows how to make a sex toy from a lump of putty and an old alarm clock.

Dwayne Hoffman and Charlie Jenkins are homeless teenage scallywags trying to scrape a living by operating on the wrong side of the law. With no homes to go to the pair stumble across Fagin and Mam during a midnight burglary raid on 66 Investiture Crescent. They're soon working together of various schemes.

Across the six series and specials, the show follows the ups and downs of the four 'from the wrong side of the tracks' as they form themselves into an unlikely but close-knit family group.

Additional details

Production
Studio
Camera set-up
Multi-camera
Picture
Colour
Soundtrack
Theme song is an instrumental version of the 1959 song High Hopes, played on a Welsh harp by Dai Brown.

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Thursday 1st April 1999 at 10:35pm on BBC One Wales
All previous repeats
  • Saturday 8th February 2014 at 10:00pm on BBC2 Wales
  • Monday 18th July 2011 at 10:35pm on BBC1 Wales
  • Monday 11th July 2011 at 10:35pm on BBC1 Wales

Recording details

  • Fochriw - Village in credit sequences

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