Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt! was a popular ITV situation comedy which ran from 1976 to 1977, although a pilot episode was broadcast in 1974. It starred Bill Maynard and was created and mostly written by Alan Plater. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television
Plot
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 Educational Supplement rolled up under his arm all the time) 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/or filling them in!), Do-it-yourself at home, and booking acts for the club. The show was notable for 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 Two pints of cooking, Raymond. Raymond the barman (Ray Mort) was fond of answering the telephone with a number of highly fictitious and fanciful addresses. Froggitt's accomplices 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.
Selwyn
In 1978 after three successful series of Oh No Its Selywn Froggitt. Yorkshire Television decided to change the format of the show radically. The new version of the series was entitled Selwyn; all of the regular cast bar Maynard departed and the Froggitt character became entertainments manager at a seedy holiday camp. The quality of writing suffered - Plater was no longer involved with the show - and its quality and popularity plummeted. Selwyn ran for only one season and was not widely missed when it was not recommissioned.
