Jeffrey Holland

To those of us who are (unfortunately) over 40 Jeffrey Holland will forever be Spike, the trainee comedian to Paul Shane's Ted Bovis in TV's Hi Di Hi. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, if you will. Those under 40 will likely never have heard of him unless they have had the pleasure of one of his many theatrical performances.
I met up with Jeffrey as he was preparing for a three night run of his co-authored play 'and this is my friend Mr Laurel' at the Upstairs at The Western theatre in Leicester as part of the Dave Leicester Comedy Festival. As we sat in the empty auditorium he was fulsome with his memories of working in TV and on stage.
We started off chatting about his love of pantomime. He has just finished his 42nd season, 24 of them as dame. Often he is working with his wife, Judy, which mean they have much more time together than if he were touring alone, as he often does. With two grown up children and the recent arrival of his third grandchild, Jeffrey is a contented man doing a job he adores.
The Stan Laurel play is certainly a labour of love for Jeffrey. For many years he has been fascinated by the most successful double act in cinema history. Together Laurel and Hardy churned out 106 films between 1921 and 1951; alongside that Stan appeared in an additional 66 films between 1917 and 1928 without his fat chum.
As an actor who specialised in playing bungling fools onstage, Holland certainly felt an empathy for the onscreen idiot Stan Laurel. Both of them, however, are the polar opposite off-stage, capable, creative and business savvy. Laurel in particular wrote and directed virtually all of the Laurel and Hardy output. While Jeffrey can't claim the same controlling influence over his own livelihood, in his own quiet way he was steered a very successful jobbing actor's career over the past 50 years and shows no sign of slowing down just yet!
Jeffrey Holland's career started in the Belgrave Theater in Coventry where he spent 5 years in repertory learning his craft. Taking any acting job that he was offered he finally came to the notice of Croft and Perry, the creative writers behind Hi Di Hi, Dad's Army and Ello Ello. Several small parts finally lead to the character of Spike being created especially for him in Hi Di Hi, the very successful series set in a tatty 1950's holiday camp. From there he was cast in virtually every Croft and Perry show, even taking Dad's Army out on tour in the stage version.
While Jeffrey is now only seen on TV in cameos for shows like Coronation Street he has a very busy life in various stage productions. As well as touring his one man play, 'and this is my friend Mr Laurel', he is in rehearsals for Ray Cooney's 'Two Into One' running from 8th March to 26th April at Menier Chocolate Factory in London.
'and this is my friend Mr Laurel' can be seen at Upstairs at The Western until Friday 21st February and then at Kenton Theatre, Henley on Thames on March 29

First published in Western Gazette
© Paul Towers 19/3/2014