High Hopes
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Boyd Clack
Written by	Boyd Clack Kirsten Jones
Directed by	Gareth Gwenlan
Starring	Robert Blythe Margaret John Steven Meo Ben Evans Oliver Wood Boyd Clack Keiron Self Di Botcher
Opening theme	"High Hopes" instrumental performed by Dai Brown
Country of origin	United Kingdom (Wales)
Original language	English
No. of series	6
No. of episodes	38(list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Maggie Russell
Producer	Gareth Gwenlan
Running time	approx. 30 mins
Original release
Network	BBC One Wales
Release	1 April 1999 (1999-04-01) (pilot) 2 October 2002 (2002-10-02) - 16 December 2008 (2008-12-16) 23 March 2015 (2015-03-23) (Special)

High Hopes is a sitcom created byBoyd Clack, written by Clack and Kirsten Jones. Produced and directed byGareth Gwenlan forBBC Wales,High Hopes is set in a fictional area of theSouth Wales Valleys called Cwm-Pen-Ôl (which is Welsh for 'Backside Valley').

It starsMargaret John as widow Elsie Hepplewhite,^[1]Robert Blythe as her son Richard Hepplewhite,Steven Meo as Hoffman and Oliver Wood (formerly Ben Evans) as Charlie. It revolves around Elsie's son Richard (known as Fagin) and his dodgy business ventures, assisted by the two boys, who attempted to rob the Hepplewhites' house in the first episode.^[2]

The pilot, with slight differences to future cast and plot, was first broadcast in Wales on 1 April 1999. On 26 July 1999, it was broadcast in England onBBC Two.^[3]

The series started in October 2002,^[4] and in March 2007, filming began on its fifth series.

The sixth and final series, consisting of six episodes, was first shown on BBC1 Wales weekly from Tuesday, 11 November 2008. But, before it aired a report in theSouth Wales Echo (6 October 2008), titled 'Welsh sitcom set to be axed', confirmed that: "High Hopes will not be re-commissioned beyond 2009, a BBC spokesman confirmed. He said: "The next series ofHigh Hopes is due to go out this autumn. The series has not been re-commissioned for next year". He added thatHigh Hopes – currently in its fifth series – could return at a future date."

A three-part "Best Bits" special was shown on BBC One Wales, starting 20 September; the third episode was on Sunday, 4 October 2009.

In December 2014 it was announced a one-off special^[5] would be screened in March 2015 as a part of the BBC Wales 'Real Valleys' season of programmes.^[6]

• Played by:Robert Blythe

Richard Hepplewhite is a wannabe entrepreneur who lives with his mother in the Welsh valleys. Fresh from serving time for second-degree murder atStrangeways Prison, he isclaustrophobic andagoraphobic, running his business empire from his desk at the house. He takes the boys in during the first episode. In one episode, he is briefly cured of his agoraphobia after falling over, but he still lives in fear of being "sucked off by the sky".

• Played by:Margaret John

Elsie is Fagin's mother whose husband was captured by Japan inWorld War II as aprisoner of war. He died as a POW in Japan during World War 2 when Fagin was a young boy. So, she shares a dislike for the Japanese with Richard, she because of her husband's death, he because of their technological advances. Her grandfather died after swallowing a silver threepence that was in hisChristmas pudding, not before running down the road for one and a half miles (bearing in mind he was ninety-four!)

• Played by:Steven Meo

Hoffman (his first name Dwayne is rarely used) is a teenage petty criminal whose best friend is Charlie. He and Charlie are apprentices to Fagin's business. Hoffman enters many scrapes, like stealing an iconic Welsh painting "Dafydd ar y Twmp" (or Dafydd and his Hump, according to Hoffman), and trying to escape the clutches of a randy policewoman!

• Played by: Ben Evans (2002–2006), Oliver Wood (2007–2008)

Charlie is the second teenager in the household. He seems not to be brighter than Hoffman, and once made a collage ofCharlotte Church with no clothes on (or, Charlotte Church's inverted head atop apage three girl's body), and also entering a romance with a Victor (who was eventually discovered to be a girl named Victoria – to Charlie's relief).

Other characters include Mrs. Coles, the local shopkeeper (Little Britain regularDi Botcher), PC Claude Cox (Keiron Self), a friend of the family, with a fondness for cake, plasticsex dolls andpornographic films. Also present is show co-writerBoyd Clack who plays Sergeant Ball.

The pilot and the series in general can be compared:

• In the pilot, the boys knew Fagin already, but in the series, Fagin met them and their knowledge of each other developed very quickly, although he knew them it was not as if he had known them for long.
• The whole of the UK (including Wales) saw the pilot, whereas the series was originally shown only in Wales, but was repeated onBBC2 Wales in 2006, which was also available toBSkyB viewers outside Wales as well.
• Different actors played Hoffman, Charlie and PC Claude Cox.

The series' theme tune is aninstrumental version of the 1959 song "High Hopes" played on a Welsh harp by Dai Brown.

The backdrop village seen on the opening and closing credits isFochriw.

• List of Welsh television series

• High Hopes atBBC Online
• High Hopes atBBC Online
• High Hopes atBritish Comedy Guide
• High Hopes atIMDb

• 1999 British television series debuts
• 2015 British television series endings
• 1990s British sitcoms
• 1990s Welsh television series
• 2000s British sitcoms
• 2000s Welsh television series
• 2010s British sitcoms
• 2010s Welsh television series
• BBC television sitcoms
• BBC Cymru Wales television shows
• Television shows set in Wales

• Use dmy dates from February 2021
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox television with missing dates
• BBC programme ID same as Wikidata