Saturday, June 1, 2013

Hinge and Bracket -- Dame Hilda Nemone Bracket -- Dr. Evadne Mona Montpelier Hinge -- Patrick Fyffe, born Stafford -- George Logan, born Rutherglen, Scotland. -- Signor Bonavoce -- Fyffe's vocal interpretations demonstrate profound emotional connection with the songs, and with the audience.

Speranza

Dr. Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket are
the stage personae of the musical performance
and impersonation artists Scots-born George Logan and Stafford-born Patrick Fyffe.

Active in theatre between 1972 and 2001, this comedy partnership entertained
the public in the guise of two eccentric spinsters,
living genteel lives in their house, "Utopia Limited", in the village of Stackton Tressel,
in the deep Suffolk countryside,
and celebrating their careers on the provincial operatic and musical theatre stage.

Early appearances show Dr. Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket, ostensibly emerging from retirement to perform in concert by popular request.

The ladies greet their public as old friends and give recitals
in which they sing, play and reminisce about their
past lives on tour in opera and musical theatre in the
more elegant age of the years following the Second World War.


Logan and Fyffe play exclusively
in drag and in falsetto, serving
up the musical numbers in spinsterish
bickering which formed the dynamic of the act.

Logan acted as accompanist, arranger and foil for Fyffe's
vocal performances.

Their repertoire was pretty _vast_.

Details of the ladies' genteel lifestyle and theatrical history were shared with the audience for comic effect.

In the spirit of authenticity, Logan and Fyffe enjoyed developing a detailed backdrop and life history for their stage personae.

Logan and Fyffe declined, for the duration of their stage partnership, to be interviewed out of character.

In this way, they were consciously preserving the illusion for their following.

Their stage partnership spanned theatre and stage shows, and continued
for 30 years until the death of Patrick Fyffe in 2002.

Logan retired from the stage in 2004.

In a 2007 televised interview, Logan explains how he and Fyffe collaborated on their own stage material, developing the framework for a new show around a series of ideas,
then subsequently refining the gags and the timing in live performance.

In Logan's words, they needed to play it like a duet with the audience in order to perfect a show.

He notes that the differences in their personalities worked to the good of the act.

Logan himself was apt to work from the head as a performer, whereas Fyffe's approach to performing was more instinctive: a natural comedian given to bouts of insane humour and never happier than when deviating from the script.

Logan's role in such circumstances was to keep the shows on track.

When Fyffe died in 2002, George Logan decided that, without a Hilda, there would be no more Dr. Evadne Hinge.

In a television interview, Logan spoke of working himself, but made it clear that he did not miss the Hinge persona.

Feeling that the appeal of Hinge and Bracket lay more in the interaction between the two characters than with either of the separate personalities, Logan determined that the body of work he and Fyffe had created together should stand as a finished item.

In a 2007 interview in which Logan paid tribute to his stage partner, Logan praised Fyffe's comedic genius and observed.

Fyffe was fabulously talented, a brilliant clown and a natural comedian.

Since Fyffe is no longer with us, Hinge and Bracket can never happen again.

When you've worked with the best, there'd be no point in doing second-best afterwards, so I'd rather leave it as it is.

"Dame Hilda Nemone Bracket" (Patrick Fyffe) is portrayed
as a lively, fun-loving, flamboyant doyenne of opera.

Bracket takes charge of the stage and inhabits the limelight
sporting a coquettish lop-sided grin and a chiffon hanky
dangling at the wrist.

Projecting enthusiasm and flirting shamelessly with the audience,
Dame Hilda Bracket leads the performance with gusto,
exerting a comical degree of bossiness, and
occasional wilfulness, over the long-suffering Dr. Hinge.

"Dr. Evadne Mona Montpelier Hinge" (George Logan) is played, in sharp contrast, as a reserved, austere intellectual whose role is to provide piano accompaniment, direction and, where necessary, vocal support for Dame Hilda Bracket's singing performances.

Cutting a modest, almost apologetic figure on stage, Dr. Evadne Hinge slides
demurely onto the piano stool and peers sideways at the
audience over half-moon spectacles on a decorative chain.

Together, they play and sing songs from a traditional "light-operatic" repertoire, taken mainly from Gilbert and Sullivan, Noël Coward and Ivor Novello ("Dear Ivor"), but occasionally "coming bang up to date" with "modern" shows such as "South Pacific".

Their repertoire was _vast_ and someone should compile a complete list -- with INDEX!

Their musical turns are interspersed with comic anecdotes and frequent discursions into repartee, punctuated by flashes of cattiness and bickering.

Between numbers, Hilda's wise-cracking antics and Evadne's acid reactions to her companion's attention-seeking are a rich source of comedy in the act.

------

Early on, Dame Hilda establishes the pecking order by explaining their titles.

Her own damehood was awarded for

"services to music and opera"

whereas Evadne's "Dr." was bestowed "for hard work".

Disapproving, but never daunted by the frivolous and overbearing Hilda, Evadne Hinge raises her eye-brows and takes controlled revenge through terse and well-timed put-downs that deflate Hilda's ego.

Dr. Evadne Hinge also reminds the audience at every opportunity that she is in fact younger than Hilda.

Throughout their exchanges, and notwithstanding their petty squabbles over such details as the date they first met, or which opera was in rehearsal at the time, Hilda and Evadne never fail to address each other as "dear", and occasionally stop mid-concert for sherry, or to examine the fascinating contents of their handbags.

In spite of their petty disagreements, the ladies are portrayed as indivisible companions and an unassailable partnership.

A regular treat for the audience sees Hilda make a comedic meal of polishing her spectacles.

Each lens in turn is breathed upon in a loud, honking baritone ("hungh!") before the glasses are finally ("hungh!") positioned on her nose.

Hilda's cousin's career in the military.

H: He was in the guards. Only for two weeks.

Cousin Evelyn ("Yes it's one of those difficult names") was caught playing (cards) with his privates.

In "Dear Ladies", this incident was attributed to Hilda's NEPHEW Julian instead.

Hilda checks the time on her brother's watch

E: Why are you wearing your brother's watch, dear?
H: Because he's borrowed mine.

Cue various oblique references to cross-dressing.

Evadne's mysterious health problems.

Frequently aired in public by Hilda, Evadne's afflictions include knees prone to locking, a separate condition requiring treatment with three forms of Ralgex, and a non-specific rash.

Letters from Evadne's clinic, invariably addressed to "Mrs Ming", are seized upon and read "sotto voce" by Hilda, mumbling practical instructions such as "try not to pick it".

In start-of-show announcements, the list of Evadne Hinge's names is occasionally expanded beyond the usual "Evadne Mona Montpelier", to include additions such as "Pauline", "Renee", "Albuquerque" and "Liversedge".

Later shows, alluding to the advent of the cyber-age, incorporate "DotCom" into this list.

Hilda Bracket compliments Evadne Hinge on her singing.

H: "Very reminiscent of Lilian Baylis, dear."
E: "But she didn't sing, dear".

Hilda and Evadne receive their end-of-concert presentations.

Over the applause, Hilda and Evadne are presented with gifts of appreciation by the organisers.

Huge bouquets arrive for Hilda.

But for Evadne, never more than a meagre token, ranging from the tiniest posy of flowers, via half a dozen eggs in a cardboard carton, to a banjo.


Evadne's half-moon spectacles.

Always perched on the end of Evadne's nose, and lending an appropriate air of severity to the character, these spectacles began life as a brown half-moon design on a gold chain.

The second incarnation were again spectacles of brown half-moon design, but this time on a pearl chain.

In 1984, on the final series of "Dear Ladies", the BBC provided George Logan with a slightly different pair of brown half-moon spectacles on a chain made entirely of very large shaped pearls,

Logan continued to use them on a few live stage shows (before he reverted back to the brown half-moon spectacles on the pearl chain).

When Evadne Hinge's pearl chain finally broke and had to be replaced, Fyffe gave Logan a silver chain (which actually came from Dame Hilda's reading spectacles).

Logan soon replaced this with a more dainty gold chain.

In the later years, and after Logan's props were accidentally lost (by Fyffe), Evadne peered over red half-moon spectacles on a different gold chain.

Through each and every incarnation of these spectacles, Evadne's disapproving glare had the power to melt paint.

Hinge and Bracket were never seen on stage without their handbags, and with each successive concert, their bags appeared to grow in size.

The clasp of Hilda's vintage 1950s metal-framed carry-all closed with the snap of a crocodile's jaws, and in later years she would claim this action as an attention-getter learned from Mrs Thatcher ("...and she got it from Harold Wilson").

The handbags' contents reflected the personalities of their owners.

Hilda's held little beyond her reading glasses, a chiffon hankie and the obligatory powder compact, whereas Evadne's accoutrements were a cross between a portable pharmacy and the contents of Just William's trouser-pocket.

Hilda Bracket's favourite humiliation tactic was to ridicule the contents of Evadne Hinge's handbag in front of the audience.


Gay references were present throughout the stage shows, some examples in the television series, largely absent from the radio shows.

In conversation in the televised shows, there would be various old-fashioned slang references to "Dorothy", and a few racier remarks.

The stage shows were the main medium for delivering gay-themed innuendo.

But in musical performance, Hinge and Bracket were inveterate teasers of their audience.

In the course of their shows, Hinge and Bracket performed what amounted to the

THE ENTIRE repertoire of "light opera" songs containing the word "gay", additionally mining G and S classics as a rich source of double-entendre from 'The Gondoliers' , "Then One Of Us Will Be A Queen", via Patience "blithe and gay" through to the story of Iolanthe, which famously had one dainty foot in fairyland.

Thus would the trail of gems be laid, innocently, straight-faced and of course in impeccable context.

The audience could stoop to gather these, if so they wished, but the ladies were always looking firmly the other way.

According to their invented background, the ladies won their musical spurs touring with the "Rosa Charles Opera Company", where Hilda Bracket sang lead roles and Evadne Hinge joined in the capacity of assistant to the assistant musical director, quickly rising to the full directorship.

Audiences in the 1970s, at least, would have recognised in this invented name a respectful nod to Carl Rosa, founder of a real-life opera troupe in England in the late 19th century.

Carl Rosa did much to popularise opera across Victorian England, and the company flourished through into the mid-20th century, touring with the standard operatic repertoire up until 1960 - all sung, of course, in the "natural language of the civilised world": English.

Accordingly, a recurring joke in their musical act was Dame Hilda's discomfiture whenever called upon to perform an aria in Italian.

With an irritable flourish, Hilda Bracket would produce from her hand-bag the famous reading spectacles for ("hungh!") polishing, and squint impatiently at the Italian ("hungh!") lyrics.

Cue a bravura performance
from Fyffe, singing as Hilda
with a smell under her nose,
but nevertheless demonstrating a
knowledge of Italian which was a little more than Asti Spumante - at least in the context of operatic performance.

Hilda Bracket's back-story in fact extended to a few glorious years spent in
Italy in the run-up to "The Phoney War", studying the
rhythm method under the large Italian operatic impresario Signor Bonavoce.

Evadne Hinge's doctorate in music (awarded at the age of 16) and reputation as a pianist preceded her, but the convention of the act demanded that, because of Hilda Bracket's limited attention span, Evadne Hinge was always denied the opportunity to perform full pieces on stage.

Once in a while, however, the audience would be treated to a brief taste of Logan's Royal Scottish Academy standard piano skills - notably Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor (condensed to 2 minutes).

Additionally, Evadne Hinge was reported to have the advantage of French - which she had picked up many years ago from a wine list.

Not to be outdone on this front, Hilda Bracket would attempt to compete by tossing in the odd French phrase with her customary joie de vie (sic) and invariably got it wrong.

The ladies' musical credentials were further supported by allusions to celebrity audience members attending their concerts - names from the world of opera and music
with whom they claimed equal status.

Some of these names were real figures, and actually present at their recordings.

Dame Eva Turner and Olive Gilbert being two notable examples.

Others were nebulous inventions, embraced by Dame Hilda's blanket welcome line to the distinguished audience:

You celebrities know who you are, so we'll say nothing.

Frequent collaborators from the world of "light opera" included baritones Michael Rayner and Ian Belsey.


Hinge and Bracket's fictional home life, referred to constantly in their shows, is further developed in the radio and television series.

The invented back-story has the ladies residing in the village of Stackton Tressel, Suffolk, which, in the words of Bracket, lies 17 miles from Bury St. Edmunds as the crow flies, though there haven't been a lot of crows this year.

Here, the ladies share a house called "Utopia Ltd".

They also share their home with three cats, Sandy the Goldfish and Milton the Budgie.

Evadne Hinge is not keen on the pets, or more accurately, on Hilda's sugary attitude towards them.

In one story from the television series, Sandy the goldfish is banished to a bucket under the sink when Evadne borrows his bowl to use as a crystal ball for her "Gypsy Mona" spot at the village fête.

The ladies otherwise amuse themselves with recitals of Gilbert and Sullivan, Noël Coward and Ivor Novello ("Dear Ivor"), and employ an eccentric housekeeper, Maud, played in the radio series by character actress Daphne Heard (and, on her death, by Jean Heywood).

Maud is characterised by her bovine devotion to "Dame 'Ilder", a barely disguised antipathy to Evadne, and a general suspicion of men.

She is particularly wary of men with beards, men with moustaches, and foreign men (Evadne's French friend André, played in the radio series by André Maranne, is suspected by Maud of being a white slaver).

Maud systematically breaks, steps in, ruins or otherwise bungles every aspect of her household duties, and is indulged by Hilda because of her history as Hilda's dresser from their days with the "Rosa Charles Opera Company".

Evadne Hinge is constantly at loggerheads with Maud, who retorts with observations such as we can't all be musical.

The TV series did not feature Maud in person, although a couple of references were made to her in the first two episodes of Dear Ladies Series 1.

Dame Hilda drives around in her shiny open-top vintage Rolls, while Evadne is more than happy to rely on her faithful old tricycle and trailer (usually unaware that all the fruit and vegetables just bought from the local greengrocer are falling out of the back of the trailer).

Fellow villagers are known by such unlikely names as Methuen Hawkins (pharmacist) and Tewkesbury Ptolman.

They make guest appearances in the ladies' concerts, most notably baritone (and butcher) Tewkesbury Ptolman, who appears in a number of the shows "by kind permission of Christopher Underwood".

Theirs is a genteel English post-war world of cucumber sandwiches, bell ringing, church fêtes and ladies' bowls matches, all served with a liberal helping of old-fashioned values recalled, and a sprinkling of double entendres.

But the ladies do not always play fair.

In one episode, Hilda and Evadne organise the refreshments for a friendly inter-village football match, manned by two teams of Stanley Matthews look-alikes and intentionally poison the visiting team.

In interview, Logan has acknowledged that the overall style of Hinge and Bracket harked back to the era of Ealing comedy and owed a great debt to Joyce Grenfell.

Borrowings from Hinge and Bracket in modern British comedy are detectable in some comic creations of recent years.

Notably in the Florence and Emily ("I'm a Laydee") characters from "Little Britain", and also in the eccentric personage of Hyacinth Bucket.

Bucket is yet another example of singing household hardware, and in full amateur operatic flow she is reminiscent of Bracket (Braqué?) in both voice and stiff-legged gait.

Also, Hyacinth's forbearing, modest but quietly competent spouse Richard bears more than a passing resemblance to Evadne Hinge, as a foil.

But a comparable mix of wit, warmth and musical talent epitomised by Hinge and Bracket has not been achieved since Fyffe died, and Logan laid aside his half-moon spectacles.

Both Logan and Fyffe were born into musically talented families with a strong stage background.

Logan went on to study music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and attended Glasgow University.

Fyffe appeared in amateur theatre before turning professional.

In a 2007 television interview, Logan explains that both he and Fyffe had been boy sopranos, and found themselves able to produce a falsetto voice after puberty.

Fyffe's falsetto voice was additionally gifted with the full rounded tones of a mezzo soprano, and capable of producing some rousing high notes in performance.

**********************

Fyffe's vocal interpretations demonstrated profound
emotional connection with the songs, and
with his audience.

Logan, who claims not to have seen himself as a singer in the same vein, nevertheless projected a light quavering soprano of clarion tone, and admirable breath control in the patter songs, whilst simultaneously providing the piano accompaniment.

Though formally trained as a classical pianist, he also has the ability to play by ear, and used both skills to the benefit of the act.

In many instances, the material performed by Hinge and Bracket required transposition to a different key or other special musical arrangement.

Thus, the inspiration for Dr Hinge’s character as a serious musician came from Logan's formal musical background.

Similarly, Fyffe's affinity with "musical comedy" and "operetta" informed the character of Dame Hilda.

This meshing of the two areas of interest allowed the act to explore and exploit many different areas of the vocal music repertoire.


Fyffe and Logan were already well acquainted from their separate appearances in London cabaret when Fyffe approached Logan to stand in briefly as the piano accompanist for his drag act.

One thing led to another, and before he knew it, Logan was sitting at the keyboard in one of Fyffe's spare frocks.

The names "Hinge" and "Bracket" were chosen after much deliberation, and in preference to bawdier alternatives.

Fortunately so, since "Dr P. Nissen" and "Dame Ava Fanny" would hardly have flown under the radar as family entertainment in quite the same way.

From June 1972, Hinge and Bracket worked for two years around the London pubs and clubs.

Most notably, they appeared at a Kensington restaurant, called "AD8", every Sunday lunch-time.

The restaurant was owned by Desmond Morgan and April Ashley.

Ashley was a celebrity of the 1960s after a sex change in Morocco in 1960.

Hinge and Bracket were popular with diners, and their Sunday slot became a ritual in moneyed society.

-------

It was from this circuit that Hinge and Bracket were recruited to appear at the 1974 Edinburgh Festival.

Their Edinburgh show was a one-hour scripted vignette, presenting them in a Victorian church hall setting, along with a visiting baritone.

In this intimate atmosphere, Evadne and Hilda handed round glasses of sherry to their audience.

News of the show (or the sherry) quickly spread around the festival, and after the first couple of nights, they were playing to packed houses.

Immediately after Edinburgh, they moved the show to London, where they appeared for an interim fortnight at The Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, immediately followed by a six month season at The Mayfair Theatre.

The format of the show remained largely unchanged until the act moved to The Ambassador’s Theatre.

One month into their run, they were approached by playwright Ray Cooney to provide a show for the late-night slot.

And so, the first specially commissioned Hinge and Bracket show, "Sixty Glorious Minutes", was written, and the Hinge and Bracket phenomenon was born.


Hinge and Bracket toured theatres with their double act for some years before appearing on the radio.

Their first series,

"The Enchanting World of Hinge and Bracket",

ran on BBC Radio 4 for three seasons from 1977 to 1979.

Produced by James Casey at BBC Radio in Manchester and scripted by Mike Craig, Laurie Kinsley and Ron McDonnell, these programmes were a mixture of "period songs" and situation comedy.

Actress Daphne Heard was a series regular as The Dear Ladies' housekeeper, Maud, and each show featured an appearance by a guest artiste.

"The Random Jottings of Hinge and Bracket", which ran for 68 episodes on BBC Radio 2 from 1982 to 1989, was scripted by Gerald Frow, and placed the stars in a variety of comedy situations, each episode being introduced from a supposed entry in Dame Hilda's diary.

With the death of Daphne Heard in 1983, Maud's mantle was assumed by character actress Jean Heywood.

Maud in her later incarnation was periodically joined by her uncouth and mischievous sister Gudrun, played with blood-curdling relish by comedienne Liz Smith.

Their final radio series,

"At Home with Hinge and Bracket", had the format of informal "musical evenings" with a celebrity guest, and ran for a single season in 1990.

Guests on these shows were:

Anthony Newley
Rosalind Plowright
Benjamin Luxon
June Whitfield
Evelyn Laye and
Jack Brymer.

----

Certain of the radio episodes have been re-broadcast on BBC 7 in recent years - the radio station subsequently known as BBC Radio 7 and, latterly, Radio 4 Extra.


A number of Hinge and Bracket gala and concert performances were televised by the BBC between 1978 and 1983.

Venues include

The Royal Hall, Harrogate and
The Opera House, Buxton,

and the repertoire ranged from Verdi through light opera and musical comedy to music hall.

In addition, the BBC recorded a "Dear Ladies Master Class", with early-career contributions from baritone Gerard Quinn and pianist Janet Mellor, held at The Royal Northern College of Music and a special performance, co-scripted by Gyles Brandreth, from The Princess Hall, Cheltenham Ladies' College in 1983.

Hinge and Bracket appear in their own series called "Dear Ladies" on BBC 2, between 1983 and 1985.

The theme music ('Dear Ladies, the fairest of all to see') was written and performed by Logan and Fyffe themselves and the scripts were written by Gyles Brandreth.

Locations were picturesque Cheshire towns and villages, including Knutsford, Great Budworth and Nantwich.

Three series were made, including a pilot (in the pilot, Tewkesbury the butcher and Donald the vicar were played by different actors), but Frances Cox who played Grace Pullit, the librarian in the pilot, continued to play her in all three series.

A few small changes were made to some of the props in Series 3.

These included the sofa and arm-chairs, which were now covered in pink cushion covers (instead of rose patterned ones) and Dr.Evadne herself was now wearing a slightly different pair of Brown half-moon spectacles and chain, also a different font of lettering was used for the opening and end credits.

In this final series, there is a scene where we get to see Hinge and Bracket wearing identical patterned dresses (normally they didn't share the same taste in clothes), but it showed that occasionally these two old friends did share the same taste in things, other than in music.


The two also made independent stage appearances.

Dame Hilda as 'Katisha' in
The Mikado and 'Ruth' in
The Pirates of Penzance.

Doctor Hinge as Miss Marple in Murder at the Vicarage in 1994.

The characters appeared together in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest for a West End run, followed by a nationwide tour.

They also appeared at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in a New Year’s Eve performance of Die Fledermaus, conducted by Plácido Domingo and starring Kiri Te Kanawa.

----

They toured the UK with the Peter Shaffer play, "Lettice and Lovage", as well as continuing to appear in their variety act, touring with the variety show "Palladium Nights" until 2001).

Hinge and Bracket appeared on "The Royal Variety Show" twice.

They were selected to perform
privately for the Royal
Family on a number of occasions.

Fyffe (Dame Hilda) also toured a one-woman show entitled "By Kind Permission", which saw Dame Hilda perform new songs (written by Fyffe, Barrie Bignold and Stuart Calvert) and perform sketches as different characters.

-----

Fyffe was born on 23 January 1942 in Stafford, Staffordshire and died on 11 May 2002 at Wellington, Somerset from spinal cancer.

Fyffe is outlived by his sister, the soprano Jane Fyffe, who was a performer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the late 1950s.

Many of Fyffe's immediate family had been active in musical theatre.

He initially trained as a hairdresser, and ran his own salon in Stafford before making a career on the stage.

He was a regular star of local amateur productions, but a desire to turn professional took him to London.

His early professional appearances included a 1964 production of the musical, "Robert and Elizabeth", at the Lyric Theatre (in which his sister played the lead for a period, and he played one of Elizabeth's brothers) and a 1971 production of the same show at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow.

With some experience of repertory and a couple of provincial tours behind him, Fyffe invented the character of glamorous soprano "Perri St Claire".

Played on stage as a sophisticated young lady
with singing talent, the "Perri St Claire" character was sufficiently eye-catching to earn him some television slots.

Fyffe was asked to appear in character in a number of television series of the late 1960s, notably Z-Cars and the last programme of Doctor in the House Series 1 in 1969, when he appeared as a cabaret singer.

Fyffe also appears in the first "Steptoe and Son: film, as a drag artist who becomes the mistaken object of Steptoe Senior's lust.

-----

Logan was born on 7 July 1944 in Rutherglen, Scotland, to a musical and theatrical family.

He was educated at the Royal Scottish Academy Glasgow and Glasgow University, trained as a classical pianist and has a particular interest in opera and vocal music.

After leaving Glasgow, Logan worked in London as a computer programmer, but continued to use his piano skills around the London clubs and pubs, accompanying the stage acts.

In 1970, Logan met and became friends with Fyffe, and together they formed Hinge and Bracket, making their first appearance in 1972.

Logan applied his formal training to producing all the musical arrangements for the act.

Mainly because of the atypical vocal range of the performers, most of Hinge and Bracket's material required transposition or adaptation for performance.

Logan frequented the Toucan club and the Piano Bar in Soho, where he would hold court with his many tales of show-biz high jinks.

After the death of his stage partner, and a few seasons of pantomime, he retired from the stage in 2004.

Having, like his stage counterpart Evadne, the advantage of French, as well
as an interest in fine food and wine, Logan opened a bed-and-breakfast
in France, where he lives today.


Following special provision in Fyffe's will,

"The Dame Hilda Bracket Trust"

was established in September 2004 and registered as a charity in March 2006.

The stated aims of the Dame Hilda Bracket Trust were to encourage and advance the education of the public in the study, performance, understanding and appreciation of theatrical music, in particular grand and light opera, operetta and musical comedy through the establishment and maintenance of scholarships and trusts.

Fyffe's stage partner, Logan, and his housekeeper and friend, Hilary Miles, were among the appointed trustees.

In 2007, it was decided that Fyffe's wishes would be best furthered if administration of the funds were handed over to an organisation with appropriate expertise and administrative capability.

Accordingly, in 2007, The Dame Hilda Bracket Trust was subsumed into "The Sadlers Wells Trust".


Hinge and Bracket's television series Dear Ladies is available on DVD.

"Hinge and Bracket: Gala Evenings" is available on DVD, featuring over 6 hours of material.

The Complete Dear Ladies and Gala Evenings set is available on DVD, distributed by Acorn Media UK.

This includes all three series of Dear Ladies as well as the Gala Evenings DVD.

References


Specific reference to the non-standard spelling of "Montpelier" is made in an episode of "The Random Jottings of Hinge and Bracket".


Among other recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan songs by Hinge and Bracket are the following:

 Hinge and Bracket Volume 1, EMI records on the One-Up label, catalogue number OU 2125 issued 1976 -- G and S items:


"Sing Hey to You" from Patience and "Poor Wand'ring One" from The Pirates of Penzance)

An Evening with Hinge and Bracket, EMI records One-Up, OU 2181, 1977

includes

"Blameless Dances" from Ruddigore and "Regular Royal Queen" from the Act I finale of The Gondoliers); and

Hinge and Bracket at Abbey Road, EMI records, NTS 201, 1980 (includes

"Things are Seldom What They Seem" from H.M.S. Pinafore and

"So Please You Sir We Much Regret" from The Mikado).

-- Vernon Page, personal recollection of AD8.

-- "Programme" (PDF). Retrieved 11 September 2012.

--  Programme Robert and Elizabeth - Glasgow University's Special Collections Department

-- Network DVD; 'Pass or Fail', Doctor in the House, 1969.

^ Daily Express Whatever Happened to Hinge from Hinge and  Bracket?, 19 August 2006)


External links


The official Hinge and Bracket website
Details of their radio shows
Tribute to Patrick Fyffe
Video Tribute to Patrick Fyffe
George Logan at IMDB
Patrick Fyffe at IMDB
Obituary of Patrick Fyffe
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hinge_and_Bracket&oldid=553446481"
Categories:
BBC television sitcoms
BBC Radio comedy programmes
British comedy duos
British drag queens
British male comedians
British comedy musicians
English male singers
Musical duos
Pantomime dames

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