UK Broadcast: 12 November - 17 December 1999, BBC2 (six episodes).
Starring: Simon Pegg, Sally Phillips as feminist Jill Sprint.
Hippies was a six part British television best comedy series about hippie broadcast from the 12 November-17 December 1999.When I think of a good example of lots of effort but not much success I think of "The Hippies”, a sitcom that was on BBC for one series in 1999. The series was about of clueless British Hippies who ran an underground magazine out of a basement in Notting Hill. The Hippies was created by Father Ted writing partners Arthur Matthews and Graham Linehan who were at the time riding the crest of a wave.
The show had a great cast including Simon Pegg, Sally Phillips, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Darren Boyd who were the four main characters.
Hippies is not only indebted to Dad's Army, of course. There are memorable sight gags worthy of The Simpsons (Purbbs' face being dragged along the world's longest sheet of sandpaper) and greatcoated dimwit Hugo (Darren Boyd) owes something to Neil of The Young Ones. Purbbs, in turn, beautifully combines the deluded earnestness of Young One Rik and the woeful incompetence of Captain Mainwaring.
hippies tv series trailer
I remember watching it at the time and thinking it was genius, but it was panned by the critics and largely ignored by the public. Trawling Youtube only brings up a limited amount of film but it’s worth the effort.
The Hippies had the best writers in the business, with a fantastic cast, the support of the BBC and still failed. It wasn’t as if the show wasn’t funny, it was. Sometimes the public can be very fickle with regard to their taste and pleasing the critics is nearly always a game of guesswork. Pretty much everyone involved in this show found success elsewhere but this combination of talent did not garner much.
Always remember if someone does not like your work that it might not be your fault and might not be theirs. If this TV show can fail, anything can. All you can do is try your best to succeed.
Swinging London, 1969. From his flat in Notting Hill Gate, Ray Purbbs edits an 'underground' (that is, counterculture) magazine, Mouth, assisted by his fellow hippies Alex, Jill and Hugo. Ray is passionate about protest, ludicrously enthusiastic about every hip trend and convinced he is (or could be) a major player in the battle between the Establishment and the alternative society. Alex - though he comes from a wealthy background and seems more interested in golf than altering society - is coolness personified, a man so laid-back he seems to exist outside of reality. Jill embraces all the new-found liberty afforded her gender and claims to espouse free love, though this attitude doesn't stretch to her 'boyfriend', Ray, long been deprived of her carnal interest. Hugo is spectacularly vague, almost brilliant in his obliqueness. Led by Ray, the quartet jump on every trendy bandwagon and comprehensively fail to make the slightest bit of difference in all they do. The gang are pretty useless at everything - in fact, they're not even that good at being hippies.
