Dame Hilda Bracket and Dr Evadne Hinge

[alisoncc 379]

Today I was loaned a couple of DVD's of "Gala Evenings" concerts starring Dame Hilda Bracket and Dr Evadne Hinge. And they are just so funny and incredibly entertaining. I had never heard of them before. But they are truly brilliant. The date when they appear to have been broadcast seems to have been in 1978 by the BBC.

Anyone remember them or know anything about them? Lots of Gilbert & Sullivan, Ivor Novello songs etc. plus some popular classics. The concerts seem to have taken place in Harrogate or thereabouts. Apparently they were quite well known in pantomine circles.

[FLY2 10,109]

Very good at the double entendres, brilliantly funny.

[Cliff Ton 10,507]

Very famous for a time. And probably stood the test of time better than a lot of comedy. A kind of Joyce Grenfell with more nudge-nudge.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=0&oq=hinge+and+b&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=hinge+and+bracket

[Merthyr Imp 729]

Yes, they had a TV series and also a radio series at one time. I saw them once at the Theatre Royal and once at the Royal Concert Hall - I suppose both times it would have been between the late 1970s and late 1980s.

The double entendres were much naughtier in the stage shows than on TV or radio. But with the stage shows especially, I always felt you could enjoy them on two levels - for the comedy and parody, and also simply as a concert of Gilbert & Sullivan and old musical comedy songs - the Ivor Novello, Maid of the Mountains, No, No, Nanette, etc, type of thing. Because in amongst the parody the songs were well performed and could be taken at their face value. He/she ('Dame Hilda') had a remarkable voice.

[alisoncc 379]

Dr Evadne is pretty good on the piano as well. Setting "her" self up to play a serious piece by Bach she turned to the audience and said "This time I won't be playing it on the dummy keyboard". The audience fell apart. Their wit and humour are not crude or rude like so much today. Naughty, suggestive perhaps, but not crude.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

Dr Evadne is pretty good on the piano as well.

Yes, the performer (although not a Doctor of Music like the character) is an Academy-trained classical pianist and musician. The act was a remarkably talented pairing.