Although Hi-De-Hi! came off air in 1989, Su still gets people recognise her as Peggy in the street and she even gets children knock on her front door asking to meet Peggy
Su Pollard says Hi-De-Hi! fans still knock on her door and ask to meet Peggy – so she dresses up as her character to make them happy.
The 75-year-old actress became one of the most beloved stars on TV thanks to her role as Maplins holiday camp chalet maid Peggy Ollerenshaw in the 1980s BBC sitcom created by legendary comedy writers Jimmy Perry and David Croft.
Although Hi-De-Hi! came off air in 1989, Su still gets people recognise her as Peggy in the street and she even gets children knock on her front door asking to meet Peggy.
Appearing on the Rosebud podcast, she said: “In the street it’ll be, ‘It’s my wife’s birthday, you couldn’t just say Hi-de-Hi it’s Peggy Ollerenshaw here.’ Yes I don’t mind doing that.
“Sometimes I’ll go and open a fete and I’ll always do Hi-de-Hi.
“But some people find out where you live and they’ll knock on the door and they’re young, they’re about eight, and they’ll say, ‘Can I speak to Peggy?’
“I’ll say, ‘She’s not in, she’s at Maplins today, but come back tomorrow.’ ‘Oh, I’ll come back then, what time shall I come back?’ I’ll go, ‘Come back about eleven.’
“So I’ll put my Peggy outfit on. So they think Peggy lives there. I had to stop because I had eight of them, it went round the school.
“I thought, ‘I can’t keep coming to the door twice a week as Peggy.’”
Su – who also went on to star in Croft and Perry’s sitcom You Rang, M’Lord? – will forever be grateful for her role as Peggy because it made her career.
She said: “I didn’t audition, I just did a chat. Basically, I was lucky.
“When I went to the local market, ‘Eh up Peggy, I hope you get your coat, we’re all rooting for you.’ I thought, ‘How nice is that.’ People were staring to be aware of these different characters.
“I started to have more scenes in the show, David and Jimmy were very good and very fair, everybody had their episode. I suppose it was because she was a bit of an underdog and a bit barmy.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
