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Hi De Hi character
Joe Maplin
Nationality English
Gender Male
Job Camp Owner
Appearances
First Unseen Character
Last Unseen Character

The greedy and philandering owner of the Maplins Holiday empire, he is only ever seen in statue form (he was intended to be played by Bob Monkhouse, who in the end was unavailable for filming). He communicated with the entertainments staff through frequent, sarcastic, hectoring, semi-literate letters which Jeffrey Fairbrother would read to the staff, stumbling awkwardly around sections that the audience were left to presume contained profanities or crassness that he awkwardly rephrased in more moderate language. During the 1940s Maplin had run a major black market operation across Europe before being arrested in Vienna after the war. Sammy Morris then helped him to flee the country. Throughout the series it is revealed that Maplin owns a large string of camps all over the country. As well as the sitcom's Crimpton-on-Sea camp, Maplin also owned camps at locations such as Camber Sands, and even the Isle of Wight. Maplin claimed to be the person who invented the catchphrase "Hi-de-Hi!", although according to Mr Partridge, it was not Maplin's idea, but that of a mad colonel in the army during the Second World War. Maplin had a habit of covertly inspecting the staff at his camps by disguising himself as a camper, parking his Rolls Royce several streets away and entering the camp in a taxi.

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