The Huggetts are a fictional family who appear in a series of British films which were released in the late 1940s by Gainsborough Pictures. The films centre on the character of Joe Huggett, played by Jack Warner, the head of a working class London family. Along with the Gainsborough melodramas, the Huggett films proved popular and lucrative for the studio. All three films were directed by Ken Annakin and produced by Betty E. Box.
Overview of films and characters
The family first appear in the film Holiday Camp, in which the family consists of Joe, his wife Ethel, their daughter Joan and her baby, and their son Harry. Jimmy Hanley played Jimmy Gardner, who becomes romantically involved with Joan. Actors Susan Shaw and John Blythe also appear, and would return in the three Huggetts films that followed. Holiday Camp proved popular enough with post-war British audiences for the family to be spun off for a series of films of their own. In the first, Here Come the Huggetts, characters Joan and Harry were replaced by three daughters: Jane, Susan and Pet. Peter Hammond was recast as Susan's on-off boyfriend Peter Hawtrey, while Jimmy Hanley returned as Jimmy Gardner who is now engaged to Jane. Other regular characters in the series include Ethel's niece, Diana, Harold Hinchley, garage owner Gowan and Grandma Huggett. Blythe and Veness were the only actors, besides the main cast, to repeat their roles in all three films. The characters of Jane and Jimmy are missing from the second film but return for the final film, in which Jane is played by Dinah Sheridan. The first film revolves around the upheaval Diana's arrival at the Huggett home causes, as well as the impending wedding of Jane and Jimmy. The follow-up films were Vote for Huggett, in which Joe stands for election, and The Huggetts Abroad, in which the family emigrate to South Africa and get involved in smuggled diamonds.
Creative personnel
All four films in which the Huggetts appear are directed by Ken Annakin and produced by Betty E. Box, while Mabel Constanduros and her nephew Denis Constanduros contributed to all four scripts. Muriel Box, Sydney Box and Peter Rogers were writers on Holiday Camp and Here Come the Huggetts, and Ted Willis worked on the script for Holiday Camp and co-wrote The Huggetts Abroad with Gerard Bryant. Allan MacKinnon co-wrote Vote for Huggett with the Constanduroses. The Huggett's theme which appears in all three films was composed by Antony Hopkins.
Another film, Christmas with the Huggetts, was planned but never made. A BBC radio series, Meet the Huggetts, ran from 1953 to 1962. Both Warner and Harrison reprised the roles of Joe and Ethel, but here their family consists of daughter Jane and son Bobby, rather than the three sisters of the film series.
Legacy and influences
Warner and Harrison were later reunited in the film Home and Away, about a family in similar circumstances to the Huggetts who win the football pools. The 1952 filmThe Happy Family, starring Harrison, was also influenced by the Huggetts. In the fourth wall breaking pre-credits sequence of the 1949 filmIt's Not Cricket, stars Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne mention the Huggett films in a contemptuous manner. This film was also produced by Betty E. Box.
