Early Career
Patrick Fyffe and George Logan were already well acquainted from their separate appearances in London cabaret when Fyffe approached Logan to stand in briefly as the piano accompanist for his drag act. One thing led to another, and before he knew it, Logan was sitting at the keyboard in one of Fyffe's spare frocks. The names "Hinge" and "Bracket" were chosen after much deliberation, and in preference to bawdier alternatives. Fortunately so, since "Dr P. Nissen" and "Dame Ava Fanny" would hardly have flown under the radar as family entertainment in quite the same way.
From June 1972, Hinge and Bracket worked for two years around the London pubs and clubs. Most notably, they appeared at a gay Kensington restaurant, called AD8, every Sunday lunchtime. The restaurant was owned by Desmond Morgan and April Ashley. Ashley was a celebrity of the 1960s after a sex change in Morocco in 1960. Hinge and Bracket were popular with diners, and their Sunday slot became a ritual in moneyed gay society.
It was from this circuit that Hinge and Bracket were recruited to appear at the 1974 Edinburgh Festival.
Their Edinburgh show was a one-hour scripted vignette, presenting them in a Victorian church hall setting, along with a visiting baritone. In this intimate atmosphere, Evadne and Hilda handed round glasses of sherry to their audience. News of the show (or the sherry) quickly spread around the festival, and after the first couple of nights, they were playing to packed houses. Immediately after Edinburgh, they moved the show to London, where they appeared for an interim fortnight at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, immediately followed by a six month season at The Mayfair Theatre.
The format of the show remained largely unchanged until the act moved to The Ambassador’s Theatre. One month into their run, they were approached by playwright Ray Cooney to provide a show for the late night slot. And so, the first specially commissioned Hinge and Bracket show, "Sixty Glorious Minutes", was written, and the Hinge and Bracket phenomenon was born.
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