Benidorm..the britcom

It was once a lovely seaside village. Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes honeymooned there.

Hilarious in the first few seasons, lots of Brit humour. Binged it during lockdown.

Madge is an icon

Absolutely LOVE this show.

I heard it’s as bad as depicted, and I am planning on going for a weekend just to see it for myself.

The show is hilarious but I can't imagine going to another country and just hanging out by a pool all day and doing karaoke or quiz competitions at night and cheap British food in the same place. It makes that poor town look so tawdry and tacky.

It sounds like the name of an antihistamine.

R4, don’t many Americans do that in Mexico?

Not ones I know R6. You tell me.

You don't have to personally know the types of people R6 is talking about to know that R6 is right.

Ok r7, yes they do.

Could have done with more sexy men, and most of the gay men were minging or camp

Okay, R9 I don't go to all inclusives and prefer private rentals with private pools. Benidorm sounds dreadful though.

I binged this show during the Pandemic and loved it. The disgusting swinger couple were my fave characters.

R12 the old whore using a vibrator on herself right in front of Madge, then buying her a carton of cigs to apologise!

R13 - HAH! I need to rewatch this series. I'm craving the colorful insanity.

It's nice to see the sour-faced maid from downton abbey being something besides a sour-faced maid.

Laughed and thought of DL at one episode last night when Madge mentions beef curtains and her son in law dies laughing.

R15, I thought the same but it turns out she was in Benidorm before Downton, but as an American I saw Downton before I was aware of Benidorm.

Among the many great shows and films I’ve learned about on the DL, Benidorm was near the top of things I’ve enjoyed the most. It’s trashy in a way that reminds me of Myrtle Beach but a similar show could never be popular in America because it hits too close to home for too many.

I'll answer OP's question. Parts of Benidorm are exactly like that. As are several resorts in Spain, and a few in Italy, too. If you want the gay version - the Canaries.

Turkey has a slightly different but even more hideous riviera of mega resorts filled with all inclusive tourists.

Do any ElderBrits remember the short-lived soap "Eldorado," from the early 1990s? Set on the Costa del Sol, it was a notorious flop, though it was available on BritBox as recently as 2021. They cast lots of cheap actors with zero screen or stage experience. German "actor" Kai Maurer was the resident hunk.

[quote]In the UK, Eldorado is remembered as an embarrassing failure for the BBC, and is sometimes used as a byword for any unsuccessful, poorly received or over-hyped television programme. It is widely thought that the failure of Eldorado is the reason why the BBC has not attempted to launch a brand new prime-time soap opera from scratch since then, with the corporation opting instead to move established series Casualty and Holby City to year-round production

Resurrecting an old thread - I'm binging Benidorm on Prime now.

I don't know - it seems tacky as fuck - but there are also some nice places. And there are a LOT of gay bars, which surprised me.

Anybody go there on holiday? I wouldn't do the family all-inclusive shit - but Brits can be a lot of fun when drinking.

My British friends always looked down on Benidorm - but this show - and I know it's a TV show - has me thinking, why not?

R16, do you think the kinds of people who vacation in Benidorm can also enjoy watching the show? Are Brits better able to laugh at themselves than we are in the U.S.?

I've never known any Americans who can laugh at themselves R21.

No, Americans are usually on guard because the rest of the world continually RAGS on us, then wants to come here on vacay to Disney World, go figure, stupid mostly UK cunts.

And right on cue: R23 is exactly the kind of person I was talking about.

As an American, I can totally laugh at my fellow countrymen.

I don't know if we have anything comparable - there are a lot of all-inclusives in Mexico but most are not necessarily cheap. Americans have a lot of warm weather options in our own country - and we get warm summers with a lot of sun across the United States.

Brits have unreliable weather - even in the summer. But are most of the characters on the show from Midlands and the North of England? Seems like it's stereotyping.

I've heard of Benidorm (usually not in a positive light) for years - typically about overly drunken Brits who want all English food and drink and looking generally...well...trashy.

I was just thrown off guard when I saw how many gay bars there were? There has to be a lot more to that place to attract so many gays. There's already several other well known gay spots in Spain - Benidorm just didn't fit what I thought would be a gay area.

Have you been there R26?

R27 - I have not - I should have said I was surprised when I saw on Google maps how many gay bars there were. There are a LOT of gay characters and references in the show and the city itself.

I'm just kind of fascinated by the place now for some reason. But I'd probably not like it - I dislike Vegas, Cabo, Orlando, Miami. Although I've never been, Cancun looks like hell on Earth to me.

Feels like a compressed Puerto Vallarta, which has a lot of all-inclusives (far away) and an extremely gay old town area. And I love PV.

Drunk Brits are just amazing people-watching - they really go full out and don't give a fuck.

I live in Spain and will almost surely die in Spain never having been to Benidorm. There are too many amazing places to visit in Spain to waste anytime in Benidorm. It doesn't even seem a place that's good for a laugh.

The comedy is unwatchable for me, though.

It's "Mrs. Brown's Boys" on Holiday

It really isn't R30. It's nothing like "Mrs. Brown's Boys" - not even slightly.

[quote] I don't know - it seems tacky as fuck - but there are also some nice places. And there are a LOT of gay bars, which surprised me. Anybody go there on holiday? I wouldn't do the family all-inclusive shit - but Brits can be a lot of fun when drinking.

Haven't been to Benidorm, but you would probably like Torremolinos, in the Costa del Sol. Very gay, and there's plenty to do in the surrounding area between Malaga all the way down to the British enclave of Gibraltar.

I go to an old middle class resort on the Liguria - Alassio. Very unpretentious and no hordes of international party people. I've been to Benidorm and liked it but my friends had a lovely house. It's a bit too new and big of a resort to have shabby chic old world seaside charm. There are still towns in Italy that are off the mass tourism circuit. Chiavari for example.

Siobhan Finneran did Downton in the middle of her 7 year long run on Benidorm. Both were on ITV so I guess the scheduling worked for her. They shot Benidorm in spring. From interviews, it was obvious she enjoyed Benidorm far more than she enjoyed Downton Abbey.

For being such a trashy fun show, that cast actually had lots of very talented people in it most of them theater trained. You see them on loads of other shows, too. and it's always funny when it's a period thing or something very posh and there's some yob from Benidorm being all fahncy.

Hannah Waddingham had a role for a couple of episodes.

Hannah Waddingham was excellent R35.

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the gay character Kenneth! He was hilarious.

how come nobody has made the trashy gay equivalent series in Spain, such as we have hate watched a few times in USA (Fire Island, The A-List: New York). I would watch.

R36 Tony Maudsley (Kenneth) is on Coronation Street now.

Dim but cute sidekick Liam (Adam Gillen) just wrapped up playing MC in Cabaret in London.

Gavin (Hugh Sachs) is in Bridgerton.

[quote]It really isn't [R30]. It's nothing like "Mrs. Brown's Boys" - not even slightly.

R31 to be fair to R30 there are some commonalities - which is one of the reasons I loved it, I loved Mrs Browns Boys too. Both series feature hilariously vulgar working class people, and have lots of no holds barred, crude humour both factors being extremely relatable for me. The settings and plot lines are completely different, but I can imagine a crossover show between the two working quite well - "Mrs Browns Boys go on holiday in Benidorm"

Apparently Jake Canuso (the Spanish barman who is the only person in every episode) - and who is pretty hot - was married to the creator of the show.

Here's the happy couple - although I believe they aren't together anymore.

We don't laugh at ourselves, no need to, perhaps you people instead of laughing could try to get some work done like us, oh well, stuff upper lip and all.

The average UK worker is about 20% less productive than their French and German counterparts and 30% less productive than US workers, it said.

Look at the nasty cunt at R41's posting history. Foul.

R42 - I only see 3 posts - but none of them are funny or correct. We have a few drunk posters on here who reply just absolute garbage.

I'd like if DL had a reply/WW ratio - if you're scoring under a certain amount, your commentary isn't needed or wanted here.

But back to Beniidorm - I'm finishing up season 4 and it occurred to me - there are a lot of insults and yelling. It made me think of other Britcoms - and it's also the same - AbFab for example. Fawlty Towers is another. There's not a lot of self-deprecating humor at all - it's a lot of name-calling and 'don't you DARE' type of stuff. Then throw in the requisite sweet but dim older woman or dumb oafish young man.

It's entertaining but damn - can they be just a bit nicer to each other? Just negative comments 80% of the time. And that South African woman was fucking awful - not funny and just mean.

R43 You're looking for nice and pleasant entertainment and yet you're posting on DL. The home of snarky and bitchy.

Every time someone mentions Torremolinos or some other trashy Spanish tourist resort, I think of Watney's Red Barrel

Rewatching and up to Season 3. Donald and Jacqueline, the septugenarian swingers, are by far my favorite. Uptight yuppie Martin grew on me.

There's a scene where Martin's girlfriend steals his clothes while they're skinny dipping and he uses the Garveys' 11-year-old boy to cover himself up. I about fell off the couch when a nude Martin walked up to the Garveys with their sopping wet son in front of himself and deadpanned, "I had to borrow your boy for a while."

Also belly-laughed when Mel opened an electric wheelchair rental for lazy holidaymakers where the slogan was "You don't have to be a cripple to enjoy your vacation.

And Madge should be as iconic as Patsy.

“Fix me a chip butty!”

The show took the absolute piss out of everyone, but they could never have a character like Lesley today. GLAAD would demand "an educational meeting" and Ts everywhere would have a breakdown.

I loved it when the Garveys' trashy slag teen daughter had her baby and it was black (of course). She named it "Coolio."

One of the old ladies around the pool chirped, "Oh, yer baby's taken real well to the sun, ha'nt he."

R47 - I had to look that up. Oh God - French fries between two slices of buttered bread? What?

You've had worse in your mouth!

R50 - I can't be mad - cuz you're 100% right.

“Where’s yer mum?”

“She’s my P. A.”