The Holiday.

I haven't read the book but the tv series was a load of rubbish.

People staring about all of the time and the first two and a half episodes having no bearing on the ending.

They could have cut it down to two hours quite easily

The audible book was infinitely better imho.

Actually, despite all the suspicions, nobody was having affairs. That is so unusual as in most of the dramas I have watched in the last couple of years they're all at it!

I was happy to reach the end (what an ordeal). That must be the absolute holiday from hell. It made me feel anxious and wound up just watching them. I'm another who didn't like any of them (except the children), They were so wrapped up in their own dramas they neglected the kids, no wonder they were all screwed up. Thank goodness it's over.

Insultingly dreadful, and how I longed to slap Jill Halfpenny's sour face.
Overwrought indeed.

What with Sheridan Smith in Turkey, and Jill Halfpenny in Malta, next year I think they should all stick to Blackpool!

Another load of absolute nonsense!

The wife murdered her husband because he was into bondage in the basement with the au pair who was then convicted; the wife came back to Britain to be Janine.

The book is very entertaining and thoroughly recommend it as I do all books by the same author.

I'm watching and having read the book having read other books by the same author, very disappointed in the tv version of The Holiday. Confusing as it cannot in the allocated time it has to view show how the characters came to know each other that they should want to holiday together..

Oh, and I forgot another rubbish one, set in Australia, where the husband was having an affair with the girl taken on as an au pair. They had torrid sex in the basement, and it somehow ended with the au pair murdering the husband and ending up in jail.

Or maybe the wife murdered him and set the au pair up? I really can’t remember.

Delila

It’s ridiculous, hardly any meaningful dialogue, just a string of disjointed, miserable exchanges between unlikeable people that lead nowhere. The little girl seems to be genuinely having fun though.

An excellent summary ?

The characters are not only unlikeable but despite a university education seem unable to have a sensible conversation - and although they're on holiday are constantly distracted by their mobile phones or whatever. Who'd go on holiday with this lot? Only a masochist.

I agree Calendargirl. I think, round about the beginning of Covid restrictions, Channel 5 & ITV bought a job-lot of third-rate dramas and we’ve been disappointed by one after another of them ever since. No plot, no dialogue, mediocre acting and an awful lot of padding.

We just watched the third one and so now have to watch the last one but they are all such an unlikeable bunch. The only two I care about are the youngest two. I said to hubs I’ll be so glad when it’s finished but really fancy a holiday to Malta but definitely not with friends.

Charleygirl5

Their parenting skills leave a lot to be desired- one does not allow children as young as Daniel and Odette to go off on their own for hours on end in a foreign country.

Did Jake realise he set off the fire? There was no sign of the fire brigade unless I blinked?

Indeed. They already lost Odette once on the beach, so you'd think they would be extra careful.

Their parenting skills leave a lot to be desired- one does not allow children as young as Daniel and Odette to go off on their own for hours on end in a foreign country.

Did Jake realise he set off the fire? There was no sign of the fire brigade unless I blinked?

You could well be right Tanith about it being Jake.

It really is the usual tosh, on a par with Jill Halfpenny’s last drama, ‘The Drowning’, (this one could be entitled ‘Wildfire’). Also most of Sheridan Smith’s latest offerings, oh, and not forgetting that one a while back with Anna Maxwell Martin and Rachael Stirling, as very unlikely sisters, and a missing, subsequently dead child. And another one set in Ireland about a missing author and her husband and his girlfriend.

They all seem to be set over 4 nights, start off ok but rapidly dissolve into the realms of fantasy and nonsense.

I didn’t even watch tonight, saw the first two episodes and that was quite enough for me.
Have been enjoying Downton instead.

Luckily I haven’t wasted too much time on it. Fast-forwarding through the long, anguished close-ups, the lingering gazes into the middle distance & the thrashing around in a forest fire without a singed dress or a soot-blackened face to be seen, I managed to cut tonight’s episode down to about 10 minutes.

'Dishy but scruffy' is half right. Definitely scruffy but not the slightest bit dishy. I'm one episode behind, so have just been wondering this evening why the parents care so little about their young son they allow him to run around on cliff edges unsupervised (a delinquent teenager doesn't count as supervision). My worst nightmare would be my child falling off a cliff!

The little boy was right when he told Odette that the parents wouldn't miss them if they went off into the woods. The parents are all wrapped up in their own silly shenanigans.

It’s ridiculous, hardly any meaningful dialogue, just a string of disjointed, miserable exchanges between unlikeable people that lead nowhere. The little girl seems to be genuinely having fun though.

I thought perhaps Sean is having an affair but not with one of the ladies. Couldn’t be Jake could it? All that running around in the smoke was a bit ridiculous and then sending little Daniel back on his own was crazy. We shall know all in the final episode tomorrow.

the dishy but scruffy Sean

Don’t think he’s at all dishy, his hair is all shaggy and lank, and
he just looks a heap.
Adrian McCardle is better, at least he has a good head of clean hair!

It's a holiday.
Why are they all spending so much time on their phones?