New BBC sitcom is set in a caravan park
Tuesday, 25, Aug 2009 01:12
A brand new comedy by BBC Scotland this autumn will be based around the theme of caravan holidays.
Happy Hollidays is a six-part comedy set on a precarious caravan campsite. Starring Ford Kiernan, Karen Dunbar and Gavin Mitchell the makers believe it 'strives to represent the best of the great British holiday'.
Colin Holliday is the caravan site owner, manager and above all tyrant. He is thrown into a panic when receiving news of a site inspection from holiday camp rival Mike Bryan. Colin and Mike vie for supremacy in a comedy where the site owner loves caravans but hates people.
And while the titular character Colin might promote himself as a standard bearer for the old-fashioned British holiday, he appears more interested in wringing out cash from his customers.
Ford Kiernan is the actor who plays Colin Holliday, while his company effingee created the six-part series. He explained in an interview with Glasgow's Evening Times how he personally cannot stand the lifestyle.
'I hate caravans' is how he simply puts it. 'I used to go to a caravan in Inverbeg when I was a wean, with my mother and sister, but the problem is I've always been a bit claustrophobic. So understanding why anyone would want to spend a week in a tin box is way beyond me'.
He was quick to acknowledge the boom in popularity in caravan holidays but maintained his distaste. 'For some people carvaan parks are great, and I know caravan sales are going through a boom at the moment because people can't afford to go abroad'.
'What I remember about them is being frozen the whole time and hearing the noise the rain makes on a caravan roof. And because you couldn't go outside you had to sit there for days on end playing with somebody else's manky Scrabble that's covered in brown sauce stains'.
Happy Hollidays is showing from September 4 at 10.35pm on BBC1 Scotland.