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The Holiday sees family strife between four households on what’s meant to be a dream luxury holiday. But then, it wouldn’t be a four-part nightly drama if someone didn’t sleep with someone else, or in extreme cases, one of them died in a cave after about five minutes (yes, I still can’t let Intruder off that one!)
It opens with the beach burning, and all hell breaking loose, before flashing back to the start of their holibobs, as Kate (Jill Halfpenny) heads down to the coast with husband Sean (Owen McDonnell) and their son and daughter.
In the scenario set out during the opener, they’re staying at a big, posh house, with an old University friend of Kate’s. Meanwhile, Sean is forever getting pinged on his phone – is it just business or (ahem) pleasure? Plus, their daughter, Lucy (Lara McDonnell), fancies
Jake (Shaun O’Callaghan Wade), one of the lads in one of the other families, who’s rather a bad boy. Kate and Sean head a family who live beyond their means, but that’s the least of their problems, given that she spots Sean’s phone showing messages from another woman, recommending he deletes all their messages… except, now she’s seen them. What’s he up to?
At the time of posting this, I’ve only seen the first episode, and given that we have potential of Sean playing away with someone else – unless it’s Kate’s imagination, and we learn Kate might regret not having a third child, in favour of furthering her police career.
Yep, if you’re not feeling this from my review, then I didn’t, either. In short, the location looks great, but the drama feels a bit soap opera-y.
In addition, there was a vertigo-inducing moment, but that was one of the more interesting parts of this first episode.
Any further updates will be after broadcast for each respective episode.
UPDATE Episode 2:
UPDATE Episode 3:
UPDATE Episode 4:
The Holiday continues tomorrow night on Channel 5 at 9pm, and is on nightly until Friday. It is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
If you miss it, you can watch the each episode on My5 after transmission.
Check out the trailer below:
Episode 1 Score: 3/10
Episode 2 Score: 3/10
Episode 3 Score: 3/10
Episode 4 Score: Pffft!
Director: Laura Way
Producer: Julie Ryan
Creator/Writer: Michael Crompton
Music: Vince Pope
Cast:
Kate: Jill Halfpenny
Sean: Owen McDonnell
Alistair: Aidan McArdle
Jenny: Liv Mjönes
Rowan: Siobhan Hewlett
Izzy: Cat Simmons
Russ: Andrew Macklin
Lucy: Lara McDonnell
Odette: Molly McCann
Jake: Shaun O’Callaghan Wade
Daniel: Aidan McCann
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.