About 'Benidorm'

Benidorm is a prime-time ITV1 sitcom set in Spain, which features a strong ensemble cast comprising of a number of well known faces. The comedy is written by The Catherine Tate Show's co-writer Derren Litten, and is produced by Geoffrey Perkins from Tiger Apsect.

Set in the Solana all-inclusive resort, Benidorm follows regulars and first-time holiday makers on their journeys abroad. Despite their disparate backgrounds they all have one thing in common - a quest for getting value for money!

Regulars at The Santiago include Jacqueline (Janine Duvitski) and Donald (Kenny Ireland), who have been coming to Benidorm for twenty years, though they have never seen the resort itself. Why do they need to, when everything they want is in the Solana Resort? It provides all inclusive food and drink... oh and sex! (Both are enthusiastic and middle-aged swingers).

Kate (Abigail Cruttenden) and Martin Weedon (Nicholas Burns) are going through a rough patch during their third year of marriage. Five seconds is all it takes for them to realise that the Solana Resort is the very worst place for them to make a fresh start.

Known as 'The Oracle' because of his computer-like knowledge of trivial facts and figures, Geoff Maltby (Johnny Vegas) is on holiday with his mother. He is Lancashire's pub quiz champion and prone to competitive behaviour.

Meanwhile Gavin (Hugh Sachs) and Troy (Paul Bazely) are on their first break away together after setting up a successful hair salon. Both like to think that they are far too classy for Benidorm but are happy enough to get drunk and snigger at other holiday makers.

Then there are The Garveys (pictured right). They are a Lancashire family who are on their first holiday abroad. Janice (Siobhan Finneran) and Mick (Steve Pemberton) are on holiday with their teenage daughter Chantelle (Hannah Hobley), eight year old son Michael (Oliver Stokes), and Janice's mother: the sun-worshipping, chain-smoking Madge (Sheila Reid), a woman who has a bad word for everyone.

The first series of Benidorm proved to be a fairly modest hit for ITV - with critics saying things like: "The ideal mix of sea, sun and silliness", "Beautifully written and performed" and "A gem of wry observation in withering bad taste".

Series two, which was broadcast in April and May 2008, saw all the main characters return to the Solana Resort for eight new episodes.

The Garveys were back with two new arrivals to the family: Mel (Geoffrey Hutchings) - the owner of five sun bed shops and 'Didsbury's answer to Julio Iglesias'; plus 17-year-old Chantelle's new baby, Coolio.

Then there's The Oracle who, at 37, is still determined to make the big break from his mum, or 'his PA' as he calls her in public. Kate and Martin who are never, ever coming back to Benidorm... are back too!

Gay couple Gavin and Troy who got engaged at the Solana in series one return 'the scene of the crime' and good-hearted swingers Donald and Jacqueline are back in time for series two with happy memories of The MSA (Middlesborough Swingers Association). There's also guest star appearances from Wendy Richard as Sylvia - a wheelchair riding love rival for Madge; and Margi Clark as Dorothy, Gavin's estranged mother.

In total there will be nine new episodes of Benidorm in 2009, the first of which will be a one-off special. This special will pick up where the second series left off, with several characters in prison, hospital and disappearing out to sea on a parasail. The eight-episode third series will then follow - reuniting the stars a year on.

ITV director of television Peter Fincham told the press: "After a Bafta nomination for the first series and ratings success for the second, ITV is delighted to announce that our favourite holidaymakers will be returning in 2009 with a one-hour special and eight new episodes. Benidorm has a fantastic mix of warmth, charm, and fun. I am delighted to have this popular series returning to the channel next year."

Paul Jackson, ITV's director of comedy, added: "Gaining a Bafta nomination for best sitcom was a fantastic moment and with such impressive ratings ITV is very pleased to commission more. Benidorm has performed brilliantly on the channel and online. The series clearly has a great fan base."

Background

Benidorm was written and created by the award-winning Derren Litten. He says: "After staring blankly at a computer screen for a couple of months I decided to write a sketch about a couple of middle aged swingers. The sketch was set around the swimming pool of an all inclusive Spanish holiday resort and after writing it I decided to imagine who else would be sitting around the pool, where they were from, and how they ended up there. The result was episode one of Benidorm."

Paul Jackson, ITV's director of Entertainment and Comedy, talking about series two adds: "Derren has once again written a wonderful series of scripts. All the characters we loved in the first series are back with even more outrageous storylines and stunts. The cast really are some of the best comedy talent we have in the UK and I'm thrilled we have some very fantastic new additions".

Producer Geoffrey Perkins, whom is interviewed in-depth elsewhere in our guide, says: "We were all delighted at how well Benidorm performed last year on ITV and that all of our tremendous cast are back with some wonderful new additions. As we discovered filming the new series there seems already big recognition of the characters. Series two brings a fiesta of bullfighting, arm-wrestling, romance, night-time beach activities and a cucumber!"

Litten went on to say: "I decided not to write a part for myself - I'm not very good at writing parts for myself, not a great admission considering I've been an actor for well over 10 years. The six week shoot took place entirely on location in Benidorm and was the most incredible experience of my life. I worked with people I now consider my family. We developed an incredibly close unit and I think that shows in the end result." (Side note: Derren does make a couple of cameo appearances - watch out for him in the airport in episode 2.1)

"To have actors involved such as Siobhan Finneran, Steve Pemberton, Janine Duvitski and Johnny Vegas, to name but a few, has absolutely blown me away. I never dreamt we would get a cast like this - I still don't believe it!"

"The tone of the show is exactly that of Benidorm the holiday resort, enormous fun if you go with the flow. It's easy to turn your nose up at somewhere as cheap and potentially tacky as Benidorm but vulgarity is something which can be great fun if you don't fight against it. On nights out in the town many of us would look at a bar from the outside and be horrified but after a few drinks we were fighting to get on the karaoke!"

The first series was Paul Jackson's first commission since returning to ITV as Director of Entertainment and Comedy, and it was a series that re-united him with Geoffrey Perkins (who is a former Head of BBC Comedy). At the time Jackson said: "Benidorm is the holiday experience we have all had where you spend 14 days avoiding the lairy couple who sat behind you on the coach. Derren has created a fantastic range of characters and the sure quality of his writing has attracted a really exciting cast who will bring to life the joys and the horrors of the all inclusive package holiday."

Geoffrey Perkins reveals how the series came to life:

"When I first talked to Catherine Tate about developing a series for her we both agreed that we should aim to only use a very small writing team and Catherine suggested her friend Derren Litten (who she had known since they went to Central School of Speech and Drama). He wasn't a writer as such but she thought, as he was funny in real life, he could do it on the page."

"Derren went on to write much of her subsequent series and proved to be an absolutely superb writer - creating many of Catherine's most memorable characters and writing dialogue with a comic observation and precision worthy of, for instance, John Sullivan" (indeed John Sullivan, impressed by his writing, later asked him to write for The Green, Green Grass).

Perkins continues: "At the end of last year [2005] I offered Derren a commission to write a longer narrative piece. It turned out to be one of the most exciting scripts I have read. Derren had managed to introduce over a dozen vivid characters in a great setting. It features a universal experience - the holiday where you are suddenly thrown together with the people with whom you have nothing apparently in common but often end up bonding with and inviting to come and see you back home, only to have them turn up and stay up all night drinking everything drinkable plus a bottle of toilet duck, and insisting on playing a CD of a Canadian thrash metal band at Volume 11 while you cower upstairs trying to quietly phone the police. Or maybe that's just me!"

"We felt that Benidorm would sit very well on ITV - and fortunately it coincided with the arrival of Paul Jackson as ITV's Director Entertainment and Comedy - someone with a real knowledge of comedy, a desire to do new things and the clout to get them on."

And in response to Derren talking about the crew spending the night at the karaoke, Geoffrey says: "Yes I have a hazy recollection of launching into Pulp's Common People realising that it has a lengthy instrumental break and deciding to fill it with a particularly poor piece of break dancing!"