'Benidorm' In The Press...Sadly the final episode [of series two] is a bit of a let-down, after what has been an exceptionally strong series. Surely the difference between an ongoing soap and a sitcom is that the latter should offer us some resolution (however temporary) at the end of each episode, and especially in the final show of the run? Delia Pemberton, DigiGuide, 16th May 2008 Benidorm has long exercised a sickly fascination, but it has always been a vaguely nasty pleasure - like one of those bright-green cocktails with an umbrella on top that splits open your skull the next morning. But as the series has developed, sympathy for the characters has taken over from cruelty, helping to make it one of the highlights of the week. For some reason, some folks here at thecustard.tv don't enjoy Benidorm so I'm here to come to its defence. When I nine, we lived in Spain and I saw the same kind of characters flock to Benidorm for their summer holidays watching Only Fools and Horses in a Spanish pub called The Red Lion and complaining to the locals you couldn't get a decent bacon butty. Benidorm was lame, hackneyed and cliched first time round, and it doesn't seem to have gone anywhere new. It says something about the quality of the writing when the funniest thing about a show is Johnny Vegas failing to dive into the pool, again and again. I think he's trying to tell you something about the show: it's a big, wet belly flop. A sitcom that harks back to early-1990s BBC drama Eldorado (basically EastEnderson-Sea). Take a cast of crazy characters and put them in a Spanish resort. In the case of Benidorm, add some intentional jokes. And stand well back. When this broad sitcom was launched last year it definitely seemed to have something. Painting a tacky picture of life at a Spanish resort hotel, it created a memorable allery of grotesques. David Butcher, The Radio Times, 28th March 2008 Return of the sometimes tasteless and occasionally funny comedy set in a Benidorm holiday resort, featuring eccentric working-class characters playing out their darkly peculiar lives. Like Five's Suburban Shootout, the comedy is hit and miss, but the performances are universally good, and so Benidorm deserves points for trying. The Manchester Evening News previews the second series, with quotes from some of the main cast. From The Manchester Evening News, 25th March 2008 In this article from 2007, The Independent goes behind-the-scenes on the production of the first series to find out more about the show. Written by James Rampton. From The Independent, 31st January 2007 |