Confessions from a Holiday Camp

I am a fan of the whole series of movies, but this movie had a different feel to it. I would say it was more like the on the buses holiday movie but obviously more naughty. If you are a fan of the carry on series of movies or have seen the adventures of, series of movies then I would recommend seeing this movie and the others too.

I saw this film in 1977, aged 21, stoned, sitting up the back of the Odeon High Street Kensington, with some friends, smoking. And we laughed. We laughed a lot actually. Seeing it on DVD, in my lounge at home, aged 52, on a cold Friday night, by myself - well, surprise, surprise, it wasn't funny anymore. Not only is it of it's time but also of it's place in history. It's cheap, written without much imagination, with no real laughs and with some (by 2008 standards) cringe inducing racism and sexism. But for all that, like Carry On and Doctor films, it is remarkably easy to watch and has a fascinating British charm all of it's own. I suppose the appeal, at it's basic level - is simple. It says that even if you're ignorant, thick and ugly, you only have to smile and sexy women will fall all over you, even to the extent of lining up, five at a time, to hide in your wardrobe. If only real life were like that.

(Butlin's is well know chain of British holiday camps, in case dear reader you are unaware). Randy Timmy Lea and his unfaithful brother-in-law Sid gain employment at a British holiday camp. They organise a beauty contest for "the talent", the young women take it in turns to seduce young Tim in return for improving their chances of winning the competition. This is the fourth and last entry in the "Confessions" series. I have gone about watching them wrong, I enjoyed the first film (Window Cleaner) but then skipped the next two. Got to be honest judging by Holiday Camp I can see why they made no more. It starts off with the song "Give Me England" by The Wurzels, being a fan of them I was impressed. The always likeable Robin Askwith is back as Tim, Anthony Booth is back as Sidney. The lovely British actress Linda Hayden is also back (she was in Cleaner), and as always she is never shy to shed her clothes! The story is set in March and Tim says how cold it is yet holiday makers are sunbathing by the pool and rubbing suntan cream into their bodies so that it a of a contradiction. The comedy comes in two forms. Firstly there is the slapstick, I did laugh out loud a few times but it can also be plain silly. Then there is the sexist, homophobic and racist humour which today would be considered politically incorrect. There is plenty of brief female frontal nudity but the sex scenes are lame. One of my old movie review books described this film as "ghastly". I am sure many people will agree with that, as for me I enjoyed it to an extent but were it not for the nudity and The Wurzels I would have scored it lower than 5/10. I am now interested to see how the middle two movies compare, hopefully they will be better than this one.

Robin Askwith returns for one final hurrah as the happy go hero Timmy lea this time attempting to hold onto a Job in a dingy holiday camp run by an ex prison officer played by John Junkin.

Film is the best of the four in my opinion because of the single greatest supporting performance given by Anthony Booth as his brother in law Sydney.

Going marvelously over the the top at every conceivable moment becoming paralytic with fear that Askwith is up to no good.

It's one of the best performances I've ever seen a comedy shame the humour Is so- So.

Highly watchable for Anthony Booth performance shame he wasn't offered more meater roles afterwards. Ended up becoming staunch media personality socialist in his later years before secumbing to Alzheimer's disease at the age of 87.

A waste of a great talent..

The film goes out with a bang on a high unlike the previous films very enjoyable.

But hey what do I know.

"Timmy Lea" (Robin Askwith) and his philandering brother-in-law (Anthony Booth) from "Confessions of a Window Cleaner" (and two other "Confessions" movies I haven't seen) are working together once again, this time running a holiday camp called "Camp Funfrall". Their jobs are on the line, however, when the camp gets a new uptight owner. The brother-in-law tries to redeem them by sponsoring a beauty contest for the unusually large amount of nubile lovelies that patronize the camp, but his efforts are jeopardized by Timmy's customary habit of falling into various madcap sexual situations, which always seems to result in him running naked around the camp (to the point where he is dubbed "the Camp Streaker"). And to make matters even worse, Timmy's goofy parents and sister also show up to add to the zaniness.

Compared to "Confessions of a Window Cleaner" this British sex comedy has a little less emphasis on sex and a little more on comedy. Unfortunately, the comedy isn't nearly as funny as in the earlier entry, mostly because Timmy's hilarious parents don't have nearly as large of role. The lovely Linda Hayden (who played his fiancée in the first movie) returns as a different character, a French co-worker. Hayden's French accent is none-too-convincing, but she's never clad more than scantily, and often not at all. The same is true of the other women at the camp, including a black girl (to whom Timmy makes some very politically incorrect comments that nevertheless don't dissuade her from going to bed with him), an older married woman (Penny Meredith), and two giggly teenage friends (Carol Ellis and Sue Upton) . As usual, however, Askwith himself spends more time in the buff than any of the women. (I sometimes suspect that this series, with pretty-boy, Mick Jagger-lookalike Askwith, was aimed more at a 70's British version of a "bi-curious" audience as opposed to an entirely straight one).

If you liked the first movie (like I kind of did), this is not as good, but it's not necessarily bad. If you didn't like the first one though, you'll probably find this one even worse.