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IMDbPro

Eldorado

  • TV Series
  • 1992–1993
  • 29m
IMDb RATING
5.0/10
303
YOUR RATING
Eldorado (1992)
Soap OperaDramaRomance

A soap opera about the ex-pats who lived in Los Barcos. The series focused mainly on the British and their lives, loves and attempts to make a new life for themselves.A soap opera about the ex-pats who lived in Los Barcos. The series focused mainly on the British and their lives, loves and attempts to make a new life for themselves.A soap opera about the ex-pats who lived in Los Barcos. The series focused mainly on the British and their lives, loves and attempts to make a new life for themselves.

  • Creator
    • Tony Holland
  • Stars
    • Campbell Morrison
    • Patricia Brake
    • Josh Nathan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.0/10
    303
    YOUR RATING
    • Creator
      • Tony Holland
    • Stars
      • Campbell Morrison
      • Patricia Brake
      • Josh Nathan
    • 16User reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Episodes156

    Browse episodes
    TopTop-rated1 season

    Photos5

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    Top cast99+

    Edit
    Campbell Morrison
    • Drew Lockhead
    • 1992–1993
    Patricia Brake
    Patricia Brake
    • Gwen Lockhead
    • 1992–1993
    Josh Nathan
    • Blair Lockhead
    • 1992–1993
    Jesse Birdsall
    Jesse Birdsall
    • Marcus Tandy
    • 1992–1993
    Leslee Udwin
    • Joy Slater
    • 1992–1993
    Polly Perkins
    • Trish Valentine
    • 1992–1993
    Bo Corre
    Bo Corre
    • Ingrid Olsson…
    • 1992–1993
    Sandra Sandri
    • Pilar Moreno
    • 1992–1993
    Roland Curram
    Roland Curram
    • Freddie Martin
    • 1992–1993
    Hilary Crane
    Hilary Crane
    • Rosemary Webb
    • 1992–1993
    Franco Rey
    • Roberto Fernandez
    • 1992–1993
    Stella Maris
    • Rosario Fernandez
    • 1992–1993
    Julie Fernandez
    Julie Fernandez
    • Nessa Lockhead
    • 1992–1993
    Faith Kent
    • Olive King
    • 1992–1993
    Buki Armstrong
    • Gerry Peters-Smith…
    • 1992–1993
    Framboise Gommendy
    Framboise Gommendy
    • Isabelle Leduc
    • 1992–1993
    Kim Rømer
    • Per Svendsen
    • 1992–1993
    William Lucas
    William Lucas
    • Stanley Webb
    • 1992–1993
    • Creator
      • Tony Holland
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews16

    5.0303
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    Featured reviews

    bunnies4

    Eldorado was more real than anyone can guess!

    In 1992 when Eldorado first aired on the BBC I watched it avidly. Yes, some of the characters seemed a little "outrageous" and maybe some of the acting could have been better. However, I was hooked, especially as we were off to Spain on holiday in the August. Sadly the BBC axed the show, which was a pity.

    Three and half years ago, we retired to Spain and now live in a very mixed community of Europeans, ex-pats included. Oh brother! Believe me I have met virtually every character featured in Eldorado, as outrageous as some of them appeared. Whoever researched the program originally did a pretty good job, how sad that it wasn't appreciated at the time. So real is it that our community has now been re-titled Eldorado by our visiting family. Wish the episodes were available on DVD!
    4wilsonstuart-32346

    The BBC's Quest For Fools Gold

    I was never a fan of Eldorado but I can remember the blaze of publicity and hype that greeted the Beeb's flagship soap opera - Sean Connery, apparently, at one point, provided the voiceover (this was untrue).

    Although it had a better hook than ITV's miserable 'Albion Market', Eldorado was beset by a legion of problems - technical, legal, logistical, administrative and financial - that overwhelmed an overstretched and vaguely defined production. Crucially, it had no central character - no Bet, Den, Charlene or even a Mandy for the viewer to root for.

    The BBC were probably right to bring the axe down on an expensive, woodenly acted, muddled white elephant but as Britain totters towards a new phase in our fraught relationship with Europe it makes you wonder what storylines we would be watching today if Eldorado had managed to thrive and survive.
    7malpasc-391-915380

    Bad early on, grew better as it went on, axed too soon

    Like Crossroads and Triangle, Eldorado became a byword in the 90s for bad TV programmes. In a way particularly early on this is probably true. The first episodes of the show were not good. A lot of the cast were inexperienced actors (or indeed non actors before this show) and there were issues with sound and video quality as they were shooting in real physical buildings and not indoor sets built inside a studio. This meant everything echoed a lot and quite often the lighting was a bit dark. As a British soap, albeit set and shot in Spain they also had the strange idea of the foreign characters speaking in their native language. Realistic - yes, but difficult for a show going out in an English speaking country, particularly as these bits of dialogue were also not subtitled!

    Some of the early storylines were fairly awful to watch. That in particular of middle aged Bunny Charleson coming back to Spain with his 17 year old wife Fizz - it was just uncomfortable! Poor Kathy Pitkin who played Fizz bore the brunt of a lot of the criticism from the British press. True, she wasn't the best actress, but looking at it now she's no worse than a lot of current young British soap stars and given more of a chance I think she would have grown into the role and improved. Its very telling Eldorado is her one and only acting credit to this day.

    As ratings went down and vitriol from the press continued the producer left and the replacement immediately set about removing many of the poorer actors, stopping the foreign language sections, rounding out characters better, adding better storylines and improving production techniques. These actions vastly improved the show and ratings began to go up.

    The favourite and probably best characters and storylines came from those of playboy Marcus Tandy (with his enormous mobile phone and Renault Alpine) and his girlfriend, runaway stable hand Pilar. Washed up club singer Trish (Polly Perkins) and her good friend bar owner Joy had great chemistry and also got some quite dramatic and dark storylines for a 7pm soap opera.

    For completeness of soap character archetypes you had the seemingly "cosy" Lockhead family, nosy neighbour Olive King, the very sophisticated Leduc family where the parents had their open marriage, as well as an actual Spanish family who had a few secrets of their own, including a very well done gay relationship storyline which was handled quite sensitively and was unusual for UK TV at the time.

    Unfortunately all the improvements couldn't save the show as new BBC One director Alan Yentob made axing the show his first task in his then new role. The final episode sailed out into the sunset quite literally almost a year to the day the first episode was shown.

    Looking back, yes the show had its problems early on but they were well on the way to being fixed, and towards the end Eldorado was getting what these days would be considered extremely healthy ratings - up to 10 million. I wonder if almost 30 years on if things had been different and the show had continued what would it be like now? I guess we will never know. I was a teenager when it was first on, and am now in my 40s. I enjoyed it then, and having re-watched it more recently I still enjoy it.
    Severus_Snape666

    Most entertaining soap!

    OK, so I admit, I never saw it when it was originally aired (being 8 at the time!), and I bought the Adios Eldorado video because I'd heard so much about Jesse Birdsall's character, Marcus! I thought it would be a 1992 version of Sunset Beach- terrible acting, bad sets, poor story lines that never went anywhere. But, I was wrong, for the characters were well thought out and yet the soap didn't got too bogged down with overly serious plots that modern soaps rely on. The quirky, colourful characters worked well because they were larger than life, not trying to be as close to a normal world as possible. I've only ever seen the couple of hours worth on the video, so I'm still waiting to see reruns on UK Gold, but I think its a fantastic show, Even my 12 yr old sister loves it.
    chris_myers90

    A curious piece of British TV History

    When in 1992 the BBC decided it needed a second soap to relieve the burden on 'Eastenders' to be the networks solo rival to ITV'S 'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale' the novel idea of setting it in the sunnier climes of Spain amongst British ex-pats seemed to give the show a unique selling point. Many shows come and go but the fatal blow to this soap opera may have been the original fanfare with which it was launched. The BBC spent £10,000,000 on preliminary sets and production but upon first glance the hugely anticipated drama seemed to have little in the way of story lines or characterisation. There were production problems with the sound that made the show at times impossible to watch.

    The hype that the show had been given and the fact that it was funded by the licence payer meant that the British press leapt upon it and it became a favourite object of derision. Initially encouraging viewing figures tumbled to only 3 million per episode and ten months after its fanfare debut the BBC pulled the plug and cancelled the show.

    It is well known that the quality of the show and the viewing figures were climbing towards and the end and that perhaps the show was finally starting to catch on. However, the damage had long been done. The media had slated it and tainted it as a joke and from this there was no return for the BBC. The massively expensive sets were mothballed and are now a museum for intrepid tourists and curious TV fans. The shown came to an end satisfactorily and somewhat gracefully (for otherwise see Crossroads #3) but one can only imagine how devastating it was for the actors (other victims of the shows bad initial production) and we can only estimate how much money was poured down the drain on the massively hyped and massively expensive white elephant.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The BBC spent two million pounds to build the set.
    • Connections
      Featured in 100 Greatest TV Moments from Hell (2000)
    • Soundtracks
      When You Go Away
      Performed by Johnny Griggs [final episode only]

      Composed by Simon May

      [series theme tune]

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    FAQ17

    • How many seasons does Eldorado have?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 6, 1992 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Little England
    • Filming locations
      • Málaga, Andalucía, Spain
    • Production companies
      • Cinema Verity
      • J.Dark y J.Todesco
      • British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      29 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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