The Holiday

A group of old uni friends meet up for a holiday in Malta, secrets and lies ruin the break.

First off, it looks freezing, the poor actors do their best to pretend as though it's warm, it looks like Burnley in February.

Dire, I think that's a fair word to describe this painful series. Imagine a soap opera that airs in the middle of the night, that nobody watches, that's what you have here, shockingly bad melodrama.

You spend three hours waiting for something to happen, other than awful parenting, people marching off, and interrupted conversations.

What a waste of the wonderful Aidan McArdle, I can't believe that someone of his class took a role like this. The acting ranges from average to decent.

Dave yourself the hassle, read old editions of The Yellow pages, I assure you that'd be more entertaining.

Painful, 3/10.

In these current difficult times it would be wonderful to be able to switch off and watch a series that is entertaining and uplifting. The holiday atmosphere and sun, beach, landscapes are lovely but the characters are unlikeable and odious. The main character is so annoying that I am rooting for her poor suffering husband to leave her. She spends the whole time angry and suspicious, ignoring her kids, then playing the protective, caring mother and just being a wet blanket. No-one seems happy and not one of them has any redeeming feature. Honestly I just felt depressed watching this. I give it 4 stars for the location but if you are in need of cheering up avoid this horrible series. With friends like this who needs enemies.

It's an ok show, nothing special but definitely not fantastic either. The main problem is as ever with current shows, text messages. Not everyone watches on a tablet or phone and unless you happen to have binoculars next to your sofa don't expect to see what's been written. Just hope it's not relevant to the storyline!

Recipe: Take 8 miserable, unlikeable, flawed adults.

Add a couple of stroppy teenagers and some incredibly annoying younger children.

Don't forget the staple of all current dramas - secretive mobile phone activity.

And finally put them in a villa in what seems to be a particularly cold and windy Malta.

Result: A flat and relentlessly boring story, the type of which Channel 5 excel at.

Unfortunately I watched it all, not because I enjoyed it, but for some stupid reason I wanted to see the outcome. Wish I hadn't bothered. It was too long, too dull and I didn't give a s*** about any of the characters. Also I don't know a soul on the planet who would stay on such a mundane, moody, depressing holiday. If you haven't seen this yet, trust the reviews and don't bother!