Trivia

Series creator Derren Litten appeared several times as different characters in the show (most notably as Crystal's driver Elvis), however he also appears in the opening credits as the last person to walk over the road crossing from the left.

With the exception of Helen Atkinson-Wood, all members of the Radio Active comedy troupe have had involvement in the series - Geoffrey Perkins (Producer), Mike Fenton-Stevens (Sir Henry), Angus Deayton (Grenville Titcombe) and Philip Pope (Winter Smallcock).

When scouting for possible filming locations for the Solana, the Sol Pelicanos-Ocas was the first hotel to be visited. Derren Litten has stated that he knew straight away when he saw it, that he had found the Solana.

When ill health forced Tim Healy to temporarily leave the show mid-filming Derren Litten created a replacement character called Neville. This was a reference to the show 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet', in which a character called Neville was the best friend of Tim Healy's character Dennis. (Thank to Derren Litten for confirming this for me).

The Bull Ring in Finnestrat was used in series 2 where the holiday makers were lured into a sales pitch under the guise of a free trip. This location was frequently used for such trips during the 80s and 90s which is partly why it was chosen. These free excursions are commonly known as 'Blanket Trips', as bedding was the most common type of item that promoters would attempt to sell to tourists who attended them. These still occur today but are less common.

Derren Litten wrote a pilot script for a prequel series. Unfortunately this was not picked up for production. (Their loss).

The series was entirely filmed in Benidorm and surrounding resorts.

Each series is set across just one week.

The only character to appear in every episode was Mateo (Jake Canuso).

The Rana Restaurant, where Lesley and Mateo were supposed to have a double date before the latter's arrest, was a popular haunt for the cast and crew.

Although later series were filmed in HD, the series has yet to see a release on Blu-Ray.

Set designer Andrew Lavin left his mark on series 10. A local bar was disguised as a British supermarket, the signage of which read Lavin's British Shop.

This page is under construction with much more to follow... :-)