BENIDORM was the cheeky sitcom that celebrated Brits abroad at their lager-chugging, tanline-touting best.
Now there are whispers the ITV favourite could be back.
Tim Healy as Lesley and Denise Welch as Scary Mary[/caption]
And just like that first sip of Sangria by the pool, its news we can all savour.
Because as well as whisking us off to the frivolous world of the Solana all-inclusive resort, Benidorm will bring an all too welcome dose of sunshine to the dismal world of TV.
The Sun reported yesterday that the sitcom is set to return for an 11th series, eight years after it was brutally axed.
Channel bosses are in secret talks over a comeback for the award-winning series, with hopes of reuniting the all-star cast for a new era of naughty storylines.
Favourites included Tim Healy’s cross-dressing bartender Les and loud-mouth matriarch Madge Harvey, played by Sheila Reid — who chain-smoked while driving around the resort on her mobility scooter.
Then there was hunky Mateo, who was rarely seen wearing more than his teeny tiny swim trunks.
That trio alone captured what viewers loved about the comedy, which hilariously portrayed British holidaymakers mixing with quirky staff.
There were fart jokes, close-to-the-knuckle gags about sex and constant chuckles over the culture clash between the tourists and the Spanish locals.
A TV source said: “Benidorm was cheeky and bawdy but never took itself too seriously.
“Nowadays a cross-dressing barman, gratuitous crotch shots and the like would have regulators grappling for their trigger warnings.
“But Benidorm managed to tread the line between outrageous and offensive so brilliantly.
“Just like the naff cocktails served at the Solana hotel, what the storylines lacked in substance they made up for in the fun factor.
“It’s the kind of show TV is seriously lacking right now, so the industry has been unsurprised to hear ITV is interested in reviving the comedy.”
They’re not wrong.
Whilst some 10million Brits dutifully tune into one of our soaps each night, it’s fair to say the big three – Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders have lost their glow.
Corrie, for example, failed to muster even 3million for the departure of Helen Worth’s cobbles legend Gail Platt at Christmas.
Danny Walters as Tiger Dyke, Perry Benson as Clive and Charlotte Eaton as Terri Dawson[/caption]
Cilla Black played herself in a small cameo, when she got in touch with her diva side for an on-screen row[/caption]
Sherrie Hewson, who played hotel manager Joyce Temple-Savage, let slip on a podcast that she has been approached for the reboot[/caption]
They’re busy tackling Dee-Dee’s rape, premature labour and emergency hysterectomy.
Meanwhile EastEnders is drowning in grief over Martin Fowler’s death, whilst Linda and Avani battle their drink demons.
The soaps have become miserable, laden down by issue-led plotlines and severely lacking in fun
A TV source
And over on Emmerdale it’s poverty, incest and child abuse.
A TV source added: “That evening spot usually dominated by the soaps has been in desperate need of a shuffle for years now.
“The soaps have become miserable, laden down by issue-led plotlines and severely lacking in fun.
“Benidorm would be just the tonic – with a hefty slug of Solana’s gin, of course.”
Sherrie Hewson, who played hotel manager Joyce Temple-Savage, let slip on a podcast that she has been approached for the reboot.
And a channel source has confirmed to The Sun that very early talks are underway, although ITV has not formally green lit the new effort.
After the news broke, its creator Derren Litten weighed in online by sharing his somewhat cryptic response.
He said: “This rumour comes up every couple of years. I guess it’s testament to how successful the show was at the time.”
He added that a new series had not yet been commissioned and there was “no way on God’s earth” a full series would be ready in time to air this year.
But he then went on: “I hope that’s cleared a few things up and some of the clever ones might be able to read between the lines and get more information from this.”
Hannah Waddingham played Tonya Dyke in Benidorm for seven episodes in 2014[/caption]
Tony Maudsley as Kenneth Du Beke[/caption]
Hannah Waddingham is now a global star thanks to Ted Lasso[/caption]
Derren’s fancy footwork – in which industry folk noted he failed to deny the early talks – has added to the clamour around Benidorm’s return.
Benidorm, which was first aired in 2007, was scrapped in 2018 — two months before winning Best Comedy at the TV Choice Awards.
Litten slammed ITV’s axe, telling the crowd as he picked up the gong: “This is a bit awkward, the show’s just been cancelled.”
He added sarcastically: “I’ve huge respect for ITV — a show that’s getting five and a half million viewers and still picking up awards, but they’ve cancelled it. That takes balls.”
It’s true that Benidorm batted above its weight throughout its decade-long run.
As well as the regular cast, which also included Jake Canuso as Mateo, Tony Maudsley as Kenneth Du Beke and Janine Duvitski as Jacqueline Stewart, a galaxy of guest stars checked in at the Solana.
The soaps have become miserable, laden down by issue-led plotlines and severely lacking in fun. Benidorm would be just the tonic – with a hefty slug of Solana’s gin, of course
TV source
Those included superstars Cilla Black and Dame Joan Collins, who loved the camp comedy so much they agreed to take part.
Cilla played herself in a small cameo, when she got in touch with her diva side for an on-screen row, but Joan’s role spiralled.
Her stint as hotel owner Crystal Hennessy-Vass was only supposed to be a one-off but the character proved so popular she appeared in four episodes in total.
Viewers still remember Crystal’s performance of Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend at the Pride of Benidorm awards – her low point of sleeping with Johnny Vegas’ pub quiz champion Geoff Maltby.
Joan wasn’t the only Dynasty diva to grace the Solana, with her stint as novelist Barbara Simmonds being her last ever acting credit in 2012.
Other famous faces to stop by include Sheridan Smith, who played a love interest, Janet Street-Porter who was a hard-nosed news reporter.
Pop group Bananarama even stopped by Neptune’s bar for a performance.
For a frivolous teatime comedy, Benidorm also had a surprising hand in shaping some of our biggest TV stars.
I’ve huge respect for ITV — a show that’s getting five and a half million viewers and still picking up awards, but they’ve cancelled it. That takes balls
Darren Litten
Hannah Waddingham is now a global star thanks to Ted Lasso, Hocus Pocus 2 and The Fall Guy – plus an upcoming role in this year’s Mission Impossible film.
But she played Tonya Dyke in Benidorm for seven episodes in 2014.
Danny Walters, who played Tiger Dyke, was soon cast as ill-fated EastEnders hunk Keanu Taylor.
Comedian and co-creator of Inside No. 9, Steve Pemberton, starred as head of the Garvey family, Mick.
And Siobhan Finneran played his wife Janice but went on to become one of TV’s leading ladies in Happy Valley, Downton Abbey and is currently in ITV drama Protection.
Siobhan hit the nail on the head when she discussed a possible return for Benidorm back in 2022.
She said: “You should probably never say never to anything so popular.”
I couldn’t agree more.
DISMAL SOAPS A TURN-OFF
By JESS LESTER
BRITISH soaps are on life support, with once beloved shows like EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale seeing viewers switch off in their millions amid a storm of dark storylines and schedule cuts.
Once the crown jewels of UK telly, the iconic dramas are battling a nosedive, with Corrie hitting a 14-month low this January as fewer than three million viewers tuned in.
It marked just ten per cent of the 27million people who watched Hilda Odgen’s farewell in its 1980s heyday, and eight times fewer viewers than Deidre Barlow’s wrongful imprisonment.
The drop in viewership came ahead of the soap’s latest tricky storyline, as Channique Sterling-Brown’s Dee Dee Bailey went into a premature labour with the baby of rapist villain Joel.
She was forced into an emergency hysterectomy in a racially motivated medical negligence case in a series of hard-to-watch episodes.
It hasn’t been much better over on Albert Square, with viewers tussling with constant grief over storylines of late, with much-loved Martin Fowler killed in The Queen Vic on its 40th anniversary.
While Linda Carter’s harrowing return to alcoholism last year sparked even more misery, teen character Avani has also turned to drinking to cope with a strip search ordeal.
Emmerdale, meanwhile, sparked outrage with one of its most controversial plots to date, an incestuous child sexual abuse case involving father and daughter.
The dark storyline followed on from a domestic abuse case between Tom and Belle King – with viewers forced to watch the exchanges of cruel insults and physical abuse.
Viewers have fumed on social media that the same soaps that used to be their escapism are now “depressing”, “sick”, “twisted” and “too stressful to watch”.
It’s not just the scripts that are facing trouble, but the TV cash crisis has also seen the soaps take another nosedive.
ITV alone slashed 200 jobs in 2024 and cut costs by £50million with falling advertising revenue and declining viewership tightening the purse strings.
The BBC too has tightened the belt in recent years, announcing it would air 1,000 fewer hours of new content last year thanks to the budget – with fewer resources for their high-cost soaps.
Even schedules are under attack, with ITV slashing its soap schedule – with Emmerdale and Corrie cut from six to five episodes.
While Channel 4’s Hollyoaks was reduced from five to three episodes a week, with bosses setting their sights last year on cutting down the cast list by 20 names.
The crisis has only worsened by the departure of some of the genre’s biggest names, from Corrie’s Sue Cleaver and Colson Smith to Emmerdale’s Lesley Dunlop and EastEnders’ Natalie Cassidy and Louisa Lytton following suit with Danny Dyer, who left in 2022.
