Summer Holiday

It's not as good as the previous "The Young Ones", there is no Robert Morley here, and the music is less first rate. Still it's fabulous entertainment in gorgeous colours and wonderful musical numbers including many outstanding dance sequences. Laurie Peters is a good match for Cliff Richard, and the story is excellent too: a bunch of lads working in a garage decide to leave the dreariness of the climate in England to go for a holiday south, and for that purpose they refashion a London double-decker as a camping bus with kitchen and facilities and go off through all Europe with Athens for a destination. On the way they collect passengers, especially girls, and in France a whole troupe of mime actors join the party and effect marvellous entertainment. There are many ingenious innovations in this film, and the high level of good humour never slackens. The only crooks are some intruders from America headed by Laurie Peters' dreadful mother, but even she is ultimately converted by Cliff Richard. He is no great actor, but he is a fabulous artist, and whenever he performs, he dominates everything. It's a vein of wild good houmour throughout, which can even be viewed with positive digestion and delight more than once. Forget the superficiality, and concentrate on the colours, the entertainment and the consistently wonderful good mood.