Confessions from a Holiday Camp

Confessions From a Holiday Camp, the fourth and final film to star Robin Askwith as working class lothario Timmy Lea, fails spectacularly as a comedy, the unsophisticated script resorting to embarrassing racist remarks, crass homophobic jokes, and childish slapstick in a desperate attempt to illicit giggles from its audience.

'So, if it's not all that funny, then why have you rated it so highly?' I hear you ask. The answer: the endless quality British crumpet, of course. The plot, which sees Timmy organising a beauty contest at Camp Funfrall, allows for plenty of bare breasts, some shapely female derrieres, and more bush than Hampton Court Maze. Not only does the lovely Linda Hayden, star of the first Confessions film, return to play foxy French holiday host Brigitte, but we also get sexy brunette Caroline Ellis as yummy Brummie Gladys, Kim Hardy as the camp's tasty announcer, Nicola Blackman as Blackbird, the camp's curvacous Caribbean queen (and, sadly, the brunt of the racist jokes), and busty Janet Edis as a horny MILF.

Unfortunately, there's also rather a lot of Robin Askwith's hairy ass on display, but you can't win 'em all I suppose.

"Timmy Lea" (Robin Askwith) and his philandering brother-in-law (Anthony Booth) from "Confessions of a Window Cleaner" (and two other "Confessions" movies I haven't seen) are working together once again, this time running a holiday camp called "Camp Funfrall". Their jobs are on the line, however, when the camp gets a new uptight owner. The brother-in-law tries to redeem them by sponsoring a beauty contest for the unusually large amount of nubile lovelies that patronize the camp, but his efforts are jeopardized by Timmy's customary habit of falling into various madcap sexual situations, which always seems to result in him running naked around the camp (to the point where he is dubbed "the Camp Streaker"). And to make matters even worse, Timmy's goofy parents and sister also show up to add to the zaniness.

Compared to "Confessions of a Window Cleaner" this British sex comedy has a little less emphasis on sex and a little more on comedy. Unfortunately, the comedy isn't nearly as funny as in the earlier entry, mostly because Timmy's hilarious parents don't have nearly as large of role. The lovely Linda Hayden (who played his fiancée in the first movie) returns as a different character, a French co-worker. Hayden's French accent is none-too-convincing, but she's never clad more than scantily, and often not at all. The same is true of the other women at the camp, including a black girl (to whom Timmy makes some very politically incorrect comments that nevertheless don't dissuade her from going to bed with him), an older married woman (Penny Meredith), and two giggly teenage friends (Carol Ellis and Sue Upton) . As usual, however, Askwith himself spends more time in the buff than any of the women. (I sometimes suspect that this series, with pretty-boy, Mick Jagger-lookalike Askwith, was aimed more at a 70's British version of a "bi-curious" audience as opposed to an entirely straight one).

If you liked the first movie (like I kind of did), this is not as good, but it's not necessarily bad. If you didn't like the first one though, you'll probably find this one even worse.

Due to age I missed out on the UK 1970's sex comedy boom, so have been watching movies from this genre as they make themselves available on TV. Because these aren't exactly the kind of things you would pay money to watch or go out your way to see at the cinema. As if cinemas would play this kind of thing, seeing as they are now all staffed by woke feminists in 1950's tea dresses and ironic NHS glasses. Unlike the Carry On Series, the Confessions series is less family friendly due to its content, so it doesn't get as much love. The narrative is also much more streamlined as the Confessions series basically follows the protagonist in his job role as numerous nubile women decide they want to have sex with him now and for no apparent reason. And there are plenty of opportunities as this is a holiday camp. The humour is generally around nudity in public and the fear of being caught having sex from others. There is little crude language and the sex scenes are tame compared to what can be seen on the average teenagers phone. Is it ironic that these movies did and still do have feminists frothing at the mouth, when 40 years of feminist intervention have lead to even more extreme content being normalised by the public? This is definitely a UK time capsule movie and shows a more innocent time, regardless of the "that didn't age well" comments from the virtue signallers who are looking at far worse stuff.

I recently viewed the UK comedy 🇬🇧 Confessions from a Holiday Camp (1977) on Tubi. The plot revolves around Tim Lea, now employed at a classic European summer camp, responsible for recruiting talent for an upcoming beauty pageant. His recruitment might go too far, risking the girls' withdrawal from the event over jealousy. Can Tim salvage the situation and successfully carry out the mission?

Directed by Norman Cohen (Burning Rubber), the film features Robin Askwith (Bless this House), Anthony Booth (Corruption), Bill Maynard (Oddball Hall), Linda Hayden (Taste the Blood of Dracula), and Sheila White (Oliver!).

This cheesy UK comedy leans heavily on excuses for splash nudity, full nudity, and numerous shots of naked butts. While a few scenes, like the pool sequence, offer some entertainment, the film often feels like a sequel to Meatballs with a focus solely on the ladies. Even the narration falls into the realm of average.

In conclusion, Confessions from a Holiday Camp boasts appealing ladies but lacks in the comedy department. I would rate it a 4.5-5/10 and recommend it only with the appropriate expectations.

The last of the four Confessions films is about Timmy and Sid running a holiday camp, basically a summer camp for the whole family. If you've seen any or all of the previous films in this series, you'll get just what you expect: General silliness, dumb gags and nudity at the drop of a hat. There was a British show called Hi-De-Hi which was also set in a holiday camp, but that show had polish and well developed characters, while this film is just an excuse for sexual antics. That in and of itself is not bad, but the film doesn't try very hard to be anything but a sex comedy. I'm sure the film maker wasn't looking to make a masterpiece but I just found this so-so at best. Mostly for lovers of the sex comedy genre and for anyone who feels nostalgic about the film.