Benidorm 4x00

It’s Christmas and the Garveys head to Benidorm to spend the holidays with Mel and Madge in their luxurious new villa overlooking the Costa Blanca. What’s funny is that they’ve called the villa “Casa Blanca,” but it’s painted pink! Mel hasn’t arrived yet from a business trip to Marrakesh, and Madge gets more and more nervous he may be having an affair – some “polka wonkers,” as she calls it. Mel’s assistant, that cross-dressing Les, fails to pick up Su Pollard (Hi-de-Hi! and You Rang M’Lord?). She ends up in a nudist resort singing show tunes to get enough cash to pay the cab fair to Casa Blanca. At the Solana, there’s confusion about the party of friends Donald and Jacqueline have brought for the holidays. They have a booking for a jazz band, the Middlesborough Swingers Association! Ahahaha! “Swingers,” get it? Unfortunately, that darling couple Gavin and Troy aren’t present to offer their snide comments on the events. And neither is Geoff “The Oracle,” but his mother Noreen is there, with a travel companion who might just be after her money. There’s no happy ending to this holiday special, for, Mick gets a call on Christmas day, while Roy Wood is jamming hard rocking carols at the Benidorm Palace, that Mel has passed away in Morocco. Quite a feat, to fit such a sad storyline into all the silliness and make it work! The Cricket even got teary-eyed... Sadder, still, is that Geoffrey Hutchings, the actor who played Mel Harvey, himself actually died of a viral infection last year.