Summer Holiday (The Young Ones)

"Summer Holiday" was the twelfth, and last, episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on 19 June 1984.^[1]

Plot

Outside shot of the victimised bank

The quartet have taken their final exams and are enjoying the summertime, although Vyvyan is bored and begins wanton violence and destruction. Rick suggests Botticelli to relieve the boredom, but his playing style proves too tedious and Vyvyan proposes cricket instead.

In the living room, Rick is given the role of stumps and Vyvyan is bowler to Mike's batsman. The first shot knocks out Neil as he enters the room; the second involves Vyvyan not releasing the ball and running straight for Rick, clouting him on the head. Mike suggests that Vyvyan obtain The Ashes for winning, which he promptly tries to do by setting Rick on fire. Neil reveals it is his birthday, much to the indifference of the others. The four decide to watch the television, but the channels are all closing down, infuriating Vyvyan who kicks the TV to pieces. Rick then learns of his parents' sudden death from Mike, who thought it unimportant to mention earlier.

Jerzei Balowski arrives to check on the house and its belongings but on discovering several destroyed items, including the television, evicts them all onto the street.

The next morning the four are seen living on the streets as John Otway performs the song 'Body Talk' (provoking the irritated Vyvian to comment, "I'll make his bloody body talk in a minute!"). They then receive their exam results from the postman, who having already read the letters, tells Rick that he "came bottom in the whole world", followed by Vyvyan, Mike, and Neil coming top out of the four.

Mike then hatches a plan to rob a bank, using water pistols and Vyvyan's car as a getaway vehicle. They mess up their own robbery, but unwittingly take the proceeds from a separate ongoing one, and escape to Vyvyan's Ford Anglia, which he had parked in front of a lamppost. Vyvyan promptly crashes it into the lamppost. Inconsolable at crashing his car, he also reveals that his hamster SPG had died, as he was sleeping on the car's radiator when the car crashed.

With the police sirens in the distance, Rick escapes to find a new getaway vehicle, and returns with an AEC Routemaster bus, which they drive away to freedom. As they sing songs and plan their future Rick suddenly shouts "Look out, Cliff!" and the bus crashes into a Cliff Richard concert billboard (which incidentally is advertising 'The Young Ones Summer Vacation Tour') and plunges over a cliff on the other side. The bus lands at the bottom of a quarry, and there is a pause, in which all the lads remark, "Phew, that was close", which is followed by the bus exploding into flames. The fate of the four remains ambiguous however due to their later appearances on Comic Relief.

Characters

As with all episodes of The Young Ones, the main four characters were student flatmates Mike (Christopher Ryan); Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson); Rick (Rik Mayall) and Neil (Nigel Planer). The episode also features their landlord Jerzei Balowski (Alexei Sayle), and a postman, played by Lenny Henry. Jerzei appears for his only time during the second series, and for the third time in total.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Summer Holiday

• "Summer Holiday" at TV.com
• "Summer Holiday" at BBC Programmes
• "Summer Holiday" at the Internet Movie Database