BBC Documentaries

What We Were Watching - Summer TV Classics (2020x141)

: 29, 2020

Join Grace Dent on a televisual trip of a lifetime as she explores the sights, sounds, and schedules of the great British summer. Grace's epic journey covers everything that informs our attitudes to summertime, from the travel shows of the '60s and '70s, which first brought the world's finest resorts into our living rooms, to Del and Rodney Trotter fooling about abroad and the highjinks of Hi-de-Hi! She explores the influence that holiday camp staples like beauty contests and talent shows had on primetime programmes like Seaside Special, which attracted stars as iconic as ABBA and Grace Jones. Away from the glitz and glamour, there's a look at the notorious Notting Hill Carnival of 1976, where a celebration of colour ended in rioting that changed Britain's race laws forever, and a trip to Ibiza in the '80s, where young Brits were discovering new ways of getting away from it all. Also abroad are the then-young cast of EastEnders, with a young Grant Mitchell showing how to hit the clubs of Spain in epic style - and, of course, sun, sea, and soap means a look at the show that really burned the BBC - Eldorado.