Holiday Showdown

Magaluf and India (5x3)

: 12, 2009

RECLUSIVE Hare Krishnas, the Falconer-Pughs, live in the rural backwaters of mid Wales. Once a year they make a pilgrimage to Kerala, southern India. The fun-loving Foster family, from Doncaster, meanwhile, love nothing more than socialising with fellow Brits in the home-from-home resort of Magaluf. Mum Sharon, dad Harry, pictured below, 19-year-old daughter Teri and 13-year-old Jade have returned to the resort for 15 years. Material girl Sharon is a shoe fanatic and the highlight of her holiday is blowing the family budget shopping. Her daughters share the same values. "We don't want to be anywhere where there's no electric, we want to look glamourous," says Teri. Holiday Showdown, a programme somehow even more pointless than Loose Women, sees what happens when they accompany each other on their favoured vacations. In terms of contriving conflict, it's the TV equivalent of cock-fighting. As the Falconer-Pughs arrive in Magaluf, Sharon is determined to be the perfect host – but Sharon's idea of fun isn't a hit for the Falconer-Pughs. It's not everyone who wants to bounce semi-nude on an inflatable banana. The Foster girls, meanwhile, are reduced to tears at the prospect of slumming it in India with no make-up. And yet as the Kerala holiday progresses, something of a miracle happens as the Fosters reflect on their own way of life. As they mingle with the locals, what started as the holiday from hell becomes a life-changing journey.