Confessions from a Holiday Camp
Confessions from a Holiday Camp | |
---|---|
Cinematography | Ken Hodges |
Edited by | Geoffrey Foot |
Music by | Ed Welch |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Confessions from a Holiday Camp is a 1977 British comedy film directed by Norman Cohen and starring Robin Askwith.[1] The film was released in North America in 1978 under the title Confessions of a Summer Camp Counsellor.[2] It is the last film in the series which began with Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974).
Plot
Timmy Lea and his
Cast
- Robin Askwith as Timmy Lea
- Antony Booth as Sidney Noggett
- Bill Maynard as Mr. Lea
- Doris Hare as Mrs. Lea
- Sheila White as Rosie Noggett
- Linda Hayden as Brigitte
- Lance Percival as Lionel
- John Junkin as Mr. Whitemonk
- Liz Fraser as Mrs. Antonia Whitemonk
- Colin Crompton as Roughage
- Nicola Blackman as Blackbird
- Nicholas Bond-Owen as Kevin (as Nicholas Owen)
- Caroline Ellis as Gladys
- Sue Upton as Renee
- Penny Meredith as married woman
- Mike Savage as Kevin's dad
- Janet Edis as Kevin's mum
- Deborah Brayshaw as go-cart girl
- Kim Hardy as announcer
- David Auker as Alberto Smarmi
- John Bryant as young man
- Charlie Stewart as Piper
- Carrie Jones as bikini girl
- Julia Bond as bikini girl
- Betty Hare as mourner
- Winifred Braemar as mourner
- Margo Field as Mrs. Dimwiddy
- Marianne Stone as waitress
- Leonard Woodrow as chaplain
- Lauri Lupino Lane as mayor
- Ingrid Bower as holiday maker
- Robert Booth as holiday maker
- Michael Segal as holiday maker
- Matt Kilroy as chauffeur
Production
Producer Michael Klinger was not happy with the script, noting a number of problems that he felt detracted from the quality that set the series apart from its imitators.[3]
The holiday camp used in the film was
Soundtrack
The title track to the film was called "Give Me England" and was performed by
Critical reception
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "The Confessions films relied on a blend of saucy humour and "What the Butler Saw"-style smut. This was the fourth and last of these cheap comedies, with Robin Askwith as an over-sexed entertainments officer at a camp run by an ex-prison officer."[6]
Variety wrote: "[The] Confessions series has more than proved its worth at U.K. and assorted Commonwealth boxoffices. Yet understandably none of those working class masquerades (as a window cleaner, a pop performer, a driving instructor) received favorable reviews or were able to easily sell their sniggering, distinctly British humor to foreign markets. Confessions From a Holiday Camp, the series latest ... is no better, no worse, nor any different than its predecessors. Excepting the new profession, the film reprises virtually the same plot, cast, and production team as the former three. That means that Robin Askwith as the innocent Lea and Anthony Booth as his lecherous brother in law Sid go through their usual sex-addled Laurel & Hardy act, but this time in the guise of incompetent entertainment officers at Funfurall Holiday Camp. It also means that Linda Hayden, once again, strips off at every available opportunity. And that the talents of Doris Hare and Bill Maynard as Lea's parents are wasted another time around. Norman Cohen directs with his usual numbing dosage of slapstick, vulgarity, and innuendo."[7]
Further proposed films in the series
Although Holiday Camp would turn out to be the last film in the series, a fifth and a sixth film, Confessions of a Plumber's Mate and Confessions of a Private Soldier, had been planned in 1977. Filming was set to begin on Plumber's Mate at the end of February 1978.
Producer Michael Klinger rejected a script based on Confessions from a Haunted House.[10] Plans to shoot a made-for-video Confessions film in the 1980s also came to nothing,[8] as did a proposed 1992 film, "Confessions of a Squaddie", which was proposed with action due to take place in post-Gulf War Kuwait.
References
- ^ "Confessions from a Holiday Camp". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
- ^ Powers, Ned (7 April 1978). "At The Movies". The StarPhoenix. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. p. 19.
- ^ Klinger, Michael. "Michael Klinger Papers" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2023.
- ISBN 9781900486149.
- ProQuest 1305846527– via ProQuest.
- ISBN 9780992936440.
- ProQuest 1401318031– via ProQuest.
- ^ ISBN 9781448118687.
- ISBN 978-1-904433-53-8.
- ^ Klinger, Michael. "Michael Klinger Papers" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2022.