--- title: "Benidorm" year: 2007 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/benidorm" fi1m_id: "benidorm" imdb_id: "tt0959601" tmdb_id: 11567 wikidata_id: "Q4887946" fi1m_score: 50 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-10-07T14:47:22.244957+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T14:48:09.670468+00:00" region: "RO" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Benidorm (2007) Created by Derren Litten · 1h 00m · Comedy ## Identity Benidorm - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/benidorm - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** benidorm - **IMDb ID:** tt0959601 - **TMDB ID:** 11567 - **Wikidata ID:** Q4887946 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0959601/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/11567, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4887946 **Fi1m score: 50** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* A fortnight’s package holiday that lasted eleven years, and the sunburn never once faded > Derren Litten’s package-holiday sitcom had a sharp first series and, in Sheila Reid’s Madge, a character worth the airfare, then spent a decade reheating both. Broad, loud and often lazy, it is funnier than its reputation and not as funny as it thinks. ## Synopsis Benidorm, on the Spanish coast, and a hotel where everything has been paid for in advance, so the guests intend to eat, drink and sunbathe until they have got their money back. The Garveys arrive in a block: Mick (Steve Pemberton), who thinks he is the life of the pool; his wife Janice (Siobhan Finneran), who keeps the peace; her mother Madge (Sheila Reid), who patrols the resort on a mobility scooter with a cigarette on the go; their teenage daughter Chantelle (Hannah Hobley) and young son Michael (Oliver Stokes). Around them: Gavin (Hugh Sachs) and Troy (Paul Bazely), a couple who bicker over sun loungers; Donald (Kenny Ireland), sunburnt and in a straw hat, asking other couples what they are doing later; and Kate Weedon (Abigail Cruttenden), whose marriage has come on holiday with her and is not enjoying it. ## Review Derren Litten created *Benidorm* and wrote it, with Mark Brotherhood and Neil Fitzmaurice, and the idea is as plain as the resort it is named after. A hotel full of British holidaymakers who have paid for everything up front and mean to get their money’s worth, a fortnight of sun, and nowhere for any of them to go when they have had enough of each other. It first aired on 1 February 2007 and ran for ten series, the last of them starting on 28 February 2018, which is a long time to spend beside one pool. The first series is a decent, rude, well-built comedy. Most of what came after is the same comedy with the volume up. The reason to watch is the Garveys, and the reason to watch the Garveys is Sheila Reid. Madge is a tiny woman in a sun visor who takes a mobility scooter everywhere, including places with steps, smokes as if being paid to, and says the one thing nobody else in the scene will. Reid plays her without a flicker of apology, and her timing is the show’s best asset: she waits, the table waits, then it lands. We laughed at her, out loud and more than we expected to, because Reid never once signals that Madge is meant to be funny. Siobhan Finneran as Janice does the quiet work of holding the family together and is given the few moments the series wants taken seriously. Steve Pemberton’s Mick is the man at the pool who believes he is its entertainment, and Pemberton is exact about how little he listens. The rest of the hotel is a set of double acts. Gavin (Hugh Sachs) and Troy (Paul Bazely) snipe at each other over sun loungers and get the sharpest lines, which is to say the lines that depend on a word rather than a bodily function. Kenny Ireland’s Donald, red from the neck up and in a straw hat, asks every couple he meets what they are doing later and is never once embarrassed. Abigail Cruttenden’s Kate Weedon is the one guest who seems to have noticed where she is, and Cruttenden plays her as quietly appalled. Geoffrey Hutchings turns up as Mel Harvey, leathery and amiable, and Sheridan Smith passes through as Brandy. Nobody in this cast is coasting, which matters, because the scripts increasingly assume they will. The jokes are the problem. Litten’s instincts run to the body: wind, sunburn, bowels, bosoms, a man in trunks that do not fit. One of each is fine. Ten series of each is a rota. The directors, John Henderson, Sandy Johnson and David Sant, shoot it bright and flat, which suits a hotel built for sun, but nobody has told the camera to trust the actors. Every gag is set up, delivered and then explained by a reaction shot, in case we were looking at the pool. We laughed at Madge, and a scene later we were laughing at a joke whose whole point is that a foreigner cannot speak English, and the laugh went sour in our mouths. Against the long line of British sitcoms about the British abroad, it sits in the middle. [*Duty Free*](https://film.one/tv/duty-free) (1984) did the Marbella version with four people and a bar; Litten has a whole hotel and, some weeks, fewer jokes. The first series was six episodes; the ninth and tenth were nine each, and you can feel the stretch. Plots arrive, go nowhere and are replaced by a karaoke number. The two reviews we have read are harsher than we are, one of them considerably, and we see the case: watched in bulk, the repetition wears you down. Watched a series at a time, a year apart, as it was made to be seen, it is a cheerful evening with people you would avoid in real life, and that has always been enough to fill a hotel. Start with the first series, which is the show at its most careful, and judge for yourselves how long the sunburn stays funny. For us it was a couple of years. Geoffrey Perkins produced it, and it is never worse than watchable and never once ambitious, which at an all-inclusive is not a complaint anyone makes. It ran for eleven years. The guests never seem to have gone home. *Fi1m score 50, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Benidorm worth watching?** *Benidorm* is worth watching for its first series, which is a sharp, rude package-holiday comedy, and we scored the run as a whole 50. Sheila Reid’s Madge, patrolling the resort on a mobility scooter with a cigarette on the go, is the reason to stay; the body jokes that fill the later series are the reason most people leave. **How long is Benidorm, and what is it rated?** *Benidorm* has episodes of about 1h 00m. It is a comedy series. **Where can I watch Benidorm in Romania?** *Benidorm* is not on any streaming or rental service in Romania at the moment. It is available in 9 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Benidorm, and is it suitable for children?** *Benidorm* carries a UK 15 certificate and is not frightening or violent; the certificate is for crude language and bodily humour, with jokes about wind, bowels, bosoms and sunburn in nearly every episode. It is not for children, and the squeamish or easily tired will find the repetition more wearing than the rudeness. **How does Benidorm compare to Duty Free?** *Benidorm* is the broader and the busier of the two, with a whole hotel of double acts where [*Duty Free*](https://film.one/tv/duty-free) has two couples and a Marbella bar. We think *Benidorm* is the funnier, largely because of Sheila Reid, but the earlier series is the one Litten was working from, and anyone who wants the holiday sitcom at its leanest should start there. **What should I watch after Benidorm?** After *Benidorm*, try [*Duty Free*](https://film.one/tv/duty-free) (1984, Fi1m 34): Two couples, one Marbella bar, and the template Litten was working from. Then [*The White Lotus*](https://film.one/tv/the-white-lotus) (2021, Fi1m 85): The resort sitcom dressed up as a drama, with the staff finally given the last word. ### Reviews we read (2) - **The i Paper**, Stuart Heritage (55/100, inferred): Heritage sees the finale as a fittingly silly, chaotic end to a series he never considered a favourite, while acknowledging its staying power. He singles out its one-liners and loose, ever-changing format, alongside its relentlessly exaggerated sunburn and slapdash plotting. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/benidorm-finale-review-a-study-in-one-liners-surprise-stars-and-violent-sun-burn-150592) - **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (15/100, inferred): Wollaston condemns Benidorm as stale, embarrassing comedy that has not improved. He singles out its reliance on fart jokes, innuendo and racial stereotypes as especially grating. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jan/26/benidorm-review-silent-witness) ## Details - **Created by:** Derren Litten - **Creator:** Derren Litten - **Director:** Sandy Johnson, John Henderson, David Sant - **Writer:** Derren Litten, Mark Brotherhood, Neil Fitzmaurice - **Producer:** Geoffrey Perkins - **Cast:** Abigail Cruttenden as Kate Weedon; Geoffrey Hutchings as Mel Harvey; Paul Bazely as Troy; Hannah Hobley as Chantelle Garvey; Hugh Sachs as Gavin; Kenny Ireland as Donald; Nathaniel Walker as Coolio Garvey; Sheridan Smith as Brandy - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Release (Romania):** 1 February 2007 - **Genres:** Comedy ## Where to watch in Romania Not streaming, renting or buying in Romania at the last check. Also available in: AU, CA, GB, IE, IN, NO, NZ, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Carry On Abroad* (1972): The same British party on a cheaper island, with the hotel still being built around them. - *Les Bronzés* (1978): The French at a holiday club, equally sunburnt, considerably crueller about it. - *Duty Free* (1984), Fi1m 34: Two couples, one Marbella bar, and the template Litten was working from. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/duty-free.md) - *Phoenix Nights* (2001): Northern club comedy that loves its regulars and never lets them off the hook. - *The White Lotus* (2021), Fi1m 85: The resort sitcom dressed up as a drama, with the staff finally given the last word. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-white-lotus.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/benidorm