Confessions from a Holiday Camp – 1977

Been holding off on watching this as….sob…I’m at the end of my “Confessions” movies! I kept this one unwatched so I could always have that last one to look forward to, but alas, the time has come.

As for quality, I’d put it down as a little better than “Pop Performer” but not as good as the other two.

Robin is again Timmy Lea, and for some reason has now found himself, along with brother-in-law Sid, working for some kind of English vacation club. It is still March, and mentioned that the weather is quite chilly…but there are still a lot of people there, not worrying about it and quite willing to lounge around in their bathing suits. Brrr! Robin, in his book, mentions that it really WAS March while they filmed it and he wound up in bed with a fever after filming the water-skiing scene!

The story is predictable. Timmy and Sid of course get into trouble with their boss. Sid comes up with an idea of having a beauty contest (um, didn’t this already happen in “Carry On, Girls”?) and then he and Timmy find themselves getting a lot of “favors” from the contestants! The sex does seem to be toned way down in this one…especially if you compare it to “Pop Performer”. But, like “Pop Performer” Timmy again doesn’t have much depth to his character. He goes through a lot of motions without the insight or thought he had in “Window Cleaner”. He also doesn’t have a love interest in this one. His real-life girlfriend at the time, Lynda Hayden, (who played the love-interest in “Window Cleaner”) is back but as a completely different character, “Brigette” with a bad French accent. Robin looks like he’s bored with the sex scenes and doesn’t seem to make too much of an effort in trying to feign enjoyment. And oh! Did I cringe when they introduced the “Black” girl along with all the very UN-pc racial jokes!

The humor is all slapstick, culminating in a huge pie-fight in the end. There are some laugh-worthy moments, but generally it’s just silly. There is a suggestion at the end that another movie may be coming along, about them going into the plumbing business, but I guess that fell through. And that’s probably a good thing.

On a side note…on Netflix I sometimes rent non-Robin early 70s British shows just for fun. Recently I watched a few early ‘70s “Til Death Do Us Part” which is what the American “All in the Family” is based on. But I noticed how the “Confessions” series may have been based on it as well. The family’s mom is played by the same Dandy Nichols. The lazy live-in son-in-law is played by Anthony Booth. There is an adult daughter (who looks familiar – she may have been in some other Robin things) and they have a baby boy. The dad is different, though, very obnoxious, and there’s no Timmy Lea type character, nor any sex in it. It’s not very good at all, really, but it’s interesting to think that this COULD have inspired “Confessions”.