Summer Holiday (Young Ones episode)
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"Summer Holiday" was the twelfth episode of British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer, and directed by Geoff Posner. It was first aired on BBC2 on June 19, 1984 and was the final episode of the program.
Characters
As with all episodes of The Young Ones, the main four characters were student flatmates Mike (Christopher Ryan); Vyvyan (Adrian Edmondson); Rick (Rik Mayall) and Neil (Nigel Planer). The episode also features their landlord Jerzei Balowski (Alexei Sayle), a character who was appearing for the first and only time during the second series, and for the third and final time in total.
Plot
The quartet have taken their final exams and are enjoying the summertime, although Vyvyan is bored and begins wanton violence and destruction. A game suggested by Rick called Botticelli, where one guesses the identity of a famous person through clues and questions, proves too tedious for words, and Vyvyan suggests cricket instead. In the living room, Rick is given the role of stumps and Vyvyan is bowler to Mike's batsman. The first shot - without a ball - knocks out Neil as he enters the room; the second involves Vyvyan not releasing the ball and instead clouting Rick on the head, before setting fire to him to get the "ashes". Neil then reveals it's his birthday, and a party begins, but with no guests, beer or music, they decide to watch the television instead, but the channels are all closing down so Vyvyan kicks it to pieces. Rick then learns of his parents' sudden death just as Balowski arrives to check on the house and its belongings but, on discovering that the television is smashed, an elephant's head has appeared on the carpet and the refrigerator is about to be blown apart by a hand grenade, he evicts them on to the street. Their exam results are delivered to them as they lay destitute - none do well, though Rick is the worst failure - and Mike hatches a plan to rob a bank, using water pistols and Vyvyan's car as a getaway. They botch up their own robbery but unwittingly take the prceeds from a separate one which is ongoing and escape to Vyvyan's Ford Anglia, he promptly crashes into a lamp post. Inconsolable, he also reveals the death of SPG after the hamster fell asleep on the car's radiator, but with the sirens in the distance, Rick escapes and steals a double decker bus, which they drive away to freedom. As they sing songs and plan their future, the bus crashes into a Cliff Richard concert billboard - and plunges over a cliff on the other side. The bus lands at the bottom, there is a pause - and then a huge explosion.
The episode features a performance by John Otway.
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