We were all going on a trip to the cinema to see Cliff

The British film industry in the 1950s produced groundbreaking movies that characterised teens and young adults as anti- social, antiestablishment and anti- law and order.

Cliff Richard played a teenage lawbreaker in court on a charge of vandalism in his film debut Serious Charge (1959).

In Expresso Bongo, the image of Cliff as a delinquent was abandoned to create a clean-cut pop idol persona to appeal to everyone from teenagers to grannies.

This picture was a forerunner for two of the most popular British movie musicals that were equal to any from Hollywood.

The Young Ones ( 1961), with Cliff Richard in a leading role, was the second most popular film that year; a smash hit following The Guns of Navarone.

“The Young Ones have gone abroad” was the premise of Summer Holiday (1963), and a catchy byline on posters.

The original story and screenplay by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass about four mechanics, played by Cliff, Melvyn Hayes, Jeremy Bulloch and Teddy Green, who persuade London Transport to lend them an old bus and turn it into a mobile home for a holiday across Europe presented a scripting issue.

Screenwriter Cass remembered: “The problem was how to get them to Athens. If they were classless and without the money for expensive holidays we needed a reason to get them abroad without losing their identity as The Young Ones.

“One day, whilst travelling on a bus, it suddenly occurred to me that if we couldn’t get them to Greece by air why not on a London bus which we could convert into living quarters?

“Once the double-decker had been cast, the screenplay itself fell into place.”

Although Summer Holiday was filmed in Technicolor and Cinemascope (licensed from Twentieth Century Fox), the opening scenes and main titles were shot in black and white on the beach and pier of Bognor Regis during a downpour.

The scene changes to colour as the bus with Cliff behind the wheel approaches the London Transport works in Hertfordshire, where many employees took time off their summer break to appear as extras in the fabulous opener Seven Days to a Holiday.

This added a realistic element to the number which shows the bus transforming into a mobile hotel.

Airdrie resident, and retired hairdresser, Charlotte Taylor recalled: “Summer Holiday was part of a very special day in my life.

“Aged 16, my school days at Airdrie High were over and before training as a hairdresser I had a job at Crimpy Crisps factory in Cairnhill. Cliff Richard was the pin-up boy. My workmates and I had all seen The Young Ones, so the anticipation for Summer Holiday was very high.

“In those days going to the cinema was a real social event and we dressed like ladies and gentlemen; the rockabilly hairstyle inspired by James Dean in his movies was popular with the young lads.

“When I arrived at the New Cinema it was nearly a full house. I sat next to a young lad and during a break we began chatting. He kindly bought me an ice cream and walked me home. We were married six years later.

“We still watch this great film on Bluray and even our grandchildren agree it’s a cool movie”.

The story of four boys touring Europe on a bus is overflowing with cinematic possibilities for adventure, comedy and romance, especially when they offer singing trio Una Stubbs, Pamela Hart and Jacqueline Daryl a lift to Athens after their car breaks down.

To reach their final destination, the group travel through Paris, Switzerland, Austria and Yugoslavia, but the actual locations were all in and around Athens.

The beauty of Greece is vividly captured; visually the movie is a Technicolor picture postcard.

American choreographer Herbert Ross directed the musical numbers.

The National Gardens in Athens was the scenic background for Stranger in Town and Lauri Peters, whose singing voice was dubbed by British musician Grazina Frame, joined Cliff for the duet A Swingin’ Affair at the Marathon Reservoir, north-east of Athens.

The haunting love song The Next Time saw Cliff on the Philopappou Hill with the iconic Acropolis in full view; this image was a selling point on the movie’s posters.

Every musical number is cleverly integrated into advancing the plot and sustaining viewers’ interest from beginning to end. The title song, along with Bachelor Boy, The Next Time and Foot Tapper, performed by The Shadows, were all number one British hits.

Although cinema admission prices were only a few shillings when Summer Holiday was filling every seat in the Airdrie’s New Cinema, money wasn’t easy to come by; I can still remember cashing in empty soft drinks and beer bottles for picture money.

On one particular Saturday, my great childhood pals from Gartlea, Violet Jarvie, Ann Purchase and John Quinn,and I were very keen to see the last showing of this great flick but there was one big problem – we had no money.

We spent the entire day searching for scrap metal which we traded for cash. And, in a moment of sheer irony, as we made our way to the cinema we found a 10-shilling note on the pavement.

This meant more sweeties and the traditional post-cinema fish supper.

Summer Holiday was produced only a few years before big musicals would become an endangered species. It was a smash hit in Britain, reflecting the spirit of the swinging sixties.

It flopped in America as it was released two days after the assassination of JFK, but remains a shining example of what the British film industry was capable of during that golden era.