ITV BENIDORM SUPERFANS ENJOY HOL LOT OF FUN Costa Bravo
Comedy lovers meets stars of smash-hit show at convention
It’s a sunny November day and a queue of mobility scooters is parked outside the Melia hotel in Benidorm. People gather by the pool, wearing bright yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the Solana holiday resort logo.
They’ve come from far and wide, well, mainly from Britain, to step inside their favourite TV show at the first Benicon, which concluded yesterday.
The three-day fan convention for ITV comedy Benidorm, which ran from 2007 to 2018, gave 1,250 devotees a peek behind the curtain of the hit show.
Its stars are here, too, including Sheila Reid (who played Madge), Jake Canuso (Mateo) and Siobhan Finneran (Janice Garvey).
Steve Pemberton (Mick Garvey), Crissy Rock (Janey York), Oliver Stokes (Michael Garvey) and singer Asa Elliott are also on the Costa Blanca in Spain.
Jake, 52, who played the show’s womanising bartender at the fictitious Solana, is overwhelmed by the comedy’s staying power.
He says: “I didn’t realise until the last two years how much of an impact this show has had.
“When I take a photo with a man aged 70, I hold him and he’s chatting to me. And then I come down and his wife’s crying.
“I say, ‘Why are you crying?’ And she says, ‘He’s got Alzheimer’s. It’s the first time in years he’s been back’. The fans say thank you to me but I have to thank them.”
Sheila agrees, saying that it’s thrilling and wonderful to return.
The 84-year-old Scottish actress sits in the driving seat of her iconic mobility scooter, whizzing around to the delight of the crowd.
Kit O’Sullivan, 83, has travelled from Co Kildare, Ireland, to meet her favourite character. She also rides a mobility scooter that her family calls her Madge Mobile.
Kit says: “The show still makes me laugh after all the years. It was so wonderful to meet Madge.
“My daughter booked the whole thing for me. I was in hospital until last weekend and she told me I wasn’t to dare pass away or she was going to prop my eyes open with cocktail sticks and take
Benidorm still makes me laugh. It was wondeful to meet Madge
KIT O’SULLIVAN ON THE SHOW’S FAN CONVENTION
me to Benidorm.” But do not think Benicon is just for people of a certain age who watched the show from the start. In fact, since Benidorm went online in 2018 it has attracted a legion of younger fans too. “There’s a whole new audience with Netflix,” says singer Asa, 40, who now works on cruise ships. “We met kids as young as six and they’ve watched it, and others said their parents have introduced them to the show.” Benicon, hosted by show
creator Derren Litten, ensures all its fans are entertained.
The tongue-in-cheek Middlesbrough Swingers Association Speed Dating event is for adults.
Inspired by the show’s swinger couple Donald and Jacqueline Stewart, pairs had to find out as much as they could about each other in three minutes, including favourite sexual positions.
There was karaoke at Neptune’s Bar where Jake, in character as Mateo, wowed with Engelbert Humperdinck’s Quando Quando Quando, and people enjoyed a quiz run by Crissy.
Fans including Andy and Anna Nield, from Kent, were among those revelling in fancy dress.
Outfits included women in yellow blazers and specs as Solana boss Joyce Temple-Savage (Sherrie Hewson) and men as transvestite Les Conroy (Tim Healy). The winner of one fancy dress contest was Phoebe Edwards, eight, from Hull. Her make-up artist mother Jenn, 41, dressed Phoebe in orange make-up and a wig to look like sun-worshipper Madge. Jenn, who was joined by pal Naomi Towers, says: “Phoebe has been watching Benidorm since she was five. She has always said she’d rather come to Benidorm than Disneyland. So it was the best birthday present we could give her.”
Phoebe found the show on Netflix and introduced it to her parents. She explained that she dressed as Madge because “she’s very funny and she reminds me of my grandma”. Jenn adds: “Phoebe said she feels like this is a dream and she’s gonna wake up – and I feel a bit like that.” Explaining the show’s success, Crissy, who played first Solana manageress Janey, says: “Benidorm is so popular because everybody saw someone they knew in the show.
“You’d be watching it and thinking, ‘That’s Billy from down the road’.”
It is also relatable for SuLee Hughes, 46, who travelled all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. The bar worker was thrilled to be with like-minded fans.
She says: “It’s been so wonderful to be around other people because in the States I have no friends that know what it is, or even where Benidorm is, or anything about the programme.
“None of my friends had any interest, which is a bummer because, to me, it’s tremendous. The humour is just cracking. It’s so inappropriate and I love it.”
Chris and Louise Martin, from Colchester, Essex, are also huge fans of the show, and say that it helped them cope with the pandemic.
Chris, 40, who works in local government, explains: “It was almost the exact opposite of lockdown. The people in the sun enjoying themselves, socialising and getting together while we were at home stuck within four walls. It was absolute escapism.” The whole weekend came to a crescendo last night, with the Gala Finale Show at Benidorm Palace. The show’s Garvey family reunited for the first time since 2009, as Hannah Hobley, 34, who played Chantelle, appeared by video link as she had just had a baby.
Dame Joan Collins, 89, aka Crystal Hennessy-Vass, even made a cameo and Jake – who once danced with the Spice Girls – performed the flamenco before Asa serenaded the show to a close.
As far as reunions go, this one was about as fun and eventful as a holiday at the Solana.