| Summer Holiday | |
| Series 2, Episode 6 | |
 | |
| Air date | 19 June 1984 |
| Written by | Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer |
| Directed by | Geoff Posner |
| Episode Guide | |
| previous Sick |
next Comic Releif (Living Doll) |
The quartet have taken their final exams and are enjoying the summertime, although Vyvyan is bored and begins wanton violence and destruction. Rick suggests Botticelli, where one guesses the identity of a famous person through clues and questions (prompting Vyvyan to suggest playing "Jellybotty, where you have to eat eighteen curries!"), but it proves too tedious for words, and Vyvyan proposes 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 running straight for Rick, clobbering him on the head. Vyv then sets fire to Rick, in order to obtain The Ashes. Neil then reveals it's his birthday, and a party begins, but with no guests, beer or music. The four decide to watch the television instead, but the channels are all closing down, infuriating Vyvyan, who kicks the TV to pieces. Rick then learns of his parents' sudden death from Mike, who thought it unimportant to mention earlier.
Jerzei The Balowski family 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, evicts them on to the street. (The exploding fridge blows away Neil's hair, revealing he wears a wig, to Neil's own disgust).
The next morning, Rick decides to make a living as a male escort and offers his sexual services to a beautiful upper-class young student who jogs past them; initially she accepts, but then reveals she had thought Rick was offering to pay her for sex and assaults him. The four receive their exam results from the postman, who having already read the letters, tells Rick that he "came bottom in the whole world", followed by Vyv, Mike, and Neil coming top out of the four.
Mike then hatches a plan to rob a bank, using what appear to be real guns, but are actually water pistols, and Vyvyan's car as a getaway vehicle. They mess up their own robbery, but unwittingly take the proceeds from a separate ongoing one, escape to Vyvyan's Ford Anglia, which he had parked in front of a lamppost. Therefore, Vyv promptly crashes into it. Inconsolable at crashing his car, he also reveals that SPG had died, after falling asleep on the car's radiator and being crushed by the lamppost.
With the police sirens in the distance, Rick escapes to find a new getaway vehicle, and returns with an AEC Routemaster bus, which they drive away to freedom. As they sing songs and plan their future Rick suddenly shouts "Look out, Cliff!" and the bus crashes into a Cliff Richard concert billboard (which, interestingly, advertises 'The Young Ones Summer Vacation Tour') and plunges over a cliff on the other side. The bus lands at the bottom of a quarry, and there is a pause, in which all the lads remark, "Phew, that was close", the bus then explodes into flames just as everyone finishes speaking.
Transcript[]
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Basic information[]
Summer Holiday was the twelfth (and last) 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 19 June 1984.