Duty Free (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The theatrical sequel Last of the Duty Free, by Eric Chappell and Jean Warr, opened at The Royal Theatre, Windsor in April 2014 with Gwen Taylor, Keith Barron and Neil Stacy returning to their roles.
• On tour, the play's title was shortened to Duty Free.

Plot

The sitcom follows two British couples, David and Amy Pearce and Robert and Linda Cochran, who cross paths while staying at the same hotel in Marbella, Spain. During their holiday, David and Linda begin an affair. The hotel waiter, Carlos, appears as a recurring figure. The show highlights class friction: the Pearces are working-class from Northampton, while the Cochrans are a wealthier middle-class couple from Henley-on-Thames. David, to Amy’s annoyance, grows uneasy with his own social standing and political views after meeting the Cochrans and attempts to shift his perspective. Series one and two are set during the same two-week vacation, earning the series the nickname "the holiday that never ends." Series three opens in the UK a year later, but the story soon returns to Spain. The series originated from a one-off TV play by Chappell titled We're Strangers Here, which first aired as a two-hander with Geraldine McEwan and Ian Hendry, and later became a four-hander on stage at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. The show was recorded entirely at the Leeds Studios, except for the Christmas special, which had a budget for some location filming in Spain at the Don Carlos Hotel and Spa.

Trivia

The sitcom featured guest appearances from Frazer Hines, who played Joe Sugden on Emmerdale Farm, and TV host Judith Chalmers, both portraying themselves. Hines’s character was a hotel guest attempting to seduce Amy Pearce, while Chalmers filmed a segment of Wish You Were Here...? at the hotel, interviewing the two couples. Years later, in May 2015, Gwen Taylor and Keith Barron reunited as a couple on the daytime soap Doctors.