This week, I wanted to include some sad news. Judith Chalmers, one of the most beloved presenters in classic British television history, passed away this week aged 90. She was synonymous with one thing above all else, and that was holidays. It felt right to bring forward an episode we had planned for later in the summer and use it to celebrate the show she made her own and the transformation in British holiday habits during our 1970s childhoods.
Post-war Britain was an austere place, and holidays reflected that. For many families, the annual holiday meant two weeks timed to coincide with the factory closure, when entire towns decamped en masse to the nearest seaside resort. In Lancashire, where I am from, different towns had their own holiday weeks, and Blackpool, Morecambe, and Scarborough filled up accordingly. And when you arrived, you checked into your B&B, run by a landlady who was, in my memory at least, almost always formidable and faintly terrifying. You were out after breakfast and not back until tea, whatever the weather. I remember hordes of miserable-looking families traipsing up and down the promenade at Blackpool in the wind and the rain, counting the hours.
But as the 1960s wore on, something changed. Affordable air travel opened up new possibilities, and the package holiday was born. Pay one price, get your flights, your hotel, and half board on the Costa Brava. According to ABTA, 2.8 million British citizens took their holidays abroad in 1968. By 1973 that figure had risen to 8 million. The shift was staggering, and classic British television was right there with it.
The BBC launched Holiday in 1969, hosted by Cliff Michelmore, sending BBC staff to report on destinations most viewers had never considered. It opened eyes, broadened horizons, and made a cruise seem like something ordinary people might actually do one day.
ITV responded in January 1974 with Wish You Were Here, and it was Judith Chalmers who became the face of the show. Alongside Chris Kelly of Clapperboard fame, she took us everywhere, from the Greek islands to the Isle of Man, always with warmth and genuine enthusiasm. There was nothing affected about her. She simply made you want to go wherever she was.
Of course, not everything about the package holiday revolution was glamorous. Half-built hotels, menus of sausage, beans, and chips, and the almost annual collapse of a major tour operator leaving families stranded at the airport. The Carry On Abroad film captures it perfectly.
But overall, what Judith and Cliff gave us was something genuinely transformative. Growing up in 1970s Britain, television was a shared experience, and shows like Wish You Were Here were part of the fabric of family life. They showed a generation that the world was accessible, that sunshine was not just for the wealthy, and that two weeks in August did not have to mean counting the hours until the landlady let you back in for your tea.
Thank you, Judith Chalmers. We will not forget you.
What were your 70s holidays like? Did you make it to Spain or Greece, or was it more like Bangor or Bridlington? I would love to hear from you, so leave a comment below or join the conversation in our Facebook group.
🎲And if you would like to get your hands on our My 70’s TV Childhood Theme Tune Game, a nostalgic family game for people who grew up with 1970s British television, add your name to the waitlist right here on the blog.
Take care,
Oliver
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