Summer Holiday

"Summer Holiday" is the twelfth and final episode of the British sitcom The Young Ones. It was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall, and Lise Mayer, and directed by Paul Jackson and Ed Bye. It was first aired on BBC2 on 19 June 1984. Plot The quartet have taken their final exams and are enjoying the summertime, although Vyvyan is bored and begins to want violence and destruction. Rick suggests Botticelli to relieve the boredom, but his playing style proves too tedious 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 knocks out Neil as he enters the room; the second involves Vyvyan not releasing the ball and running straight for Rick, clouting him on the head. Mike suggests that Vyvyan obtain The Ashes for winning, which he promptly tries to do by setting Rick on fire. Neil reveals it is his birthday, much to the indifference of the others. The four decide to watch the television, 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 Balowski arrives to check on the house and its belongings, but on discovering several destroyed items, including the television, Jerzei evicts them all onto the street. The next morning, the four are seen living on the streets as John Otway performs his song "Body Talk", provoking Vyvyan to comment: "I'll bloody well make his body talk in a minute!". The four later receive their exam results from the postman, who has already read the letters and tells Rick that he "came bottom in the whole world", followed by Vyvyan, Mike, and Neil coming top out of the four. Mike then hatches a plan to rob a bank, using water pistols and Vyvyan's Ford Anglia as a getaway vehicle. They mess up their own robbery, but unwittingly take the proceeds from a separate ongoing one, and escape to Vyvyan's car, which he had parked in front of a lamppost. Vyvyan promptly crashes it into the lamppost. Inconsolable at crashing his car, he also reveals that his hamster SPG has died, as he was sleeping on the car's radiator when the car crashed.