: Holiday Camp Heyday; Abigail Hughes on an era when knobbly knees and Redcoats were all the rage.

Byline: Abigail Hughes

KNOBBLY knee competitions and Kiss Me Quick hats. Oh, the heady days of holiday camps where happy campers were routinely woken at dawn by a rousing sing-song and no day was complete without being shoved into the pool.If you think it sounds more like the punishing drill of a military training camp than a relaxing vacation, you are not alone. The days when families would willingly cram into a chalet the size of a shoebox and subject themselves to a stream of humiliating activities all in the pursuit of fun - and what's more, actually love every moment - are long gone.

Nowadays, we crave guaranteed sunshine, vast, empty beaches and balk at the idea of instruction on what games we must play and where we must eat.

Nonetheless, during its 1950s heyday, the annual trip to the holiday camp was what everyone was talking about. Immortalised by comic capers in TV favourite, Hi-De-Hi, holiday camps have gained something of a cult following among those too young to experience them as well as warm memories for thousands who did. Now two of North Wales's finest are resurrected in a new series, Remember Wales.

``We felt holiday camps would be a strong topic for the programme because they have a lot of pleasant associations in people's memories,'' says producer and director, Paul Sampson. ``We've dug out home movies and archive material of camps at the time as well as modern interviews of people who holidayed there and the Redcoat staff.''

Butlins in Pwllheli was established in 1947 and Prestatyn's camp, owned by LMS Railways and Thomson, reopened following the Second World War after shutting during the war years.

``It offered an early type of package holiday with people catching a train to the camp and having everything laid on for them when they arrived,'' says Paul. ``They were value-for-money holidays and never meant to be luxurious, but had a real atmosphere of camaraderie. Their heyday was during the 1950s and 60s, after which they began to decline because they could not compete with glamour of foreign trips.''

Sacks of mail sent to camp staff from satisfied customers prove the camps were a stunning success. ``The entertainment on offer, like knobbly knee contests, was very communal. People have very fond, emotional memories of the camps andthe Redcoats were quite tearful when it came to saying farewell at the end of each week.''

Part of the appeal was the layout of the camps themselves, designed to help people enter into the holiday spirit. The Prestatyn camp was modelled on a ship's interior and campers were divided into port and starboard sides. Each morning, the camp manager shouted ``Ahoy shipmates'' down a microphone and everyone shouted ``Ahoy skipper'' in response.

The programme unearthed many quirky tales about the goings-on in the camps. ``In the early 1950s, there was quite a Victorian view that men and women had to be segregated and they were kept far apart in different chalets,'' says Paul. ``But the chalet roofs were flat and guests could hear the clatter of shoes as the men ran across the roofs to their girlfriend's chalets each night.

``In another anecdote, we heard about a man who died while staying at a camp. Staff went to break the bad news to his wife, who was buying a stick of rock in the shop and she said, `At least he had a fantastic holiday first'.''

Narrated by BBC Breakfast News presenter, Sian Williams, Remember Wales also puts North Wales' castles and bridges under the spotlight. ``We cover the investiture of Prince Charles at Caernarfon Castle and also look at a Bollywood film made there two years ago,'' says Paul.

Also featured is footage of the queen and king of Welsh songsters, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones, singing at Harlech and Cardiff castles. The strange tale of a fire that destroyed the Menai Straits' Britannia Bridge in 1974 is also investigated.

Remember Wales BBC2, Monday, 8.30pmSupplement to the Daily Post, Saturday, July 13, 2002

CAPTION(S):

JOURNEY BACK IN TIME:; Although donkey rides are largely a thing of the past, narrater Sian Williams, below, will bring holiday memories flooding back to many in Remember Wales on Monday night