What We Did On Our Holiday

Rosamund Pike and David Tennant are a couple on the cusp of divorce but for the sake of his ill father’s - Billy Connolly doing his irascible thing - grandiose 75th birthday celebrations they pretend to be still together, hoping their three kids (Emilia Jones, Bobby Smallbridge, and Harriet Turnbull) will toe the party line. But kids being kids it’s not long before they inadvertently blurt it out mum and dad’s troubles and, seeing that this is the kind of thing that kids may tell their analysts one day, Connolly takes them off to the beach to mentally prepare them for the worst with some oddball life lessons. Meanwhile, sibling rivalry between Tennant and Miller threatens to spill over, and Miller’s wife (Amelia Bullmore) is on the cusp of a nervous breakdown.

With kids spouting the weird things only kids can, holding their breath until they black out because they want to bring their pet rock on holidays, and with parents stumbling about overcrowded hallways looking for car keys, the opening few minutes betray debutants Hamilton and Jenkin’s background. Both have been writer-directors on BBC’s Outnumbered and since mixing cute and charming with an undercurrent of seriousness was what made the series work so well the directors opt for the same here.

The problem with that is that in this instance we’re talking about death, and how we - children included - deal with it. Unfortunately for the potential of this comedy-drama, developments are kept light and frothy throughout; that’s not to say that this likeable romp is bereft of drama - depression, divorce, death are all to be found here - but there’s digging to be had to find them.

But despite that, and despite that Hamilton and Jenkin veer very close to School Around The Corner at times, the chemistry between the cast - between Pike and Tennant, and Connolly and the kids - pull things through. Pike isn’t afraid to put real saltiness into her acerbic asides and Connolly, working ad-lib with the younger kids, has a naturalness to his performance. And it can be funny when it wants to with some nice lines: "You’re so English you’re practically French!"