The whole series of 'Harriet' is now available as a DVD for just £10 by emailing isolde@btinternet.com

The film didn't get across the main draw for many.. Kids could roam all over the camp without their parents all day long doing what the hell they liked. It was gloriously feral. I went to Butlins Minehead with school aged 9 in 1978 and we never saw the teachers apart from they would appear hungover at breakfast and take the register. One boy found a stinky skeleton of a dog on the beach and dragged it round in a carrier bag all week and they only noticed when we were lined up to get the coach home.😂

What a brilliant documentary. Shot in a way very ahead of its time!

Love this, love the eerie undertone with the editing, it's powerful!

I ran across this video while searching for monorail videos and I was instantly captivated. Truly ahead of it's time with soundtrack and cinematography.

For it’s time the editing and camera work is amazing. I also love how the colour to the film gives an undertone to the film

Met a fantastic Yorkshire girl in 66 at Clacton so my one and only visit was pure magic plus England won the world cup the day we arrived, never to be forgotten holiday.

This was amazing! Thank you so much for posting it.

I can't get enough of British nostalgia. America's too big, it will never be quaint like this.

That was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing.

This film was amazing, and your friend was a brilliant editor (and so right to be proud of this). Thank you *so* much for posting it!!

My parents took us to butlins Minehead through the 60s and 70s. Since I have been holidaying all over the world. I always say my Butlins holidays were the best. Thank you for this nostalgic treat. X

During the early 90s my parents would take us to Butlins Skegness, once a year. The strongest and most vivid memories I have are of redcoat interactions; when she was taken aback by the comment that some visitors just want to interact with a redcoat, that made me smile. I miss those days and as much as I have fond memories, a kind of sadness washes over me, knowing that I may never have such experiences again.

Absolute CLASSIC! Puts you in the Time and Place so vividly.

Woh - profound ending. I wasn't expecting such immense gravitas. Superb.

Never seen this before! For sure it has been cleverly filmed and edited to get a definate point of view across. I am sure Butlins would have hated this when it was broadcast, as they also probably also hated Jimmy Perry's 'Hi-De-Hi" comedy ! That wide angle lens right up against the faces really works to create a claustrophobic atmosphere. However, desipite this documentary, Butlins was a magic place for so many people who went there on holiday every year. And of course this is a timepiece of attitudes that prevailed in the 70's - enough said on that topic. It being shot on 16mm real film also adds greatly to the atmosphere - would not nearly be as as effective if shot on video tape. Thanks for sharing this with us!

thanks for sharing , a fantastic documentary , a rreal eye opener about the period and marvelously edited and filmed.

I worked at mine head in 81 for a month end of summer I was a Porter cleaner there was a love ly red coat who I liked very much but I didn’t have the nerve to ask her out I think she new because when I left at the end of my time there she was stood by the coach as we pulled out and she blew me a kiss I was gutted 🥲

This is both a refreshingly honest and at times somewhat unsettling look at a peculiar aspect of 70s British culture. The seedy jokes and games are an essential part of the regimented fun of the holiday camp experience. The superb lighting and camerawork emphasises this dissonance.

Ahhh I was a redcoat in the 1998 and it was hard work 8-midnight! Dancing singing, smiling, signing postcards!!!!!! Competitions so fun! I loved it x

How terrible that families with adopted children couldn’t participate in the Happy Family competition

Fantastic documentary. Brought back lots of memories for me. It captured Butlins in the 70's as it really was. And what a great ending, as good as any other horror movie ;)

Cheers for uploading this.I'm really enjoying it. The music, the opening credits, the hair and clothes and just the general atmosphere all point to this being made in 1974, or thereabouts.

This is radio butlin calling all 2nd sitting guests the time is 9 o clock & breakfast will be served at 9.30..... never forget that sentence as long as i live, happy memories

So strange seeing my nan on there judging on the panel

Sparks and Butlins... wonderful.

Great memories. I was 'Radio Butlins' in 1969 at Minehead. My day 6.30am wake up call at my Chalet by Security Staff, shifts shared between two of us (should have been three,) till 11.00pm. Staff accommodation very basic, pay minimal and at the end of the season represented Butlins in a Red Coat group at the Horse of the Year Show at the "Butlins Cup" award. Being a Red Coat was a great way to spend a Summer.

8:49 - "To be spoken to by a Red Coat for some people is a great achievment" An absolutly serious statement by a Red Coat to a trainee Red Coat!!!

Fab video thanks for posting but now its my idea of holiday from hell yet loved going to Butlins back in the sixties/seventies how times have changed

I'm a 16mm film fanatic and this one is absolutely superb. The camera work and editing is trully excellent - wish I'd been involved with making it but I wasn't born at the time!

I went to Pwllheli Butlins a couple of times when I was about 5 and 6. 1974/75…Can’t really remember much, but after watching this I’m glad. I have never seen so many ugly and weird looking people. My anxiety levels have just gone through the roof 🫣

Fantastic video, i always wanted to go when i was a kid , but our holidays was a day in Blackpool.

How times have changed, long gone are the camp & corny hol parks & competitions, the goal now seems to be centre parc style family holidays, they've already begun the transition, not sure if it will pan out tho, Butlin veterans & their families love tradition & don't like change, that began when Sir Billys wife sold out, Good video thanks for sharing.

"What made you come ?" "Well it certainly wasn't a picture of you..."

Used to go Skegness Butlins with my parents and sis back in the seventies. How I would love to go back to that time again. Watching this is actually quite sad as you see a time now long gone.

I stayed there in the mid sixties when I was 12. Nothing much has changed in this film.

The editing in this is amazing for the time A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE 😊

Love this stuff, still going to Minehead now, 30 years later 😂

Great film, Harriet was lovely.

No adopted children or children of mixed race in the Happy Family competition??? That sounded absolutely nuts! And the worker stated those requirements with such conviction. Geez Louise! Unbelievable.

great film of minehead..best i've seen

@ 0:11 That’s a 2 second footage of Schiff’s Wild Mouse.

Wonderful film

Great film.....

Great times, I was a child of the 70s and I remember it being a wonderful time compared with life now. The only thing I have noticed watching this is that people seemed to be very ugly back then😬

that was a lovely half hour , finely photographed wide angle lens gave the feeling of being there , and what a lovely host Harriet was then. is there a recorded history of the shows Harriet did?

Always good to hear 'Wheezy Anna' (at 14:18). Arf!

Have been to minehead a few times in the last few years. On the surface its unrecognisable from those days but I suspect if you know where to look there are still traces of the old camp.

I was there in 1978 12 years old it was fantastic surrounded by British people I was so safe no multiculturalism no diversity and it was wonderful

I looked this up in the newspapers. It was one of a series of 6 programmes featuring Harriet Crawley, the others were "at the circus", "at the fete", "at sea", "at the opera" and "at war". The "at play'" episode first aired on HTV on 3 July 1976. I've not been able to find any sign of any controversy over it.

The bit with the kids in swimming attire was creepy 😳

Great days,Iv seen Sir Billy Butlin,At clacton on sea ,Camp,In a nice jag car,Was there hot summer of 76,,Killer heat,I was at skegness when ballroom Went up in smoke,It was me who raised the alam,The escorlator was on fire,and the windows were filling up with smoke,i had a instant kodak camra,took pics,still was a great time,

i went to north wales butlins in 83 waiting for jim Saville to pop up adults saying lets see your muscles to a child whos topless couldn't do that today that's wrong then and now :)

Well, that guy judging the kids Picture of Health contest was creepy af

What exact year was this made? I am interested in the "Butlinland is Freedomland" advert at the beginning and I want to watch it on its own, so I want to know when this interesting documentuary (and the advert) was made.

Fear and loathing in Minehead the retro film by Terry Gilliam

This town ain't big enough for the both of us. And it ain't me who's gonna leave!

Very interesting, although I don't get all the sinister music.

Mike, "Harriet" made a series of docs with Tony and HTV. Do you know her surname?

Lived in Bognor Regis not far from But,ins went a few times just to look around with my nieces.

different times indeed, some of which would be taboo now, oh well that is progress i suppose!

9:33 oh what a lovely redcoatfull of love! Elitism in Skeggy gone nuts

Very interesting and a wonderful host commentating and working hard being a redcoat. I don't know what the awful music was at the end. It seems to be trying to say something but not saying it. A bit creepy.

Eerie undertone? Why? Bizarre. Great days, wonderful memories. 😎

"People are like sheep" sounds like the British Public now and then!

Goof grief. Brilliant film. Ghastly subject.

Mike, this is a fantastic film, many thanks for uploading. The way the use of cinematography, editing and especially music transforms it into something really telling and profound is something that modern documentary filmmakers could take note of the next time they produce yet another production-line borefest. Do you happen to know any more about the film as there is virtually no info online. Is any of the rest of the series around and as good as this? The 'Sieg Heils' at the end are a bit much mind, ha ha. I realised also that I was at this Minehead Butlins around this time - I went with the cub scouts out of season and stayed in one of those 'prison camp' chalets. Not sure where it comes from but there is a slightly better quality upload of 'Harriet at Play' here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mKydn7dml8iWmKM.html&ab_channel=TheYesterdayMachine

Is that Arthur Smith at 2:45?

People actually spent time and money enduring this nightmare. Ghastly.

Harriet was quite a beauty

I was wanting to see inside the chalets

Loved it. Who was Harriet the host? She is not mentioned in the credits.

I know this was first broadcast around 1975, but when exactly in 1975 was it first broadcast?

Idea - heaven turns out to be a seventies holiday camp.

I've never been to a butlins This is my only way in

I don’t think the happy families comment was against mixed race families, she said one white and one black child, therefore meaning step siblings, adopted and fostered children don’t constitute a “real” happy family 🤣🤣🤣

A working class hero is something to be x

Did you notice that??? 9:25 ..Happy family contest .. Interviewer ... "How do you decide what makes a happy family" Red Coat .... " We obviously don't want a mother and father that's got a white and a black child"...lol ..."and we can't have foster children or adopted children "

who is the presenter in this doc?

Cannot believe the comments about Bi-racial and or foster children. - quite sad even for the time

What is that piece of classical music at the end? It's beautiful.

23.35 Today thru would all be playing on their phones.

I don't think the documentary maker liked Butlins very much, that end was brutal🤣

I was enjoying that until I got to 9:35 Perhaps it's the film stock used that made it look like this, but my god, the 70's looked grim.

Is this meant to have sound ?

9:32. How times have changed. Shame the prejudice is still there today.

16.13. Kids singing a gary glitter song.

Sinister!

@2:14 - "A Redcoat's life starts at 8.30 in the morning and it ends at quarter to twelve." So WTF is her point ?? I wish I only had to work 3.15 hours every day !

Great film. Some creepy characters in amongst the "entertainment".

If you had 9000 english at holiday camp now there would be one massive punch up and they would be slagging each other off

Great documentary on a British institution. All those that went to Butlins between the war and the 1980s would probably say nothing bad against it. This is brilliant and reeks of the 1970s good and bad. Happy families competition would not allow mixed race or fostered kids. God seems like it was Butlitz not Butlins. But Minehead was one of the better camps too. I went to them all in the UK just did not go to the one outside Dublin. Don't know why as my family were Irish immigrants. Probably didn't want to go 'home.' People like to be 'ordered about ... they want to be told what to do and when to do it,' oh my God she was so right. Yet the 1970s were supposed to the really radical with the trade unions in charge ... weren't they? Seems like the English liked to show what they could do as well. Some of those compares are a bid dodgy. They would be prosecuted today for some of those comments and their jokes are terrible.

I bet Martin Parr's seen this.

These holiday camps need bringing back.

Good video, it did make it seem kind of creepy and kind of glum. I wonder if that was intentional editing, the limitations of 70s color TV cameras inside, or if that was just how Butlins was at the time. Allowing your kids to be judged on their appearance, especially in their swimwear, shudder.

i love the drinking allowed rule not sure about the rule no black and whites, no addopted children must be blood line that was the british 70s for you. its no where like that now i think we have learned since then

Now would get all that On a Spanish holiday?

I'm not to good at being ordered about so , This was proberly not my era

Can u 8magine a holiday compere now saying to a young llad nice chest you've got there. How innocent times were. On the surface that is.

They look like prison camps