Young Talent Time’s Caravan Holiday

Tucked away on a Saturday afternoon on Christmas Eve, 1972, Melbourne’s ATV0 screened the 20-minute film Caravan Holiday.

The short film, produced by Lewis/Young Productions and Ansett Television Films, served as a promotional spot for the Caravan Trade and Industries Association and starred the eight junior cast members of Young Talent TimeVikki Broughton, Debbie Byrne, Philip Gould, Rod Kirkham, Greg Mills, Jamie Redfern, Julie Ryles and Jane Scali — and the show’s host Johnny Young. The film also featured comedian Buster Fiddess in his last film role. He died suddenly shortly after filming his scenes.

Also featured were pop star Johnny Farnham, actress Addie Black and a cameo from YTT talent judge Evie Hayes.

Caravan Holiday was filmed in the summer of 1971/72 and was played in cinemas during 1972 as a supplementary feature to films like What’s Up Doc?, giving the show’s fans the chance to see the Young Talent Team perform in colour as television was still in black-and-white. In amongst the cheesy tunes and summer holiday antics were sweeping shots of country scenery, sunny beaches, and cars towing caravans on country roads and gravel driveways.

Caravan Holiday was not known to have been broadcast on television since 1972, and only resurfaced when the Young Talent Time Tells All special was produced commemorate the show’s 30th anniversary in 2001. It was subsequently an additional feature on the DVD release of the special.

Source: IMDB, Jeremy Kewley. TV Times, 8 January 1972, 29 January 1972, 23 December 1972. 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2022/12/young-talent-times-caravan-holiday.html

1 comment

    • Steven Wood on 24 December 2022 at 8:06 PM
    • Reply

    WOW! Great little featurette, and one of the best I’ve ever seen. That gets me wondering, hey – if only the original cast of Hi-5 did something like this back in 1999/2000 in addition to their own TV series.

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