Film

What We Did on Our Holiday

A family comedy about a Scottish holiday that unravels when three children can't keep their parents' secrets. Rosamund Pike and David Tennant lead an ensemble cast through fractious family dynamics, quiet-loud emotional swings, and the particular chaos of trying to hold things together when everyone's watching. It's warm and genuinely funny without being sentimental.

TMDb rating3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy bickering family comedies where awkward social manoeuvres escalate with mounting, slightly cringe-inducing momentum, and you don't mind a little sentimentality underneath the mess.

Skip it if you prefer subtle, restrained humour, since this leans on broad set-pieces and loud reactions, and the constant escalation can start to feel repetitive before the credits.

What it asks of you: Ninety-five minutes of brisk, farcical momentum with little downtime; you'll need to keep track of the comic tangle around the family secret and let the set-pieces build without expecting much quiet reflection.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

About a Boy2002

A divorced father and a boy navigate family messiness with wit and heart. Like this film, it finds comedy in how people actually behave around each other—selfish and kind by turns, never quite resolving neatly.

But The dad is unlikeable for large stretches. If you need your protagonists immediately sympathetic, the journey will feel slow.

About a Boy poster

Paddington 22017

A family gathering comedy about secrets, assumptions, and what happens when people project their own anxieties onto each other. The emotional core sneaks up on you under cover of charm and slapstick.

But It's a family film aimed at children. Some adults find the sentimentality overwhelming; others just can't turn off the cynicism voice in their head.

Paddington 2 poster

The In-Laws1979

Two fathers on the eve of their kids' wedding, chaos erupting from misunderstanding and stubbornness. Sharp, antic, and oddly touching—it understands that family pressure makes people behave badly.

But The comedy is very '70s in pace and style. If you like snappy modern timing, this will feel loose and rambling.

The In-Laws poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from What We Did on Our Holiday

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Goodbye Christopher Robin2017

Both use a family holiday and a patriarch's milestone as the frame where secrets detonate. Both hinge on what children understand and what they innocently reveal.

It's about a family holiday (to Wales, with children) and the secrets the parents are keeping from each other. But it's structured as a serious drama—the children are unwitting, the stakes are real marriage failure, and Billy Connolly is grief-stricken rather than comic relief.

But Knowing Milne created Winnie the Pooh casts a shadow of inevitability over the whole film that some find maudlin. It's genuinely sad in ways this film isn't trying to be.

Goodbye Christopher Robin poster
More like this (7)

Funny Ha Ha2003

A young woman navigating family and friendship with no plot to speak of—just conversation and awkwardness. It catches the texture of how people actually talk, which is what this holiday film does too.

But Nothing happens. If you need forward momentum or jokes with punchlines, you'll find it frustratingly static.

Funny Ha Ha poster

Tamara Drewe2010

Ensemble cast, village setting, secrets coming to light, everyone behaving badly in human ways. It's lighter than this film but shares the DNA of people crashing into each other's assumptions.

But The plot is quite busy and relies on coincidence. If you want character study, the mechanics will distract you.

Tamara Drewe poster

A Fish Called Wanda1988

A heist film disguised as relationship chaos: four people who can't stop wanting things from each other. The comedy comes from character, not gags, and it understands betrayal and attraction as comedy fuel.

But It's relentlessly cynical about human nature. There's no one to root for, which some find liberating and others find exhausting.

A Fish Called Wanda poster

The Leisure Seeker2018

An elderly couple on a road trip, their adult children worried sick, layers of marriage and disappointment on full display. It's funny and sad at once, which is where this holiday film lives too.

But The pacing is deliberately slow. It's a meditation on aging; if you want plot momentum, you'll be frustrated.

The Leisure Seeker poster

Parenthood1989

Three generations of a family gathering, every kind of relationship failure and love on display. It's the template for this kind of ensemble family comedy, made with genuine warmth and no easy answers.

But It's nearly two and a half hours and episodic. The lack of a tight plot means some sequences drag; it can feel like homework.

Parenthood poster

The Killing2011

Both understand that secrets are what drives family narratives, and that ordinary people under pressure say unexpected things. Both find their rhythm in conversation and reaction rather than event.

A Danish crime drama where the emotional core isn't the murder—it's how the investigation tears open a family. Long scenes of people sitting in rooms talking, revealing themselves under pressure. The comedy here is dark and comes from human contradiction.

But It's bleak and violent. If you watch this film for warmth and lightness, this will feel like a betrayal of genre and mood.

The Killing poster

The Worst Witch1986

Both are comedies about a gathering under time pressure where secrets emerge through children's inability to keep quiet. Both find their energy in ensemble chaos rather than a single plot spine.

A children's film (made for TV) with a massive ensemble cast, a school event looming, and everything going wrong because nobody communicates. It's absurdist, has genuine warmth, and treats kids' intelligence with respect. The chaos is joyful rather than anxious.

But It's from 1986 and looks it. If you need modern production values and are not nostalgic for practical effects and creaky BBC sets, it's rough going.

The Worst Witch poster

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