Duty Free is about two British couples, David and Amy Pearce and Robert and Linda Cochran, who meet while
holidaying at the same
Spanish hotel in
Marbella and the interruptive affair conducted by David Pearce and Linda Cochran during their break. Another recurring character is the hotel waiter Carlos. Although set in Spain, the show was recorded entirely in the
Leeds Studios – only for the concluding Christmas special was the budget found to film some scenes in Spain at the Don Carlos Hotel and Spa. Like many British sitcoms, there was a
class-related tension between the two; with the Pearces
working-class from
Northampton, and the Cochrans a more affluent,
middle-class couple from
Henley-on-Thames in
Oxfordshire. The character of David Pearce, much to his wife's chagrin, became uncomfortable with his own status and politics after meeting the Cochrans and tried to change his outlook. Series 1 and 2 take place during the same two weeks long holiday, leading to the show famously being dubbed "the holiday that never ends". The first episode of Series 3 takes place back in the UK, a year later, but subsequently the story returns to Spain. The series was based on a one-off TV play by Chappell, ''We're Strangers Here'', first performed on TV with
Geraldine McEwan and
Ian Hendry as a two-hander and subsequently on stage as a four-hander at the Theatre Royal, Windsor. ==Episodes==