Still wish you were here?

In the 1970s, the iconic holiday show Wish You Were Here...? brought us images of its presenters taking to the dance floor in a Spanish disco and marvelling over a Big Mac. Today, a follow-up series revisits some favourite destinations, and looks at the remarkable changes that have taken place, says Neil MacLean

And this,” said the reporter, holding the morsel up for our inspection, “this nine layer gastronomic indulgence is known as – a Big Mac!”

He spoke as if he had just discovered a strange new animal or as if a small and magical object had just fallen from outer space into the palm of his hand.

A Big Mac! An all-meat patty, grilled, garnished and sandwiched between the twin plump cushions of a sesame bun! Wonders will never cease.

Except they will and they do. That was New York in 1974. Fast-forward to 2008 and the Big Mac is so ubiquitous it is about as wondrous as discovering an earwig on your porch.

The neatly dressed man in the television report, our pioneering guide to the kingdom of the minced steak sandwich, was Jim Lloyd, a stalwart of Wish You Were Here...?, a programme that shaped the holiday world for so many of us who were too young, too poor or just insufficiently adventurous to take a vacation anywhere more glamorous than Poole.

To remind us of those earlier, heady days, when the world seemed c onsiderably bigger and more exotic than it does now, Wish You Were Here Now and Then recently has hit our screens.

The idea? To compare and contrast some of our favourite destinations and to discover how we enjoy these places now we no longer spend our holidays peering in amazement at the gastronomic wonder that is a Big Mac and fries.

The programme is presented by Mark Durden-Smith, son of Judith Chalmers, doyenne of TV travellers, whose earliest reports for Wish You Were Here...? sounded so much like a monarch’s address to the nation that Brits would curtsy to her as she swept through foreign airports.

Durden-Smith had a great time viewing the early footage of his mother in day-glo green trouser suits, dancing in a Spanish disco, or Jim Lloyd dressed as the perfect English gent, exploring Manhattan.

“The thing about New York,” he sa ys, mulling over the ‘now and then’ element of the title, “is that it used to be a huge adventure to go there; the trip of a lifetime.”

It is not quite like popping round the block even now, but you certainly don’t feel like Christopher Columbus discovering the New World on your weekend shopping trip to Macy’s .

“New York is also a good deal safer to visit now,” says Durden-Smith. “Back in ‘74, the programme met a gang of cyclists patrolling Central Park trying to keep it safe for visitors. Now it is one of the most policed places on the planet.”

To some of us with selective memories, it seems that the Wish You Were Here...? of the 1970s spent an inordinate time in Spain, documenting the rapid and remorseless concreting of vast strips of coast, the rocketing expansion of the hotel business and the pouring of huge swathes of humanity onto its beaches.

Apart from discovering Spain’s more exotic foodstuffs (“paella! sangria!”), there didn’t seem to be much for visitors to do on the Costas then, other than to crowd the beaches so tightly that if anyone turned over in the sun, 500 other people had to move to accommodate them.

“That’s one of the main things which is different about Benidorm, for example,” says Durden-Smith. “There is so much to do now beyond the beaches. There are water-parks, fun-worlds, Aqualandia, Terra Mitica, Terra Natura.... There is literally something for every type of visitor.”

Benidorm has also notably cleaned up its holiday act. Having at one time descended into a sort of seventh circle of hell peopled by drunken Brits, it is now a clean, safe, family-friendly environment where it feels safe to walk at night and where the only new hotels permitted to spring from the ground must feature a swathe of amenities far beyond the all-day, all-inclusive bar.

It is also noticeable that Spain has become a year-round destination, with many Brits choosing to spend winter on the Costas rather than brave the elements back home. When interviewed by Wish You Were Here...? in the 1970s, the mayor of Benidorm mulled over the possibility of erecting a vast greenhouse over the beach to encourage winter trade.

The programme documented many cultural shifts across the years, but few as remarkable as that seen in Ibiza.

When we first discovered the island on our television sets, it seemed a very rural and remote place, visited mostly by hippies, preaching and practising love and peace.

“The [original] programme even visited a nudist beach,” says Durden-Smith, though back then a well positioned copy of the local newspaper protected our sensibilities.

Now, the major requirement for many of Ibiza’s visitors is to glam up, as the most happening, mega-clubbing island on the planet puts on its nightly show of the fabulous and utterly outrageous.

Even that is only part of the story as Wish You Were Here Now and Then explores the more tranquil corners of an island which increasingly attracts young families and those whose idea of a wild night out includes a glass of port and a round of Scrabble.

Hippies were also a staple of San Francisco back in the 1970s when Wish You Were Here...? first encouraged us to put flowers in our hair and visit the West Coast of America. Many of the city’s tourist icons remain unchanged, of course. Durden-Smith rode the same tram featured on the original report and along the same vertiginous streets.

However, if you want to be a bit more 21st century about it, you can now tour the city in a talking Go Car, a little yellow twoseater, guided by GPS, which Durden-Smith compares – alarmingly – to the Sinclair C5.

Wish You Were Here...? wasn’t just all about foreign travel. Most episodes featured at least one holiday for those of us who remained at home – including a visit to the famous landladies of Blackpool. In those days, many of us spent a whole week, maybe two, with our buckets and spades on a British beach, regardless of the weather.

Since air travel has become cheaper, easier and more commonplace, Blackpool has had to reinvent itself to attract the short-break market, a group which expects its facilities, its entertainment and yes, its amusements to compare with the best in the world.

This means that visitors can now try a new heart-stopping, multi-looping-over-the-sea, water-fall-skimming roller-coaster sensation, while experiencing the sort of G-force that turns your face inside out.

Compare this with 30 years ago, when Judith Chalmers documented the thrills and total lack of spills of a donkey ride along Blackpool beach. She didn’t half look regal, though. r

Neal MacLean is a travel journalist based in Edinburgh

Catch Wish You Were Here Now and Then on ITV every Monday night until 18 February