"Welcome to the Costa Del Sol." "It's not exactly how it looks in the tourist brochures." "For 60 years us Brits have flocked here since the launch of package holidays." "It's always guaranteed us sun, sea and sausage sandwiches." "Enjoy your life, get on holiday." "You don't work all year for nowt, do you?" "But now much of it seems like a wasteland." "I'm travelling the coast to meet some of the British expats still living here." "It's thought 90,000 Brits fled Spain last year alone after a huge financial crisis, hard-core austerity and plummeting property prices." "I'm going to follow some of the last Brits standing." "Suddenly, with your 60th birthday on the horizon, you actually realise you've actually got nothing." "I've seen people come here, lose their life savings." "People that have been here 20, 30 years have gone back because there's nothing more to offer in Spain." "So is the British love affair with the Costa Del Sol over?" "It's roasting." "It is boiling." "It's hot." "God, I love England." "I miss it, but this is so much better!" "Londoner Dave York has lived on the Costa Del Sol for 12 years." "Ex-prizefighter, ex-debt collector, ex-con." "Big Dave is a notorious member of the British expat community." "And if anyone knows just how tough things have become... it's him." "I'm heading to meet Big Dave where he lives and works, in the small town of Calahonda." "According to my taxi driver, it's an area packed with expat Brits." "HE SPEAKS SPANISH:" "Big Dave owns Hardys Bar on Calahonda's main strip of pubs and restaurants." " So talk me through your menu." " My menu." "Shepherds pie, steak and kidney pies, steak pies... chicken pies..." "British." "Healthy option!" "Hardys is a culinary home from home for Calahonda's British expat community." "That was superb." "Regular as clockwork, always good." "Which of the great chefs did you work under?" "Aunt Bessie." "Me and Aunt Bessie, we're like that!" "She taught me everything I know about Yorkshire puddings." "The great British menu is served up in the searing Spanish heat by Dave and his wife, Tracy." "Why do people have a roast when its 41 degrees outside?" "Creatures of habit." "The English love roast dinner, simple as." "Creatures of habit." "What did you do before Spain?" "God, I've been a prize-fighter," "I'm a plasterer, been a bailiff... been a debt collector." "Same as a bailiff but one was legal, the other one wasn't." "Living the dream!" "Why did you come to Spain?" "I'd just had enough of it." "I was working seven days a week and my wife was working five, six days a week." "We just never saw the kids and we came here for a better life for my kids." "And they've had a good life." "I think." "I wouldn't go back to London." "There's nothing there for me." "I like community." "I think that's why I like Spain so much, because there is a bigger British community here than there is in London." "There's a bigger lot of English here than there is in England." "I personally think so." "Another day in paradise." "You can come and live the dream but you've still got to pay the bills." "Hardys is a small family business and the sole source of income for Dave and Tracy, their daughter, Charley, her husband, John, and also Tracy's parents." "That's one of the best things about having family around you, you can trust family." "My wife and my kids and my mother-in-law are all 100% with the business cos it gives us all a living." "It gives us all something." "It's not a brilliant living but it's a better living than nothing." "Everyone thinks they are going to come to Spain and earn millions." "You ain't going to do it running a bar." "Dave's in-laws have first-hand experience of how quickly things changed out here." "I've sold the house in England." "Eventually, I bought a large bar of my own here." "Well, I bought a ten-year lease on a large karaoke bar." "Which was great for the first five or eight years, but then the trade just stopped." "They lost their life savings, they sold the house they had in Florida, they sold the house in England to get this bar and came out." "They work for me now." "There's an old saying we have in Spain " "If you'd like to make a small fortune bring a big one with you to lose." "Have you see a lot of people having to leave...?" "Lots of people have gone home." "People that have been here 20, 30 years have gone back because there's nothing more to offer in Spain." "During the good times," "Dave had been serving up nearly 200 meals a day to Brits." "But now his numbers are half that." " Is it harder than it was five years ago?" " Oh, yeah." "Everything is harder." "People are a bit tight with money." "Although they say the recession is over, people are still tight with money." "Spain is struggling as much as us, even more." "Unemployment is high." "They look at us like we are their Polish." "We're over here nicking their jobs." "But to be honest, there isn't a Spaniard would come here and spend all day and all night here for what I earn, believe me." "There's clearly trouble in paradise, and 17 miles down the coast road is the town of Benalmadena." "It's populated by a much younger crowd of expats, attracted by the nightlife and the opportunities to earn cash from the tourist trade." "I'm off to meet young British migrant workers to see if they've been hit as hard as expat families like Dave's." "DOORBELL" "That's what we have to do, wait for someone to come in so we can get into our own apartment!" "Hello!" "It's actually a joke, isn't it?" "We only have one key between the seven of us." "It's fine, I'll just wake my neighbour." "Yeah." "21-year-old Bronte and 24-year-old Sasha live in a one-bed flat and work in the bars and pubs around town." "So, this is the Pussy Palace!" "SHE CHUCKLES" "It's a one-bedroom flat shared among seven." " Can we chuck that in the bin, please?" " Yeah." "Do you know what?" "It's actually been in there for, like, three months!" "It's mouldy!" "I think we live here like how people in the UK think the Romanians" " and Polish live." " Yeah." "I literally think that's how we live, all in one house, all sharing everything." "At one point we actually did have 12 people here." "Amanda and Sam sleep on the sofa bed and Kai does sometimes." "There is a chair under all the clothes." "Yeah, she actually does sleep on that." "There is a chair underneath the clothes." " Sometimes you can sleep on the..." " Beanbag." " Beanbag." " To be honest, we just sort of fall wherever we end up." " Yeah." "I sleep on the bed here." "Those bed sheets are horrendous." "What are you doing?" "!" "This is Ashley, guys." "LAUGHTER" ""Oh, my God, go away," she says!" "We'd better go away before she starts throwing stuff." "Have you noticed anything about this year in terms of people and...?" "Gone away." "Like, there's no people, compared to what it was." "2011 was well busier than what it is this year." " Last year was a little bit busier." " Every year it goes down and down." "People haven't got the money." "We are all skint." "They are like, "I'd like ten free shots, please."" "One beer between five of them." "What is here that's not back home?" "Why do people come here and work?" " Why did you decide to stay here, like?" " Because Coventry's a shithole." "You can't say that!" "For me, there's nothing for me to go home to." "Apart from, like, family." "But there's no jobs for anyone, so..." "You'll probably end up doing bar work or something, but it will be cold over there and..." "If I'm going to do bar work in England I might as well do it here where it's hot." "Casual cash-in-hand work, cheap rent and guaranteed sunshine lured them across Europe to the Costa Del Sol." "Each night, after taking turns to use the piece of mirror and the only shower, they all go to work in what's known locally as 24-Hour Square." "It's a late night epicentre for a peculiarly British way of spending the evening." "Free of charge, free of charge." "Sambuca?" "Hello, my darling." "How are you?" "Do you fancy a couple of drinks?" "You'll get a free drink upstairs with the guys." "Guys, why don't you..." "have a beer together?" "After just a few hours on the ground, it's becoming clear there's some underlying tensions between locals and Brits." "Loads of women..." "I'll give you all free shots, free cocktails, yeah?" "The Costa Del Sol has long been a Mecca for British pensioners attracted by the warm winters and cheaper cost of living." "We've been coming here for 23 years now." "Generally enjoy being fit and very English, you know." "One of those pensioners is 66-year-old Colin Gausden." "There's a song by the Zac Brown Band and the words in it are excellent." "It says, "I've got my toes in water, ass in the sand"," ""not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand."" ""Life is good today,"" "and that sums up the coast here, if you get it right." "Colin's living the dream in a luxury penthouse apartment equipped with all mod cons." "Two squash courts... the Jacuzzi... sauna comes included, as well." "This is unusual for Spain, it's a very big indoor pool." "It seems an extremely attractive way of life, but there's one thing the complex is missing." "Other residents." "You can see how many people are here." "Own personal barman." "There are... 16 of these lifts." "16 public lifts." "Erm... the place is..." "August, it's occupied, the rest of the year, it feels like I'm the only one here." "There's numerous unfinished buildings and developments that are not complete." "This place here, the bank owns it and the bank has to fund all the gardeners, security 24/7..." "Somebody pays for this and it's the bank." "This was gold-rush country in the '70s and '80s and early '90s and you couldn't buy a place, you had to buy off-plan because everything was bought and sold before it was finished." "That was gold-rush time." "But Colin didn't buy off-plan." "In fact, he hasn't bought at all." "Colin is renting, and it's costing him his entire British state pension." "This is what you get for 600 euros a month and that's what my British pension for a single man translates into." "The pension from England comes in, goes out the next day." "Colin's rent takes up all his fixed income with nothing left to live on." "But that had never been the plan." "He came to Spain during the gold-rush years with his life savings and a moneymaking idea." "Free flights." "To get free flights, the businesses would pay for them if you marketed the business." "So instead of giving away a 10% discount, which you kind of miss, they would give away flight points." "That was the company. "When your company teams up with ours..."" ""..your customer can fly for free."" "Now, I got investment of one million euros, which was a mix of shares and equity, and it worked." "It was perfect." "It was... it was my pension." "Unfortunately, I got moved out sideways." "Anyway, within a year, it crashed and burned and I'd actually put all my money into it, which was perhaps one of the most stupid things" "I ever did." "Suddenly, with your 60th birthday on the horizon, you actually realise you've actually got nothing." "And that's..." "You have to sit with that and think, "What am I going to do now?"" "And jive." "Easy one." "♪ Welcome to the zoo... ♪" "Colin now teaches jive dance to other pensioners along the coast to make ends meet." "Whoa." "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" "Pause." "They pay ten euros for the evening, it's a three-hour evening." "If they know they're coming regularly, they buy a multi card which cuts the cost down to six euros." "Wiggles." "Just the butt, not the head." "Despite having his fingers financially burnt before, he wants to turn these jive dance lessons into his big money-spinner." "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle and out." "But first, he has to attract more people." "Our average attendance is 25 or 30." "On a hot August night, I can be there and only, you know, 10 or 12 people will turn up." "Colin is about to embark on a one-man mission to" " expand his business." " We're going to start advertising this week." "With a bit of luck, if the advertising works, we should have a bigger class." "Obviously, the bigger it gets, the better it gets." "The bigger it is, the most sustainable it is, so, yes," "I'd love it to grow." "Another night comes to an end." "With so many Brits living on the Costa Del Sol, tensions between native Spaniards and expats are starting to become apparent." "Some Spaniards complain the area has been swamped, describing the Costa Del Sol as a foreign land." "There's even a feeling that some Brits are a drain on Spanish services at a time of austerity." "It all has a familiar ring to it." "In the Las Lagunas medical centre," "Brits living on the Costa Del Sol regularly seek medical treatment." "It's a small public hospital, part of the Spanish equivalent of the NHS." "Treating so many Brits unable to speak Spanish means the clinic relies on translators to liaise between doctors and expats." " Translators like Freddie." " So, she's going to wash out both ears for you." " El oido derecho." "Oido derecho." " No va a lavar los dos?" " No." "Only the one, the right hand one that's giving the problem." "Yeah, si." "Es correcto." "Tiene que sujetar la bandeja." "Can you hold the tray for her?" " Sale algo, o no?" " Si, calcificado..." "Sale un trozo de tapon." "That's quite a bit off of that." " Is that me done?" " Yeah, that's it." " Oye bien?" " Yeah." " Claro." "Muy bien." "Freddie's time appears to be spent mostly with British pensioners resident here who can all access Spanish health care totally free." "This is all picked up by the Spanish health system." " Another satisfied customer." "They're very good, aren't they?" " They're good." "System's brilliant, very good." "People retire out here so it tends to be an older age group, obviously who have more need of medical attention, anyway." "82-year-old Elsie has been brought in by her family." "My parents have lived here about 15 years but my mum's become quite ill in the last five years." "She's got a bit of dementia, so it's quite difficult." "I don't live here." "I speak a bit of Spanish, but I don't live here." "I just come back to help." "My brother's here." "Originally, my mum was able to walk around freely." "Since her last mini-stroke, she's become worse and is confined to a wheelchair." "So she doesn't move around on her own and, somehow, she's banged her leg again and we don't know how that happened, but that's why we're there, really." "Aqui hinchada." "Mucha hinchada." "Un poco mejor, pero..." "She's beginning to realise that she has dementia and she's... she knows it's going to get worse as well, so she gets quite sad and morose." "Then again, she has a very bad memory, which helps because everything she has one day is forgotten the next day." "She's deteriorating more rapidly now, so our work really is cut out for us now." "It's only going to get worse." " OK, are you happy?" " Yeah, fine." " Are you sure?" "So you just carry on putting..." "Now, obviously if it doesn't, you know, if it gets any worse or anything..." " Yeah, come back." " Bring her back." " Yeah, thank you very much." " Bye-bye." " Bye!" "With so many Brits leaving the Costa Del Sol, why would a pensioner like Elsie stay in Spain to navigate a foreign health system in another language?" "ANNOUNCEMENT IN SPANISH" "Back on the road to Benalmadena, where I've arranged to explore the area with night owls Bronte and Sasha." "But this time, in daylight." "This is the 24-Hour Square." "And why do they call it 24-Hour Square?" "Because it used to be open for 24 hours, but now it's not." "When I first came over, in the daytime everyone would be here." "All the bars used to be open in the day." "There's just not enough people coming here any more to be... to even" " bother opening this now." " Nope." "It's called the 24-hour square but it's not even open now during the day." "It's like a ghost town." "Yeah, see, these ones over here are all closed down." " I think they've been closed down for about a year." " None of these are open?" "It's all boarded up." "This one's still got all their stuff in it, but..." "It's, like, it's just got bins and..." " Random stuff." " That stuff's probably been in there for..." "like years." "You used to come here, they used to have tables all out here, terraces." "All these bars had PRs outside." "You had a mix of Spanish and English here, but now there's nothing, they're all empty." "So, really, we've only got five bars and there used to be about... - 15. - 15." "With so many bars going bust and more closing for the winter," "Bronte is considering leaving the Costa Del Sol and returning to the UK." "I don't know whether to go or stay." "A few of my friends who have just finished university and stuff... and they're still unemployed now." "And then I see that and I'm like, I haven't even been to university and, like, what chance do I have getting a job, going back home?" "There's no jobs." "I don't know what my ambitions are." "I know that I don't want to live in England." "I don't know what the future holds." "I wish I had a plan, but I don't." "It's clear that the boom time of British bars offering work to young migrants like Bronte is over." "Go on, free entrance." "Enjoy it, all right?" "For decades, British tourists and expats kept the pubs and clubs thriving, but today times are much tougher." "In Calahonda, Big Dave is trying anything possible to inject more cash into his business." "Tell me about the new vending machine, David." "Herbal Viagra for men and herbal Viagra for women." "You've got to make a profit somewhere!" "I get a commission, little commission out of that." "I had one put in the ladies'." "We seem to sell a lot more to the women than we do men," "I don't know why." "There's a lot of guys leave here drunk and don't even know they've had one in their beer." "That's what I think happens here." "Yeah, the recession's been hard." "All the British bars are all of a sudden doing buy-one-get-one-free, which is normally a good sign that someone's on their way out." "It's..." "You can normally see that for..." "And you'll see it for three or four months, they're doing buy-one-get-one-free, then they're gone." "They lose everything." "Big Dave has a brand-new idea to attract more Brits." "With son-in-law, John, he's off to the local fish market." "At the moment, it's quietened down now, so we need to get people back in." "The whole idea, we try something different - fish and chips." "Everyone likes fish and chips." "Everyone likes roast dinners, as well, that's why we do that." "It's one of them things, you have a go at everything, try everything." "What does Tracy think?" "Tracy worries that no-one's going to turn up, that's Tracy's biggest worry." "She just lets me do what I want to do." "It's my business, I do what I want to do." "I put my foot down." "Don't tell her any different, cos she thinks it's her business." " No bacalao, eh?" " Hoy, no." "Today..." "Manana?" " No, manana, no." " None this week, no?" "Ahora mismo, no." " None." "Gracias." " That felt horrible." "It's possible somebody else might have." " Bacalao fresh?" " No." " I'm giving this up, mate." " What do you think they say about us?" " They call us guiris." "Guiris?" "Foreigners, guiris." "But, yeah, they like us here." "They liked us here ten years ago but now they're in the shit like everyone else, there's a crisis on, they want us gone." "Bacalao fresh?" "No?" "Hay bacalao congelado." "Got frozen, yeah?" "The Spanish, before we got here, used to ride on donkeys." "Now they ride round on brand-new cars because the bit of land they had, they sold to the Brits, and we build houses, we built everything here." "But now we've built it, you can jog on, we want it back." "But unfortunately we're here now, and I don't think we'll be going anywhere." "14 a kilo." "That's frozen, yeah?" "And that's it?" "Small steaks, aren't they?" "Very small." "If you ask a Spaniard, "How much do you want for it?", they put the price up." "If you're interested, they'll put the price up." "There's people paying rent on bars that can't afford the rents and saying to Spanish owners, "Any chance of you"" ""helping me out here?" And they go, "No."" "And they're evicting them out of the bars and the bars sit closed for two years." "No." "Gracias." "We're going to be the most expensive fish and chips in the world." "We've tried, we've come to the market, now I'm going back to my suppliers." "Some of these are nice but if I point them out myself it looks like a real show-off so I can't do it, but I love some of the comments on these." "I don't want to be showing these because it looks like" "I'm really showing off but it would've been nice if you'd spotted them." "It says, "Thanks for the hours of darkness, and what would we do without you?"" "That was one which was a nice one." "How would people describe me?" "Ha!" "Probably someone with an ego the size of a small Spanish village." "That's a really tough question." "Come on, give me a sensible question." "How do I know how people would describe me?" ""Outgoing" might be one word they use," ""comfortable in front of an audience" might be fair." "What did you do before you moved to Spain?" "Erm, built a family." "I think "built" might be the wrong word." "Had a family and brought them up." "And business-wise, you were...?" "For 16 years I was in the swimming-pool industry." "I first started off as a salesman and moved on to have my own company, and then my distributorship, and then finally ended up with a company called." "Cascade Swimming Pools." "That was this one here." "I mean, we had good times, we had a good house." "This was the pool at home." "And this is my youngest, he's now 30 years old this year." " And that is you?" " Yeah." "I look about 12, don't I?" "Do I have any regrets?" "Kind of yes and no." "For a while I regretted the flight-points company, losing that, but it was all my money, everything I had went into that business." "Do I regret anything else?" "I think, like everybody, I would like to have been married once and stayed married all my life, but it wasn't to be." "It wasn't to be, it wasn't to be." "Apart from that, no." "Colin wants to expand his dance business so he's hunting for venues for a brand-new weeknight class." "Times are tough, so if I can persuade a venue that I'll bring in 30, 35 people, all buying drinks, then they'll normally give me the space." "Tell me about the suit." "If you turn up in flip-flops with shorts it's going to be hard to get past a receptionist." "I need to talk to the entertainments officers or the manager at these hotels to convince them that they need me and my dance club there every Thursday night." "But the first job is to get past the receptionist, and if you're wearing a smart pair of trousers and a shirt, you have much more chance of getting her attention than shorts and flip-flops." "Dressed to impress, Colin is planning on cold-calling at hotels." "'But to get past reception and to the people with power, 'he prepared a little white lie.'" "So you go in and the first thing you say is...?" "I'm looking for a venue for a Christmas party." "And it's normally the same person that will be dealing with entertainment and so we discuss the Christmas party first." "I then move on to the fact that we are looking for a venue for Thursday nights." "Do you have a suitable room for a Christmas party?" "And the other thing is, do you have a big space for dancing?" "We bring in about 30 people, all buying drinks." "We've been getting on so well, and she is really stunningly beautiful, the girl there." "And... everything's perfect." "Until we got to the room." "It's carpeted." "Not only can you not dance on carpet, if we did dance on it we would wear it out, even this expensive carpet." "It's a very expensive hotel and I'd hate to think that the price of the drinks was." "We didn't quite get that far." "But they would have had us in there but we can't go in there, it just wouldn't work for us." "So we move on." "Undeterred, Colin's continuing to other hotels." "With his pension used up by his rent, he is relying on his dance business for money to live on." "What could be worse than a carpeted floor?" "An alcohol-free zone." "An alcohol-free hotel." "Because it's a wellness centre they have no alcohol, not even a glass of wine in there." "Now that's not going to go down well for the dinner party or an evening's dancing." "Once again into the breach, dear friends." "I'm looking for a venue for a Christmas party." "What was that like, Colin?" "I think we might get five weeks." "I think we might get five weeks which would keep us going whilst I find somewhere else." "But the reason it is only five weeks is that they close on the 20th of October." "It's some consolation, but with winter approaching, it appears everything is becoming that little bit harder." "I've been invited to Elsie and her family's villa, having met them a week earlier in a local medical clinic." "So, George, will you tell me when you moved out here?" "Yeah, 16 years ago." "Just before the turn of the century, I think." "1998." "George!" "Yes, love?" " Will you adjust that main door?" " Yeah." "I want to help." "She wants to help." "She wants to help." "INDISTINCT" "Since retiring out here, Elsie has suffered a stroke and developed vascular dementia." "So why hadn't they returned to the UK?" "They've been trying to sell the house but the market isn't there." "It's still up for sale." "Until then, we couldn't move, we're stuck here." "How do you make ends meet?" "The only money coming in now is Dad's pension and my mum's pension." "We don't go out much, you know?" "We don't really do anything." "We go shopping and spend the rest of the time going to clinics and hospitals." "I feel sorry for Dad, his life is falling apart." "That's for you being difficult." "I'm very disappointed with these Western governments, all this trouble of building." "This house was borrowed at half a million." "More than that, you know, a few years ago." " Now it's what I've got." " George..." "Julie and I both say we're both pretty angry," "A - that they came here to start with at such a late age, but left it so long." "House prices rocketed a few years back and I'm saying, "Sell up now, come back to England."" ""Oh, we like it here, we like it here."" "And now we're stuck here because we can't sell it, we can't give it away, really." "Do you ever regret moving to Spain or are you glad you did it?" "No, I do." "When I lived in England I had a four-bedroom house with a double garage, big gardens, and I swapped it for this." "It is a full-time job, you know, for both my dad and myself." "As I say, it's not going to get any better." "They are stuck in a cruel limbo." "Unable to move because they are unable to sell." "Out of reach of UK care and social services, they are hoping that somewhere in the Spanish system there might be some kind of help for them." "Spanish property prices have plummeted." "Repossessions have rocketed, and now 3.5 million homes stand empty, half a million more unfinished and abandoned." "Some Brits are stuck out in Spain." "But others seem to be thriving under pressure." "Colin, will you just tell me what we're doing?" "Yeah, we are making an advert for Talk Radio, to go on Talk Radio Europe to promote the classes for the winter period and then they are going to do an interview and again talk about the club and the classes." "So hopefully our numbers next week will be twice as big as the number this week, if the advertising works." "We'll have what - three goes at it or four goes at it till get" " the best one?" " Whatever we need." " Good." "Right." "Colin is paying hundreds of euros for a radio advert he's written and is now performing himself." "OK, ready to go?" "Let's try one." "Yeah, go for it." "You have absolutely no idea how your life will change when you come to our dance classes." "First, you'll learn to dance modern jive, and soon look good on any dance floor anywhere." "Secondly, you'll make so many new friends you won't be able to afford enough Christmas cards." "'Natural strengths?" "'" "Communication skills." "Erm, obviously marketing, which has been my life," "I value as a strength." "You have absolutely no idea how your life will change when you join our dance classes." "Sorry, it's going really well, so a big smile, OK?" "'There's something that somebody said to me, ' they said, "You have absolutely"" ""no idea"" ""how much fun you'll have."" "And I thought, "There's a line!"" " PLAYBACK:" " You have absolutely no idea how your life will change when you join our dance classes." "It's emphasis." "If I said, "You've got no idea how much fun you'll have...", there is no emphasis." "If I say to you, "You have ABSOLUTELY no idea"" ""how much fun you'll have...", there is emphasis there." "Advertising is key to the business cos if we don't hold the numbers up and we drop the numbers at the venues, the venues don't take enough money over the bar, we lose the venues." "But I was very happy with that." "Is that all right with you?" "Go with that?" " That's a take." " It's a take?" "We'll go with it." "The summer season on the Costa Del Sol is coming to an end." "Businesses, bars and restaurants are closing for the winter." "And it's bad news for Bronte." "The bar that I work for is closing in two, three weeks, so there is no point being here any more." "If the bar that I work in at the moment was open in the winter I would 100% stay." "That's the only reason I'm going home." "But before she can even get to the UK, she has to pay for a flight." "This is my savings tin." "So every day, every night when I get paid," "I come home and put my wages in here." "But I had to open it the other day." "Cos I ran out of money." "SHE LAUGHS" "It's when I've got a day off... 50...60..." "LAUGHTER" "That's so bad!" "60 euros." "So she has to find the money from somewhere else." "Hi, Dad." "We both want to come back." "Three weeks." "For your birthday, as well." "Yay!" "Hello." "That is your birthday present." "Me and Sasha coming home." "That's your birthday present." "Yeah?" "Yay," "I'm excited." "I know, I can't wait, yeah." "September." "In the morning." "In the afternoon." "I miss you so much, Dad." "OK." "I love you." "Bye-bye." "Was that a difficult choice?" "Really difficult." "I still don't want to go home, really." "But I have to." "Right, I've got you off on Tuesday." "Mum, you're in at six o'clock, so..." "We're in on Saturday, are we?" "John!" "Will you be working Saturday and Sunday with us?" "Since your wife won't be here." "I'd assumed Big Dave had stuck it out in Spain for the sake of his family and his business." "Right, Dave is doing." "Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday," "Saturday and Sunday." "But it turns out it's a little more complicated." "Never volunteer for nothing." "Someone asked me to do them a favour once and I landed up in prison for eight months doing someone a favour, helping move some furniture." "I didn't know what was in it." "Genuinely." "I literally did think I was just helping remove some furniture and stuff and then when I got there, before we even moved anything, the police turned up and inside the furniture there was drugs hidden." "But I never knew that till I got there." "Shit happens." "I mean, I've had to take that as... take it on the chin, and I'll probably have to go back for another two years, they're saying." ""Costa Del Crime" - they call it that for a reason." "People turn to it." "And that's the downfall, that's what people do." "Dave is on a 60,000 euro bail and unable to leave Spain." "Two beef, one chicken, please." "He's now waiting for his full sentence, which could come at any time." "It's just another problem, another thing you've got to worry about in the back of your mind." "Trying to make money, trying to cover everything, all the bills, that's all you're doing." "My wife, my kids - even though they're in their 20s, you still worry." "Tracy it affects more than me." "She's got to pay the rent, pay all the bills, shopping, eating." "You have to put so much money in my account while I'm in prison, otherwise if you have no money, you can't live in there." "One full English." "Two full English, one scrambled egg." "78 dinners." "What do you aim for on a good day?" "On a good day, 100 covers." "That's hard work, mate." "Another two years in prison?" "Sooner the better, I want to get it finished with and get on with my life." "Colin's radio advert has been finished and it's ready for broadcasting across the airwaves." "OK, this sounds like what we've got, let's have a listen." " PLAYBACK:" " 'You have absolutely no idea 'how your life will change when you join our dance classes." "'First, you'll learn to dance modern jive 'and soon look good on any dance floor anywhere." "'Secondly, you'll make so many new friends 'you won't be able to afford enough Christmas cards.'" "That's fine, I'm happy with that." "Colin is planning to spend even more money on posters to be placed across the coast." "We've got, "You have absolutely no idea"" ""how your life will change when you come to our dance classes."" " That's what we used on the radio so it will follow through." " Does that come easy to you?" "Yeah, before I did this I was in marketing, so not only does it come easy, I actually enjoy it." "I'll sit in bed, I'll wake up at four o'clock in the morning sometimes and suddenly get an idea and start writing the ads." "You can't learn it, I don't think you can learn it." "It's a natural skill." " Hey-ya." " Hi." " Nice job, nice job." " Thank you very much." "Can I have the bottom line in pink?" "Same pink as that." "If you print one out, I'll sign it off." "I'm very happy with that." "THUNDER PEALS" "In 24-Hour Square," "Bronte and Sasha are working their final shifts." "Tonight their bar closes for winter." "To be honest with you guys, Bierkeller is nice if you fancy just a little pint or whatever." "THEY SING" "See you." "Adios!" "HE SHOUTS" "How stressful." "Now I have to clean all these." "Never have to do this again." "The dishwasher." "With just hours before their flight to the UK leaves Spain, it's time to pack." "It's only like this for one day and then we'll tidy it up." "Maybe a week." "Mixed emotions - as I've been here for so long, it's weird to go home now, you know?" "I'll sit on it and you try and zip it up." "Yay!" "Cool." "We're ready to go home." "THUNDER PEALS" "I'm meeting Elsie and her family one final time." "They're visiting the Mijas foreign residents' centre - a local department set up to help foreigners, all funded by local council tax." "Brits regularly come here with problems around fines," "Spanish law, and welfare." "Please take a seat." "I don't know if you know, my mum had a stroke, she needs quite a lot of looking after." "OK, right." "Now, we have a social services department that can deal with cases like this." "You don't speak any Spanish at all?" "My sister's pretty good but she's not here all the time." "I don't." "I can go with you to social services, arrange for dependency law social assistance to come round..." "Great." "...assess her." "Because the more grade of dependency you've got, the more help you will be able to get from the town hall." " OK." "Because of the situation, they actually go to the house and do the assessment at the home." " OK." " OK." "We've got some appointments." " Have we?" " Yeah." "Cool." "Fantastic." "What would we do without you?" "I don't know." "Cheers." "Bye-bye." "Bye-bye, Elsie, nice meeting you." "Give me your hand." "Give me your hand." "Despite Spain being in the grips of mass austerity measures, there may be some extra help Elsie and her family can get." "Very helpful." "Just home help would be useful, to get her up and down stairs more easily, and shower her and clean her." "Mum won't let me do that so Dad's on his own and it's a bit of a struggle for him." "It's definitely light at the end of the tunnel." "Just to know that they are there now, and they can come with this as they need to and can act on our behalf, more proactively - it's like a helping hand, you know?" "With an estimated 300,000 British pensioners having retired out in Spain," "I'm left wondering if Elsie's story might be the tip of a very big iceberg." "It's early morning in Benalmadena and Bronte and Sasha are leaving for the airport." "I'm going now." "But after a heavy night, they are not entirely ready for daylight..." "This is so bright right now." "...or walking." "Oh, my God!" "I can't stand up!" "After three years living the Costa Del Dream, it's over." "Like many others, they are heading home now work has run out." "We have to go now." "Oh, no!" "SHE SOBS" " OK?" " Yeah." "SHE CRIES" " OK?" " Yeah." "They're heading to the UK, hoping work will be easier to find there than on the Costa Del Sol." "DOG BARKS" "It's fish-and-chip night at Hardys Bar and Big Dave is hoping to attract more Brits through his doors." "I bought just over 40 pieces of fresh cod, fresh fish, so we'll go from there now and see what happens." "All I want is 40 customers, please." "Not asking a lot." "You can only try, that's Spain." "It's getting off to a promising start." "Fish, chips, mushy peas." "First one, let's give it a go." "Thank you." "That's normally a good sign, empty plate." "That does me, that's good enough for me." "Georgie said it was beautiful and all that was left on the plate was a bit of squashed lemon." "This time next year we'll be millionaires." "But after an early rush, it suddenly goes dead." "I want another customer, please." "It's quiet at the moment, very quiet." "Him and his big ideas." "After four hours, Dave has only managed to sell a handful, and is barely covering costs." "I just wasn't happy about doing it because I don't think special nights actually work, because we've got a strip full of restaurants so I didn't think it would be a good idea." "The fish-and-chip night has been a disaster." "But daughter Charley has some news she hopes might cheer the family up." "Oh, I'm going to be a nan!" "Not only fish-and-chips night tonight, it's bun-in-the-oven night tonight, cos my daughter's just announced to me that she's pregnant." "How are you feeling?" "Yeah, gutted." "I can't wait to see how much that's going to cost me." "Believe me, the original has cost me enough," "I don't know what the offspring is going to cost me." "I had a checkup at the doctors' and they knew we were trying so they put the test on and we went for our results today and they told me the results." "Absolutely ecstatic and I want to tell the world and I just have." "How do you honestly feel, Dave?" "Yeah, chuffed, chuffed to bits." "I just know it's going to cost me a few shillings." "Not one to waste stock," "David cooks up a celebration meal before they break the news to John's mum." "I'm pregnant." "Oh!" "What a melt!" "CHARLEY LAUGHS" "Cheer up, you miserable..." "Listen, toast." " To Charley and John." " To Charley and John." "Despite everything they are facing," "David and his family seem to be riding out the Costa Del Crisis together." "But they are under no illusion there is a lot of hard graft ahead of them." "We are Spain's Indians." "We're over here, we're nicking their jobs, building our bars like their corner shops." "When I was a kid it was "Oh, the Indians are over here"," ""stealing our jobs,"" ""opening their corner shops,"" ""24-hours-a-day,"" ""working their nuts off,"" ""and everyone can get a loaf of bread when they want."" "We do the same with the bars." "But we're making a living." "We won't be going anywhere." "I'll go back when it suits me, not when it suits them." "It's dance night for Colin." "He's hoping his advertising campaign will pay off." "Last week we had 30 in, which should be an average, but with the Talk Radio Europe thing this week, and the ad just starting to come out on the air," "I would hope we would be nearer 40 or 50." "But so far it is only him and a couple of his volunteers." "It's five-to-eight" " and the next 20 minutes..." " Are critical." "...are critical." "I'm really going to... yeah..." "With money tight and winter approaching," "I'm wondering if Colin has misjudged his chances of expanding the business." "The last eight months have been very, very difficult for a lot of people." "Slightly mature people, where they have relied on pensions, obviously it is not going as far now, so they are not out and about as they used to be." "But bang on cue, there is an influx of OAPs." "35." "So we are looking for another ten to come and check in and we will be what I had hoped for." "MUSIC:" "Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke ft TI, Pharrell." "We were targeting 50 and we had 54, so I'm very happy with that." "When you dance with a girl, look her directly in the eyes with as much love and affection as you have in your body." "Here we go." "This is tonight's first movement, it's called the first movement." "Over." "I'm feeling good and I would love to go on until I'm 76 or 86." "Colin's more than hit his target, pulling in some of the plentiful pensioners of the Costa Del Sol." "Now look lovingly, and lean." "You have to take risks." "If you are an entrepreneur, that is what you do." "And if you do it you must go full-on." "Perhaps Colin DOES know a thing or two about launching a successful business." "And maybe jive dance lessons will recoup his fortune." "You've got to learn to take the good times and the bad times." "Today I have no shareholders," "I have no staff, so life's good today." "As the song says," "I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand, not a worry in the world, cold beer in my hand." "Life is good today." "Yes!" "As my time in Spain comes to an end," "I'm leaving behind a community of expat Brits, some stuck, some determined to remain, but all working hard to make ends meet." "It's become clear that the UK is far from the only country debating immigration in times of austerity." "But over here, it's us Brits that are the immigrants." "Whilst the British love affair with the Costa Del Sol may have hit the rocks, it's certainly far from over." "♪ I got my toes in the water" "♪ Ass in the sand" "♪ Not a worry in the world" "♪ A cold beer in my hand" "♪ Life was good today" "♪ Life was good today" "♪ I got my toes in the water" "♪ Ass in the sand" "♪ Not a worry in the world" "♪ A cold beer in my hand" "♪ Life was good today" "♪ Life was good today. ♪"