A family from Solihull in the West Midlands has claimed to have “completed Charades” during a drizzly holiday in Rhyl. Parents Roy and Josephine Ramsbottom visited the Denbighshire resort in early July, hoping for a relaxing week-long break exploring the North Wales coastline. However, due to persistent rain and wind they found themselves confined to their caravan with 12-year-old daughter Petunia and son, Peregrine, who is ten.
How it started
“I think it was Peregrine who suggested we have a quick round of Charades whilst the rain passed over,” said world weary father Roy. “Well, we went round all four of us once, including my speciality – Gone With The Wind – then, as it was so gloomy, we played another round.”
However, the game did not stop there. Unseasonably heavy downpours meant the family couldn’t visit any of the places they had planned to before their arrival. Instead of heading out to the ruins of a Roman public lavatory and the Open Air Museum of Shiny Things as they had intended, the Ramsbottoms found themselves glued to the banquette for the most intense instance of the popular parlour game they had ever experienced.
What happened next
“I couldn’t believe it,” exclaimed Josephine, who is the Acting Head of Mice and Small Rodents at Xtermi-kill Ltd in Brosmgrove. “When I looked at the clock, it was almost midnight. We’d been playing for 14 hours solid and it was like we just couldn’t stop. Roy whipped up a few jacket potatoes in the air fryer and we got back down to it.”
“They were delicious,” added Roy, off topic. “We had a lovely prawn salad on them. Beautiful, they were.”
By the time the sun came up the next morning, the family were ready to leave the caravan for a swim at Slippery Sam’s Surf Sanctuary in Colwyn Bay. However, the weather gods were against them once again. “We stopped for a bagel each and got straight back into the game,” said Josephine.
“With Nutella on,” interjected Roy.
“And that saw us through till tea time,” stated Josephine.
Disaster
Although the game had been a welcome distraction from the weather, disaster was just around the corner. “Petunia had just performed an expert “Unbearable Lightness of Being,” said Roy “and Josephine got it almost straight away. But then I looked to pick up the piece of paper with the next title so I could wow the family and I couldn’t believe it. In just two days, we’d made our way through the whole of Charades. There was literally nothing left to do.”
“I was flabbergasted,” admitted Josephine, “we sat around for half an hour trying to think of another book, film, TV show or musical that we hadn’t acted out and we all came up blank. That was the end of that excitement, I can tell you that for sure.”
The family are currently consulting with the Guinness Book of Records to see if they can be recognised as the first to complete the mime-heavy pastime.
“It wouldn’t have been so bad,” said Roy, “but this Hollywood strike means that there’s not going to be any new films for a while. What are we going to do?”
Next steps
The family spent the next few days sitting and staring at the walls of the caravan before driving mournfully back to Solihull. “It was the longest, saddest journey I’ve ever taken,” claimed Josephine. “There was only the lunch break that brought any excitement into the day. Oh, what was it we had, Roy?”
“Remember? We pulled up just outside Stoke and had fried green tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe” replied Roy.
“Wait a second!” exclaimed Josephine, “we never did that one! The Kathy Bates classic! Oh bugger. We better tell the book of record people.”
The mayor of Rhyl was unavailable for comment.
