Phil Davis's holiday heaven and hell What do you need for the perfect holiday? Sunny weather helps but you must have a sunny frame of mind. I don't find it that easy to enjoy myself. I have to dredge it up sometimes. Sometimes I don't want to go out. Eve says: "Let's get in the car," and I'll say: "Why don't we stay in the garden and watch the rabbits?" And she'll go: "Come on! Enjoy yourself. And we always do. Books. My wife lent me One Day. Everyone round the pool was reading it and that usually puts me off, but it was wonderful. I was in the film playing her father, you know, but I got cut out. I think I might have been too good, too sexy. I regularly go on the net and research golfing holidays and Mauritius looks good. There are interesting things there such as the capital, Port Louis, and formal gardens and a zoo with giant tortoises, so there are things for all the family, I've checked. Eve has come to terms with my golf obsession. What's your best piece of travel advice? Get to the airport early. And disasters? What was your worst holiday? A trip to Lanzarote about 16 years ago with Madeleine. It was February so we weren't expecting it to be hot, but pleasant would have been good. The day we arrived we went into the old town to eat and as we were walking back it started to rain - and it didn't stop for nine days. The beach of a nearby hotel was washed away over the next three days and all their sunbeds floated out to sea. We were playing cards in our apartment when the floor tiles started to lift and float under our feet. In the distance we watched helicopters airlifting people to safety because their apartments were slipping into the sea. We hired a car and peered through driving rain at places selling chips and lager. I went to the airport early to beg anyone who had return flights to swap them for an extra week so we could get away. But there was no escape. And your worst experience on holiday? Some years ago we got the ferry to Caen and we were going to drive towards Brittany and see how far we got. The second place we got to was Dinard and we had a big plate of fruits de mer and got food poisoning and were on our backs with it coming out from both ends. We'd only planned to stay one night but we were there for six days before we could move. We were so exhausted that as soon as we were fit to move we drove to Caen, dumped the car and came home. What's the worst hotel you've stayed in? There was a hotel close to Harrogate that I used to go to when I was making the Channel 4 legal drama, North Square, in Leeds, more than 10 years ago. It was a golfing hotel and I loved the course but the rooms were terrible, the beds were lumpy and I was always the only person in the restaurant. I'd order my meal and a pimply boy would bring it to me. I developed an odd sort of affection for the restaurant but mainly for him, because he would carry the food in under a big silver dome and whisk it off with such a flourish and there'd be an overcooked lamb chop with a bit of mashed potato and some peas and sticky gravy that had obviously just come out of the microwave. He presented it like it was cordon bleu cooking, and it really was the pits. But it did have a fantastic golf course. And your biggest packing mistake? I had one jumper on that holiday to Lanzarote and it got soaked on the first day and never dried out. Nightclubs. Holiday resort nightclubs, casinos or restaurants with cabaret are the worst. In fact, anywhere that people gather with the express purpose of enjoying themselves. It's so depressing. What do you dislike about holidays? Those people who expect you to enjoy yourself every single moment of every day. People who say: "Come on! We're going to have some fun today!" are the most joyless people on Earth. Interview by Gillian Crawley Phil Davis appears in Whitechapel on ITV1, Mondays at 9pm