This paper analyses instances of the use and representation of local languages (other than English) in British TV holiday shows. Although most hosts/locals featured in the holiday programmes use English to communicate with the travelling journalists, regardless of the official status of English in their territories, it is not uncommon for the presenters to initiate interaction with the locals in their native language, to quote 'foreign' language phrases in their commentaries/narratives, or to make metalinguistic and metapragmatic comments about these languages. Overall, the uses of languages other than English in the data are fairly limited, although their examination offers an interesting ideological gloss on the politics of non-English la...