Written by Tony Barwick and directed by Brian Burgess, it was first broadcast on 23 October 1966 on ATV London and Anglia Television as the fourth episode of Series 2.
The lead characters are ex‑astronaut Jeff Tracy, founder of International Rescue, and his five adult sons, who pilot the organisation's primary vehicles: the Thunderbird machines.
Lady Penelope and Parker leave England for a holiday in the Mediterranean coastal town of Monte Bianco, checking into a hotel run by Mr Faccini.
Penelope thinks she knows why and uses FAB 1's videophone to alert International Rescue, taking the car out to sea on its hydrofoils to avoid radio interference from the nearby mountains.
On Tracy Island, scientist Brains predicts that when the dish begins to reflect sunlight, the energy projected at Monte Bianco will heat the town until it ignites.
Seeing the hotel roof beginning to smoulder, Scott activates a device on Thunderbird 1 which fills the air with smoke, blocking out the sun and stopping the flow of reflected solar energy.
[4][5] Rating the episode three out of five, Tom Fox of Starburst magazine writes that while most of the story "ticks along nicely", Parker's reason for holding a bingo game makes "next to no sense".
[8] Mark Braxton also praises the episode's comedy, writing that the cheerful Faccini and despairing Bruno make an entertaining double act.
[3] Braxton believes that the premise of "Lord Parker's 'Oliday" influenced the Thunderbirds Are Go episode "Ring of Fire", in which a solar collector dish is destabilised by undersea earthquakes and threatens to incinerate a town.