![]() ![]() In season one they hit South-east Asia to live out Whitehall’s cancelled gap year, while season two is a cultural tour of eastern Europe led by his father Michael. It’ll take five minutes to decide whether you’re up for this show, but if you can take the intergenerational eager-puppy-versus-stuffed-shirt banter you do get a lot of travel for your time. The comedian is a divisive figure, but less so than the man he insists on calling ‘Daddy’, an old showbiz hand who’s loving his spell in the spotlight. If you can handle that, then join him on his mission to visit every one of his homeland’s 227 inhabited islands, starting with Season 1’s tour of the Saronic and Ionian, including Hydra, Spetses, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. Be warned, however, that host Peter Maneas is a character beyond even the imaginings of Steve Coogan: a full-on Aussie of Hellenic extraction, he’s colourful, exuberant and generally not backward in coming forward, all to the power of 10. If you enjoyed the last season of The Trip but felt there was too much competitive banter and not enough Greek scenery, then this is for you. Throughout, he transcends the formula by being well-informed and showing an interest in people. Along with crocs, sheep-shearing, gold-prospecting and whitewater-rafting, he joins the drag scene in Broken Hill, digs into the poetry of the Outback and hitches a ride with a Flying Doctor. Griff Rhys Jones travels around the great southern land by train, packing a great deal into his 30-minute episodes. Streaming on BBC iPlayerĭespite an unpromising start – do we need a TV comic to tell us that ‘this is a big place’, or that he’s about to embark on ‘the journey of a lifetime’? – this is well worth your time. Follow the lovely Michael Palin to Ireland and the awkwardly charming Clive Anderson to China, and watch ballerina Natalia Makarova take on her native Russia and the great BBC correspondent Mark Tully head to India. Want to take the train but can’t face Michael Portillo and his range of bright slacks? Now’s the time to dive into iPlayer, then, as the Tory grandee’s monopoly on rail travel falls off the rotation, leaving this multi-presenter series from 1994. Be warned: contains adult content and sarcasm. ![]() His secret weapon is asking unusual questions, ensuring a wide range of subjects: one episode alone covers Mary Queen of Scots, martial arts, protests and funfairs. Over four episodes, each given a very loose theme, he enjoys Scotland’s camera-friendliness – the coast, moors and monumental architecture – and meets a parade of eccentric locals. He’s still sharp, as the introduction shows – ‘There comes a time in every comedian’s career when they decide to do travelogues,’ he tells us – though this is much richer than the sitcom-character-goes-to-Africa formula we’re used to. Once the scourge of tabloid and liberal broadsheet alike, the comic has revealed more humanity as his face has been ever more hidden under a beard. Don’t expect to get all the references but give it a go. We get Conan being tall, zany and actually pretty witty in the usual places Americans are interested in: Cuba, Korea, Mexico, Israel, Haiti and Italy. For those outside of the USA, chat-show host Conan O’Brien is very much an unknown quantity, and this show may well be equally baffling: it’s a travel programme but directed primarily for laughs and with the reaction of a studio audience added as if it’s an in-show segment. The Saturday Night Live comic and Ghostbusters actor is charming, open and interested in everything around her as they talk Buddhism, ride helicopters and tuk-tuks, and dig surprisingly deep into the issues of a rapidly changing country. Then he’s in Marrakech with Chrissy Teigen and in LA with Lena Waithe before the best of the bunch, visiting Phnom Penh with Kate McKinnon. He’s in Vancouver with local lad Seth Rogen, fishing and giggling, getting lost in a maze and above all revelling in the city’s Asian food emporia. In this offshoot from his Ugly Delicious show, the preposterously busy David Chang hits the road for four hour-long adventures with comedians.
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