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4 hours ago
5
‘You know what we need to inject some life into our dying medium?” says the TV commissioner. Her colleagues all wait for the moment of inspiration, the sparkle of insight that justifies the gargantuan salary. “We need a show where a comedian travels to a location!”
Hmm, they all think, does she mean a location said comedian has a particularly personal connection to?
“Um, no.”
A place they have some special insights on?
“Not exactly,” admits the commissioner. “But get this! I thought maybe they could go with their mum?”
Are you as sick of comedian travel shows as I am? While I sat comatose through Alexander Armstrong in India on Channel 5 recently, I thought about the way that this genre has metastasised during my lifetime. No sooner had Armstrong faded from the screen than I read a breaking news story about Lucy Beaumont piloting a travel show with her mum. The experience is increasingly like trying to fend off a swarm of midges while going for a walk.
I have no personal beef with Armstrong, who is obviously an articulate and convivial host, cheerily guiding you through India like your dad wandering around your first-year uni accommodation. (At one point he gets very wet!) And at least he wasn’t there with his dad. But he is no Michael Palin. If it’s Palin we have to thank for creating this subgenre, it’s also Palin we have to blame. The Python was so influential that multiple, terrible versions of the format were created in his image. Without Himalaya With Michael Palin, you aren’t lumbered with Jack Whitehall: Travels With My Father.
The last 10 years have given us shows such as Travel Man (Richard Ayoade); Joe and Katherine’s Bargain Holidays (Joe Wilkinson and Katherine Ryan); The Reluctant Traveller With Eugene Levy; Russell Howard & Mum; Wonders of the World I Can’t See (Chris McCausland); Griff’s Great Kiwi Road Trip (Griff Rhys Jones); Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad; and The Inner Circles of Hell with Jim Davidson (I made that one up but it’s the only one I’d want to watch).
It’s not the fault of the comedians, who are all freelancers trying to pay the bills; the fault lies with the commissioners. You might imagine that The Trip, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s tongue-in-cheek parody of that kind of programming, would have given commissioners reason to calm down a little. But, just as Squid Game began as a take on the nightmare of late-stage capitalism and ended as a fun experience you can play for yourself at Bluewater in Kent, the comedian travel show appears immune to satire.
What’s so depressing about the situation is that there are so many comedy writers and performers who have original ideas for shows that have been crafted with love and care; shows that couldn’t possibly cost as much money as it takes to arrange travel and accommodation for a trip to India for dozens of crew members for multiple weeks. Am I going on this rant partly because I’m one of those aspiring comedy writers? Absolutely. But when you look at polls of the most watched and most loved programmes of the year, it is sitcoms that always sit proudly at the top. I wouldn’t trust anyone who reflected on their year and concluded that the best thing they watched was Jon Richardson: Take My Mother-In-Law.
I shudder to think how many celebrities are, at this very moment, half-heartedly pitching travel shows where they are the star attraction. When the bar is this low, why wouldn’t they? Why should Jimmy Carr think that, I dunno, touring the railways of Taiwan with his mother’s uncle would be any less valuable than any of the shows that have aired already?
For TV to survive in a wild media ecosystem, commissioners need to fund bold and exciting new ideas, not think of their favourite light entertainer then throw a dart at a world map. Comedians go on holiday all the time. They shouldn’t be paid to do it.
