“It’s the equivalent of eating Mo Farah,” says Steve Coogan as he bites into a piece of game. This leads Coogan and his travelling companion Rob Brydon on to an important debate about who they would eat first if they were to survive a plane crash with the Olympic champion and Stephen Hawking. Although the pair are ostensibly travelling through the beautiful scenery of Italy to review restaurants, having already toured northern England in the first series, The Trip to Italy is much more than culinary travelogue. Sure, they dine in fancy restaurants and take in glorious sights, but the journey brings wry moments of midlife crisis and lots of knockabout laughs for viewers, as well as perfect seabass and courgette flowers.
Director Michael Winterbottom captures their trip through La Bella Italia in all its gorgeousness, but it’s the colour they bring through the ad-libbing that makes it all the more watchable. As they set off in their open-top Mini, Brydon promises a soundtrack of a little Verdi mixed with Stereophonics and Tom “Huh” Jones.
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