Is there life after High Gear for its presenters? Freddie Flintoff, whose life-changing accident led to the BBC’s flagship automotive present being “rested for the foreseeable future”, proved that there was along with his good and transferring sequel to Freddie Flintoff’s Area of Desires. Alas, no such luck with co-presenters Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris’s new BBC mission, Paddy and Chris: Highway Tripping.
If the title of their new sequence prompt one thing like the unique High Gear trio’s different programme, The Grand Tour, then automotive followers could have been bitterly upset. This was a street journey alright, however with little curiosity in automobiles as McGuinness and Harris visited numerous European nations searching for the key of a wholesome and completely happy lengthy life. “We’ve determined to sort out getting older head on,” as McGuinness put it (a slightly unlucky flip of phrase given High Gear’s file of accidents).
McGuinness had not too long ago turned 50, whereas Harris was a 12 months in need of this milestone, however continues to be appeared like a weak excuse for sending them on the street. A lazily contrived job creation scheme, extra like.
Anyway, their first cease was Sweden, “residence of flatpack furnishings and Abba” – a taster of the upcoming shallow dive into the Scandinavian psyche. They started by becoming a member of a bunch of bare (however suitably pixellated) male Swedish pensioners in a sauna, earlier than a forest exercise with a triathlete referred to as Jonas that concerned chopping down bushes and throwing rocks. A lot nicer than exercising within the fitness center, they each agreed.
Then all of it turned a bit Rob and Romesh vs… (the Sky sequence during which Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan attempt actions means past their ability set) because the pair joined in a sport of ice-hockey with some skilled gamers. In addition they trespassed on Journey Man terrain by using on an enormous dipper in a Gothenburg amusement park (“having enjoyable boosts your immune system” was their excuse). In reality, the programme was such a medley of different travelogues that by the point they bought to eat some seaweed, I wouldn’t have been stunned if Joanna Lumley had joined them.
The one time both presenter felt correctly engaged was when Harris began enthusing over the 23-year-old Volvo V70 that they have been driving round in. Having admired the automotive’s “properly spaced pedal field” and “five-cylinder warble”, Harris was instantly shut down by McGuinness. “You’ve bought to cease doing that on this journey… we’ve bought a unique set of viewers.” Have they actually? I predict a sizeable overlap within the Venn diagram illustrating shared viewer demographics with High Gear – to start out with at the very least, as dedicated petrolheads could not keep the gap.
With all their musings on ageing and assurances that they have been having a good time, I used to be forcibly reminded of the superior Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. However there’s a motive why pairs of comedians dominate one of these programme – they set off one another. McGuinness (a comic) and Harris (not a comic) did make one another snicker with their lads-on-tour bants – the distinction between the phrases “arse” and “anus” acquired a lot dialogue – however their on-screen hysterics didn’t make me snicker.
The seeming obsession with intimate physique elements continued with McGuinness, showering with the skilled ice-hockey gamers, claiming he’d “by no means seen as a lot penis as I’ve in Sweden”. Harris in the meantime opined that “I can’t imagine I’ve gone from test-driving Lamborghinis to sharing a bathe with McGuinness”. He wasn’t alone there.
‘Paddy and Chris: Highway Tripping’ continues subsequent Sunday at 8pm on BBC One