Michael Winterbottom

Steve Coogan spent most of his time on the original series of The Trip getting irritated by travelling and dining companion Rob Brydon.

But it hasn't put them off embarking on another culinary journey together, this time in Italy.

Apparently, much has changed in the lives of the two comedians since their virgin voyage around the Lake District in 2010.

"Rob, tired from the responsibilities of being the father of a young child, is looking for some adventure," reveals a show insider.

"Steve, meanwhile, has been living a life of abstinence and hard work in Los Angeles but, now on a hiatus from his job there, has the time to come back to Europe and wants to see his children."

This second series is again directed by acclaimed documentary maker Michael Winterbottom, and it takes in the stunning scenery of Capri, Tuscany and the Amalfi coast.

Otherwise, it's business as usual, complete with their impersonations of the likes of Tom Hardy - who they're both rubbish at! - Michael Caine and Robert De Niro.

Beautiful views, mouthwatering food and guaranteed sunshine - it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it...

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reunite for Italian job

Three years on from 2010's The Trip, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have reunited with director Michael Winterbottom for a sequel The Trip to Italy. According to Coogan, "it's exactly the same but sunnier."

Is Alan Partridge morphing into Tommy Saxondale?

Steve Coogan's inability to escape his most successful character was mined for some of the best material in The Trip, his 2010 collaboration with Rob Brydon and Michael Winterbottom. For a minority however, myself included, it's Tommy Saxondale that's the more complex character and one that has managed to seep, intentionally or otherwise, into the version of Alan Partridge we meet in the 2013 feature-length outing Alpha Papa.

'Are you friends?' 'No, we work together.' p]Rob Brydon]'s response to the receptionist at Lancashire's famous Inn at Whitewell is at the crux of what this hugely entertaining collaboration with Steve Coogan and Michael Winterbottom (first shown in 2010) is all about. Winterbottom's McGuffin is to send Brydon and Coogan - playing variations on their personas from A Cock and Bull Story - motoring off around the north of England, reviewing rustic restaurants for The Observer.

But really, it's a chance for the two comedians (sorry, comic performers) to riff on their reputations (Coogan: chippy and ambitious; Brydon: warm and eager to please), with near-suicidal ruthlessness, for our delectation. This opening episode is a treat. Slightly pathetic one-upmanship abounds as Brydon tears relentlessly through his impressions from A(l Pacino) to R(onnie Corbett) - much to Coogan's derision. The erstwhile Alan Partridge, meanwhile, gripes about feeling unappreciated by all and sundry, flirting haplessly with bar staff while Brydon turns on his unthreatening charm.

Winterbottom's direction is unobtrusive but occasionally telling, while the landscape makes a backdrop spectacular enough to force its way into the foreground in later episodes. All sorts of themes are bubbling under the surface - the ever-evolving nature of male friendship, the dying of the creative light, the relative merits of road maps and satnavs - but you may well be laughing too much to care. Series two is currently in production in rural Italy, and we can't wait.

Movie review: The Look Of Love

Throughout, Michael Winterbottom never really challenges Raymond's assertion that he's not just a pornographer. And though he captures Soho in all its seedy glory, with acres of naked flesh and merkins on display, the film lacks soul.

Sundance Film Festival review: The Look of Love

Michael Winterbottom's biopic about 'King of Soho' Paul Raymond reunites him with the Alan Patridge star - but despite Coogan's porn-appropriate moustache, he doesn't fit the bill.

New poster for The Look Of Love (formally King of Soho)

Michael Winterbottom's look at the life of Paul Raymond, with Steve Coogan starring, ran into a hitch a few months ago when another film with the same title was announced. But now it has a new title, The Look Of Love, and a new poster, and we have them exclusively here.

Enjoy last year's BBC comedy The Trip? This is what inspired it. Directed by Michael Winterbottom and starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as caricatures of themselves (just like The Trip), it's a film about the making of a film of the knotty 18th-century novel Tristram Shandy. The bickering between Coogan and Brydon is easily the highlight.

Q&A: Steve Coogan & Rob Brydon

This world loves bickering buddies. From Laurel and Hardy to Jay and Silent Bob, there's plenty of fondness for comedies built around caustic and amusing back-and-forths between two people that, at the drop of a hat, either want to kill each other or cuddle. Michael Winterbottom, the man responsible for "Welcome to Sarajevo" and the harshly-and-unjustly-criticized "The Killer Inside Me," saw gold in the relationship between his star Steve Coogan ("24 Hour Party People") and friend/comedian Rob Brydon and amplified their personalities for "Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story." The result was a riot, and things went so well that the three reunited for "The Trip," a BBC2 series and movie.

There are only two legitimate excuses for not watching The Trip over Christmas. The first is that you've already seen it, and the second is that you spent Christmas Day eating to such a relentless degree that the sight of food completely repulses you. If you don't fall into either of those categories, then a viewing is mandatory. The promos might have made this BBC series look like one long self-indulgent Michael Caine-off, but there's so much more to it than that. Steve Coogan gives a layered, pathos-drenched career-best performance - as himself, admittedly - and Rob Brydon proves to be his perfect foil. And Michael Winterbottom manages to make the Lake District look more beautiful than ever. It's extremely funny, too. Quite possibly the best TV series of the year.