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The Trip episode 1 review

Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon and Michael Winterbottom reunite in this understated but frequently funny series opener to The Trip...

I don't know if you've seen Michael Winterbottom's fine Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, but there's a funny scene at the end of the film when Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, both talented impressionists, are trying to out-Al Pacino each other. Well The Trip (BBC2), also directed by Winterbottom, is kind of that scene turned into a six-part road movie with a bit of restaurant criticism thrown in. Coogan and Brydon are driving around the north of England in a Range Rover, supposedly reviewing gourmet establishments for The Observer, while also addressing their midlife problems, indulging in some awkward male bonding, and continuing the battle of the impressions from the previous film.

I'm not entirely sure whether they're being themselves or engaging in some kind of self-parody. It's a bit wanky and self-indulgent to be honest. There is the odd genuinely funny moment - the bad-tempered Michael Caine-off is good - but mostly I felt I wasn't really in on the joke. Possibly the only people who are in on it are Coogan and Brydon.

All anyone really wants from Steve Coogan is Alan Partridge. And the fact that he knows it, that Norwich's finest swings like a comedy albatross around his neck, underpins the arch air of knowing antagonism he brings to The Trip (BBC2). Here's an anti-comedy if ever there was one.

Featuring Coogan and Rob Brydon playing heightened versions of themselves (their description), The Trip wilfully blurs fact and fiction as this mismatched pair, Brydon's innate amiability crossing verbal swords with Coogan's surly ego, set off on a restaurant review tour of the rural north of England on behalf of a Sunday magazine. It's a perfect set-up, egotistical and pointless, given neither of them knows much about food, which fuels a subtle meander around the oxbow lake of celebrity ego.

Coogan brutally sends up his image with a performance that's so deeply dislikeable you end up admiring his ability to be so sublimely cussed.

'I don't want to do British TV - I want to do films, good films,' he whines to his agent on the phone and, even though you know it's an exercise in fiction and not reality TV, it does feel, well, real.

It's a bumpy trip and no mistake. The laughs are of the dark and despairing kind, built mainly around the pair of them sat at a restaurant table battering each other with impressions, like Ultimate Cage Fighter played out by the voices of Michael Caine and Anthony Hopkins. It's a send-up but it's tongue-in-spleen rather than tongue-in-cheek.

There's a slightly irksome air of self-congratulation but it's hard to take against a show where Coogan chooses Joy Division's Atmosphere ('don't walk away... in silence') as the perfect soundtrack for cruising through the verdant English landscape. Makes a change from The Lark Ascending, that's for sure.

This new, Michael Winterbottom-directed six parter sees Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon reprise their roles as "themselves" in A Cock and Bull Story as slightly feuding buddies. This time they're on a voyage around the north of England as Coogan writes restaurant reviews for the Observer having broken up with his American girlfriend. A lot of it consists of the two trading impressions and funny voices - but the show exists to explore Coogan's perceived (and actual?) persona as an ennui-riddled womaniser. It's very self-aware, but often very funny. And an enjoyable foodie travelogue, too.

In the sub-genre of muted, low-key comedies that BBC2 has made its own recently, this must be the lowest key of all. It's a sort of improvised road movie in which Steve Coogan (or a fictionalised version of him) ropes Rob Brydon (ditto) into a tour of northern restaurants he's supposedly writing up for a Sunday newspaper. They head first to a gastro-hotel in rural Lancashire, where a mix-up on the booking means they have to share a room. But first they share a meal and some lightly sautéed banter. Coogan jostles for superiority and is a bit more controlling and neurotic about things; Brydon gently mocks. The laughs come when they compete over lunch about whose impressions are better (Coogan's version of Anthony Hopkins in The Bounty is great). It adds up to a wispy nothing with faint hints of the film Sideways. But with likeable performances, a light touch from Michael Winterbottom (who has directed the pair before in A Cock and Bull Story) and fine locations, there's something curiously moreish about it.

A semi-sequel to their 2006 film, A Cock and Bull Story, The Trip reunites Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon and director Michael Winterbottom for a meta-textual meditation on what it means to be, well, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.

Your enjoyment of this slow-burning, improvised comedy will depend entirely on your liking for its stars, just as the series itself is wholly dependent on the effectiveness of their verbal riffs.

As before, they play versions of themselves, a self-reflexive impulse Coogan often exercises. Is he trying to tell us something with his recurring portrayal of "Steve Coogan" as a morose, insecure egotist? Most actors are only too keen to parody themselves, often as a self-serving way of showing they have a sense of humour. But Coogan's self-mockery feels more honest than most.

So yes, The Trip is self-indulgent, but tolerably so. However, on first glance it also feels aimless and only mildly amusing.

The loose premise finds Coogan and Brydon, freelancing for The Observer, on a culinary tour of the Lake District, Lancashire and the Yorkshire Dales.

As in real life, they've worked together for years - Coogan essentially "discovered" the Welshman - though in this imagining they could hardly be described as close. Coogan, alone in his soulless city pad, only invites the happily married Brydon along because he couldn't interest anyone else. "Are you friends?" enquires an oblivious hotel owner during their first pit-stop. "No, we work together," Brydon replies. "Are you his assistant?" she asks. "In a way, yes," smiles Brydon weakly.

Most of the humour derives from their clashing temperaments. Brydon is genial, uncomplicated, eager to entertain, the exact opposite of his prickly partner, who appears to be suffering a pathetic midlife crisis. Brydon irritates Coogan with his incessant impersonations, leading to a protracted scene in which they try to outdo each other with their best Michael Caine. It's an amusing face-off, albeit with the potential to irritate if it becomes a central running gag.

Nothing much happens in The Trip, but if it's about anything, it's about the art and artifice of performance, plus that old chestnut: fame doesn't buy you happiness. Unless you're Rob Brydon. But despite hints of poignancy in Coogan's storyline, it's difficult to tell whether it will add up to much, or whether it's merely an improvised experiment between three artists on their holidays. Either way: beautiful scenery.

Here's a change of tack for Michael Winterbottom, director of 24 Hour Party People and The Killer Inside Me - a low-key semi-improvised sitcom. In this new six-parter, he directs Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictional versions of themselves as they traipse around the north of England having adventures after Coogan is commissioned to review half a dozen restaurants for a Sunday newspaper - and this opener yields funny and occasionally touching returns.

For people of a certain age, the idea of Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan making a low-key sitcom directed by Michael Winterbottom, where they travel the north of England insulting each other, is almost too pleasant to be true. And indeed, when approaching The Trip, you should manage expectations. It's not laugh a minute stuff, not by a long chalk.

But there is great stuff involved. It's a show about the spaces around laughter. The reactions - or lack of them - are brilliant. The camera focuses on Coogan sitting stony-faced as Brydon runs through yet another round of impressions. That's funny. Coogan flirting uncomfortably with the staff is brilliant. And his grotesque arrogance is always juxtaposed by the way Brydon's ingénue refuses to be bowed by his 'tortured' character.

"You can't go through life as if it's all a Radio 4 panel show." - "Bzzzz. Yes, you can." And if that doesn't make you laugh, then you can always speculate on how genuine the relationships are.

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have struck gold with this new series. Not only is it a breath of fresh air in the schedules, it also looks like the most fun two pals can ever have making a television programme.

The two protagonists are filmed chewing the fat and gulping down first-class food on a culinary tour of the north of England. How hard can life be?

What's that? A script? Oh, there's no script, this is improvised so there's no need to worry about your lines. Just sit back, scoff the delicious scran, knock back a glass or two of Pinot Grigio and let the banter flow.

It's a conversation which has probably been heard countless times before in every pub in the country. Two mates, chatting and making each other laugh, when one says: "You know what, we should be on the telly, this is great stuff, funnier than half the rubbish on the box." Only this time, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon had the clout to actually make it into a show.

The premise is Rob and Steve, playing themselves, review restaurants for a Sunday paper. It was planned as a romantic trip for Steve and his girlfriend but after she dumped him he's forced to call upon his pal Rob to join him.

Instead of candlelight dinners and seductive musings, we have two mates discussing the questions of life over a chocolate pudding.

Fans of Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story will be familiar with the format (it also featured the pair playing themselves). For those unfamiliar with the film, just think of a cross between Curb Your Enthusiasm and the Great British Menu with a light dusting of The Office.