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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Lucy Mangan

Anton and Giovanni’s Adventures in Sicily review – the Strictly stars’ bond is so moving it will make you weep

Lighting a better way … Anton Du Beke (left) and Giovanni Pernice in Anton and Giovanni’s Adventures in Sicily.
Lighting a better way … Anton Du Beke (left) and Giovanni Pernice in Anton and Giovanni’s Adventures in Sicily. Photograph: BBC

At first it seems as if Anton and Giovanni’s Adventures in Sicily is going to be very much more of the same thing we have seen too many times before. Two celebrities pretend to be mates and swan off on a jolly somewhere sunny, justifying the effort and their fee by flinging a few factoids about the history and culture of La Isla Foreigna at us as they eat, drink, boat-ride and five-star hotel their way around the place.

Strictly Come Dancing stars Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice are taking a three-episode road trip around Pernice’s native Sicily. Things begin tiresomely with a confected set piece about Pernice having to carry all Anton “The Celebrity’s” luggage and Du Beke’s agonising efforts to order a coffee in Italian. You distract yourself from the formulaic boredom by wondering who it is Du Beke reminds you of. He is, you eventually work out, four parts Bruce Forsyth (at one point he even says “Didn’t she do well?”), one part Michael Barrymore (before, you know, Everything) and a small amount of Rob Brydon.

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