Here comes Richard E Grant, pounding towards us in his tiny leather jacket as he gesticulates wildly at his cobbled surrounds. “Wow,” he gasps. “Look at that.” We look at that. It’s Malta. Specifically, Malta’s Grand Harbour: a sobbingly beautiful gateway to the Mediterranean and the sun-blessed starting line for Richard E Grant’s Very Modern Odyssey, a four-part travelogue “inspired by Homer’s hero” in which the veteran actor traces Odysseus’s “incredible journey” while wearing a succession of increasingly voluminous linen trousers.
Said tracing is not, however, an exact science. This is not one of those awful celebrity things in which our noble hero arms himself with set squares and a scholastic scowl before setting sail on a “voyage” to uncover “the truth”.
