It is a tough time for the TV travel show. It feels like a relic of a distant age, like Babycham or job security. For starters, the role of the travelogue has changed. In the evolving cultural climate, we have started to accept that simply pointing and staring at other countries and their inhabitants is no longer good enough. Throughout the era of cheap flights, when it was possible to nab a £20 seat on a plane to Pisa for the weekend to see the leaning tower, there was less call for an unqualified famous person to appear on our screens and explain why it was wonky. And let’s not even get started on the climate and the environmental impact of long-distance travel. You can see why it might be getting harder for the travelogue to thrive.
There are plenty of series trying to find a workaround, from many different angles. There’s the grand, trad adventurer, crossing continents on foot while properly engaging with geopolitical issues. There’s the ultra-local, slowburn BBC Four-type of series, in which a presenter goes for a lovely stroll, or a swim, or sails a barge, and chats to the camera about their lovely thoughts and lovely feelings. And then there’s the comedian-led approach, which mostly treats the holiday as a washing line on which to peg its sun-warmed jokes. The destination is fine, a source of passing interest, but it will never really be the star.
