It is a rite of passage for any successful TV comedian: pen a hit fringe show, do Live at the Apollo, host Live at the Apollo, and then, if the comedy gods permit, appear in a travelogue with another famous comedian, that’s to say, a holiday you wouldn’t choose to go on but will get paid to joke about. So it is for Chris McCausland, though his travel show isn’t another Travel Man, exactly: he is blind, so his experience of travelling is a little different from most people’s. Wonders of the World I Can’t See pairs him with four celebrity companions to see if they can persuade him that travelling is worth the effort. “When it comes to sightseeing, I can’t be arsed,” he says. “I’m blind, so what’s the point?”
He starts his odyssey with Harry Hill, who takes him to Athens for a week with the intention of experiencing the Acropolis in all its glory. McCausland admits early on that he likes neither heat nor flying. And having flown to Greece, they find that it’s 40C: McCausland says he’s glad to have Hill, a former doctor, on hand, so it all bodes well.
