Brydon and Coogan stick to a formula that worksDigitalspy

Throughout all the episodes of The Trip to Italy that have been aired, I have not once laughed out loud. Yet I still think it’s one of the best comedy series of the year so far. It simply relies on an entirely different breed of comedy: gentle, slow-moving and uncontroversial.

Its premise is simple, and could only be pulled off by a pair of skilled comedy professionals such as Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, playing hyperbolised versions of themselves completing a restaurant tour of Italy for the Observer Magazine. Watching it feels rather like enjoying a meal with two witty friends trying to outdo each other with streams of puns, impressions and little digs at each other’s work.

As anyone who saw Rob Brydon at Watersprite in Cambridge last term will know, his impersonations are unrivalled – except, perhaps, by Coogan himself. They master Michael Caine and Christian Bale, Ronnie Corbett and Roger Moore, imagining them in delightfully ordinary situations and playing them out together. 

Other than the move to Italy, bringing with it beautiful sweeping vistas of the landscape, this series doesn’t stray far from the territory of the first. Even the impersonations mostly remain the same.

It does nod to the ageing process which both men are seen to be going through, sparking a particular change in Coogan who is now struggling to find women interested in him. This mild touch of humility makes his character a little more likeable, while Brydon’s concern for his own diminishing head of hair completes a convincing portrait of middle-aged semi-stardom.

This gentleness makes for a refreshing change from some comedies, and is welcome at this fraught time of year. It’s almost worth watching the entire programme on silent merely for shots of the beautiful meals that the pair are lucky enough to tuck into.

Italian cooking relies on a few simple ingredients, cooked to perfection, and it seems that this philosophy has rubbed off on Brydon and Coogan, who prove that a simple concept, carefully crafted, can develop into a real pleasure.