Dance duo’s Seville row

IT’S rather nice to be able to tell you about ANTON & GIOVANNI’S ADVENTURES IN SPAIN, starting tonight at 9pm on BBC1. That’s because it’s a fun show.We tend not to get many fun shows at 9pm on a Monday on BBC1.They tend to be more shouty or murdery.

As you may recall, the chaps undertaking this colourful road trip – Strictly Come Dancing pals Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice – made a similar series last year (or was it the year before? Feel free to look it up and let me know…) called Anton & Giovanni’s Adventures In Sicily.

That one took them on a visit to

Giovanni’s birthplace, complete with an emotional family reunion.

So it seems only right, I’m sure you’d agree, that their second adventure should match that, by taking them to where Anton was born.

The only slight snag is that Anton was born in Kent.

Specifically, in Sevenoaks.Which is a lovely place, don’t get me wrong, including two particularly fine leisure centres, but one to which a full-blown road trip might be stretching the definition of “adventure” quite thinly.

Fortunately,Anton’s mum comes from a village in Spain’s northern region. So that’ll do.

And can Anton wait to catch up with her?

Well, actually, yes, it sounds as if he can.

He and Giovanni are starting their journey hundreds of miles down south, in Seville, their plan being to take the scenic route.

“I wanted to explore parts of Spain that I’ve not seen before,”

Anton says (which of course, when translated from Tellyspeak to English, means: “I wanted to get us another three-part series out of this.”

Even so, there’s every reason to believe his connection to Spain is as powerful and heartfelt as Giovanni’s is to Sicily.

Or there is until he adds: “I haven’t been back for about 40 years.”

For this opening leg (the start of which finds them travelling in a hot air balloon, seemingly for no other reason than it being Giovanni’s idea of hell) the two pals will be making their way across Andalusia. But first they went to enjoy everything that the city of Seville itself has to offer.

The first thing Anton points out is that is has “arguably some of the world’s most beautiful buildings” (he doesn’t tell us who the people doing the arguing are; I can only assume that they are idiots).

And even Giovanni seems impressed, particularly by the famous Plaza de Espana.

“I’m usually not into the, like, history thing,” he tells his friend, “but this is gorgeous.”

Slightly more in character, he then challenges Anton to a gondola race: “The first to the bridge wins an ice cream.”