Robson’s dip into the past
Channel 5, 9pm
HE’S got his thermos, corn plasters, walking boots and a healthy he dose of sarcasm – Robson Rob Green is well prepared for a British travelogue.
The Th actor, angler, singer and presenter p plans to walk more than 80 8 miles coast to coast along Hadrian’s H Wall, the longest Roman site in the world. “Running through hills, dales, rivers and an mountains, Hadrian’s Wall is a wonder of the ancient world,” he says. “It will be an epic journey to take your breath away.”
Across three episodes, Robson will tread in ancient footsteps – meeting characters, visiting nearby landmarks and taking in dramatic landscapes.
In this episode, there’s a spot of cold water swimming in the Tyne and he joins soldiers training on a run before quickly reverting to a slow amble.
And he’s introduced to geocaching, a treasure hunting game you play through an app, although he’s unimpressed with the first “treasure” he finds – a note with scrawled names on it. He learns of the Roman Frontier’s Las Vegas, Corbridge, and its gamechanging finds, and sees how thrifty neighbours repurposed the wall in Wall for their own needs, with a visit to a 2000-year-old shopping centre.
There are plenty of rest stops where he might eat a ham and pease pudding roll – “tastes like Christmas” – and talks often about growing up in the north-east with his mam, dad and brothers and sisters.
And he even finds time to bury a little treasure of his own before having a well-deserved pint.