Pilgrimage: The Road to Santiago
BBC TWO, 9.00PM; NOT SCOTLAND
Another week, another series about a group of celebrities bonding over an unusual experience. Pilgrimage, however, has rather more potential than the standard fare as our group – actor Neil Morrissey, entertainer Debbie Mcgee, singer Heather Small, comedian Ed Byrne, Panorama reporter Raphael Rowe, TV presenter and Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers and priest Kate Bottley – have volunteered to walk 800km of the Camino de Santiago from the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.
Each participant has their own reason for taking part: while Rowe, jailed as a teenager in a notorious miscarriage of justice, sees it as a way of coming to terms with his past, Byrne, an experienced walker, clearly just fancies the chance to stretch himself. It makes for a fascinating mix and there are some entertaining moments: “Hills are my nemesis,” admits the laid-back Morrissey, while an emotional Bottley raises eyebrows by stating that she didn’t think they’d have to do the walk for real. Yet it’s the quieter bonding moments that really stand out as Rowe and Bottley discuss her faith and his lack of it, and Chalmers and Mcgee talk about those they’ve loved and lost.