Revisiting Romesh

The final stages of lockdown has had us chasing some laughs and instead we found fresh insights and travel inspiration aplenty from our own sofa – and we weren’t the only ones...

Laughs have been in short supply recently, which prompted us to revisit Romesh Ranganathan’s fresh and insightful travel series – only to find that the comedian had the same idea. Romesh used his lockdown to update his (mis)adventures to little-travelled places – Zimbabwe, Bosnia, Albania, Mongolia and the Arctic – with extra scenes and catching up with the people that he met along the way. You can catch with The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan: From My Sofa on iplayer.

The search for smiles led us to what is perhaps the year’s wierdest bit of travel inspiration: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (Netflix). Come for the daft musical parodies and killer elves, stay for the glorious scenery of Iceland and Edinburgh.

Another TV show that really fired us up – and many of you too by the sound of it – was Bears About The House (iplayer). The series charted the triumphs and tragedies of a pioneering Laos bear sanctuary, which aims to protect rescued sun and moon bears from the illegal wildlife trade; the Free The Bears home is certainly on our radar for when we’re next in South-east Asia.

By Ben Aitken

£15, Icon Books

Following a case of ‘Millennial learn

Miserables’, Ben shakes off blues by leaping the (big) generation gap to join (and from) a more venerable age group on a series of coach trips, taking him from Scarborough to Lake Como.

Tough Women Adventure Stories: Stories of Grit, Courage and Determination