Comedy gone all akilter
FILMING a TV travelogue seems to have become the favourite fallback option for comedians. In FRANKIE BOYLE’S TOUR OF SCOTLAND (BBC2, 10pm), our host at least acknowledges this from the start – getting in there with the put-down before anyone else can.
“There comes a time in every comedian’s career,” Boyle declares, “when he decides to do travelogues. In fact, among comedians the term ‘gone to do travelogues’ is slang for when someone dies…”
The other point about travelogues, of course, is they overlap quite a bit in terms of where they visit. For example, how many times has a TV producer, rummaging around in his or her head for ideas, suddenly had a eureka moment and cried: “I’ve got it, guys! Let’s do one on Japan. I’m pretty sure no one’s ever done that before…”?
Scotland itself comes high on the list of popular destinations, but for a significantly different reason.
While Japanese-themed travelogues have traditionally focused on the culture-shock experienced by the typically befuddled Western visitor, the ones about Scotland have tended to be made by actual Scottish people, proudly celebrating and exploring their homeland.
From Billy Connolly’s World Tour Of Scotland, a lovely six-parter that was broadcast – oh, blimey, I’ve just looked it up – 26 years ago, to SECRET SCOTLAND WITH SUSAN CALMAN, series two of which just happens to
finish this very evening (Channel 5, 8pm).
Boyle’s comedy, of course, is not to everyone’s taste. I very much doubt he’d ever want it to be.
And if you’re an English viewer of a particularly sensitive disposition – i.e. easily wound up – then perhaps you’d still do best to steer clear.
“I’m going to explore and learn about important Scottish historical figures,” he tells us, “and the many and varied ways in which English people killed them…”
But for the most part here, as he goes about his travels (first up: Aberdeen to Oban), Boyle dials it down to a level that simply makes him fine, engagingly irreverent company.
I dare say you’ll enjoy the show more if you’re a big fan of his, but you needn’t be put off if you’re not.
Nor should you be put off by the fact that JUST ONE LOOK (More
4, 9pm) is in French with subtitles. Not only is it a fine new adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller – about a woman who learns there’s more to her husband than she thought, and not in a good way – but it’ll also enable you to learn lots of new French expressions that are bound to come in handy, such as: “Tell me where he is or I’ll call the police.”